Chapter Thirteen
“I’m just so happy Captain Mikhail and his men got you out of there safely.” Arabelle had just hugged the breath out of Mina then led her to a quaint parlor where Friedrich, Sienna, and Marius were already gathered. Mikhail followed behind them. Mina and Arabelle took a seat on the sofa. Another man Mina didn’t know stood next to Friedrich. He wore the clothes and strapped weaponry of a Bloodguard and had a rebellious tilt to his mouth. But he was human, not vampire.
“Your Highness.” Friedrich stepped toward her and bowed regally. “It is a pleasure to see you safe and sound.” He flicked a glance over her shoulder. “Though I had no doubt Mikhail could do it.” He waved to the human. “This is my brother, Grant.”
“Brother?”
Grant stepped forward and bowed with less finesse, though it somehow came across as alluring. “The better-looking one, Your Highness.” He winked.
Mina laughed.
“Behave yourself, Grant,” said Brennalyn, coming in behind them with Helena and Dmitri.
The parlor was filled with too many bodies and not enough seats. Brennalyn closed the door and moved to Friedrich’s side.
Grant aimed a devilish smile at her. “Are you hungry, darling? I’d be happy to oblige you now.”
“Don’t you think that joke is getting old?” asked Friedrich, scowling.
“What joke is that?”
“That my wife wants to feed every time you’re near. As if you’re just that tempting.”
“No, it will never get old, because it always gets a rise out of you. And she does want to feed from me every time I’m near. Don’t you, darling?” He tapped her under her chin.
“Stop it, Grant,” she said playfully, biting back a smile.
Friedrich stood behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. “I’ll be making you a vampire within the fortnight, Brother. That’ll solve that problem.”
“Promises, promises.”
Marius anchored himself against the wall next to the sofa on Arabelle’s side. “Then we’ll have two new vampires in our party soon.”
Arabelle shot a scathing look over her shoulder at him. “Must you announce it to everyone?”
“It’s not a shameful secret, sweetheart.”
Mina couldn’t help but ask, “Are you going to become a vampire, Arabelle?”
She rolled her eyes to the ceiling with an exasperated sigh. “Yes.”
While her demeanor showed frustration, she sensed both excitement and fear rolling off of the vibrant leader of the Black Lily.
Mina arched a brow at Marius, the prince she was once betrothed to marry. “You are not forcing her, are you?”
“Forcing her? Of course not. As if I could.” He laughed as if it were a foolish idea, crossing his arms over his chest. “Strongly coercing? Yes. That I’m doing.”
Mina observed Arabelle a moment. “Well, you will be even stronger and more formidable with vampire strength.”
Marius scoffed. “See? What did I tell you?”
She ignored him and answered Mina directly. “That is the reason I’ve agreed to the idea. Among others.”
Marius whispered low, though every vampire in the room could obviously hear. “It has nothing to do with my threat to withhold particular—”
Arabelle whipped up a hand for him to stop and shot him a daggered look. “Hold your tongue, husband,” she threatened, though there was a smile in her voice.
The door opened. Allora and Dane stepped in.
“Oh, my,” said Sienna. “Aren’t we a large party?”
“Not large enough,” said Marius.
They joined the circle, Nikolai moving to Marius’s side. “Tell everyone how your mission went.”
The lighthearted mood darkened at once. Marius shoved off the wall and stepped slightly forward so all could see and hear him.
“I bring good and bad tidings from my brother, Agnar, in the west. He has sent resources in the form of coin for food as well as blades forged by the most revered craftsman of the four kingdoms.”
“But?” asked Nikolai.
“But he will not fight with us.”
A heavy sigh and murmuring of dissent circled the room. Mina felt the sting keenly, glancing up at Mikhail. His steady and composed expression never wavered as he addressed Marius.
“How long will the coin last for food provisions?”
“That depends,” said Marius, glancing at Nikolai. “How many soldiers do we have returning from Cutters Cove? And when do they arrive?”
Nikolai stared at the floor, mentally calculating before raising his head. “They’ll be here within two weeks’ time. Then we will have approximately two thousand. Those who have families who joined the cause will add another seven hundred mouths to feed.”
Marius gave a sharp dip of his chin. “Then we have coin to last two months even with the additional families. We will need to set our course for Izeling not long after the last ship arrives from Cutters Cove.”
“It’s not enough.” The soft but steady voice of Helena quieted everyone in the room. No one said a word, but everyone swiveled in her direction.
“What do you mean?” asked Dmitri gently, standing next to her.
“The number of soldiers,” she clarified. She glanced up at Dmitri then back to Marius. “You don’t know what just one of the vampires in King Dominik’s army can do.” She gulped hard. “Much less the hundreds, perhaps thousands he has by now.”
Dmitri moved protectively closer to her.
Arabelle sat forward on the sofa, her expression grim but determined. “We don’t simply have the human soldiers, Helena. We also have the Bloodguard.” She waved a hand toward Mikhail and his men. “We have the Fire Witch.” She nodded to Sienna. Mina wondered what that meant but thought to save it for another time. “Do we have the hart wolves?” she asked Allora.
Allora eyed her brother Dane. “You will have some. But the clans are not united on whether to involve themselves in this war.”
Helena gave a frustrated huff, fear lining every groove of her pinched forehead and mouth. “You don’t understand.” She wrung her hands together. “When I was held captive in the king’s stronghold—in Dragon’s Eye—it wasn’t the ones with the blood madness I feared. Those infected by Queen Morgrid were out of control, wild with their need to feed. But it was the king’s men, the vampire soldiers he created, that I feared the most. They would do anything…anything the king ordered them to do. The king—” she gulped hard before continuing—“he would come to Dragon’s Eye. He would make people do unspeakable things…to demonstrate his power. And always within the center arena where so many of us captives could see from our cages.” She inhaled a deep breath, a tear slipping off her cheek onto her blue gown. “I watched a man impale his own son on a spike because the king ordered him to do so.” She turned her gaze to Arabelle. “I saw a woman give her body to two men while her husband watched.” She swallowed hard and moved her gaze to Brennalyn. “I saw a mother hand over her young child to three new vampires infected with the blood madness. All simply because King Dominik had bitten them, injected his persuasive elixir in their blood. And commanded it be done. They could not resist.”
Heavy silence pervaded the room. The unthinkable visions Helena had seen while she was in captivity lingered in the room like a dark premonition of what the world would be like should King Dominik and Queen Morgrid win this war.
No. It could not, would not happen. Mina seethed with anger at what sweet Helena had witnessed, that royals who should use their position to protect instead used it to brutally subjugate with violence and terror. She couldn’t allow that to happen any longer. Mikhail was right. They must be destroyed, whatever they had to do to make that happen.
“She’s right,” said Mina, all eyes swiveling to her. “It’s not enough. The Black Lily army, the Bloodguard, the hart wolves, all of us here, we are not enough to defeat the kind of evil Dominik is amassing in the north. We need an even more formidable army with the strength of the vampire.”
Arabelle shook her head and said softly. “Mina, though I’ve agreed to be remade vampire, this is a personal choice. It is not what my people would choose for themselves. They want only to be freed of the yoke of the vampire monarchy, to live their human lives in peace.”
Mina smiled. “Yes, and they shall when we win this war. But it isn’t them I speak of when I refer to gaining a vampire army of our own.”
“Please enlighten us,” said Nikolai gently.
Standing, she moved forward where all could see and hear her. “The Arkadian army has always been known for its strength and skill.”
Nikolai folded his arms over his chest. “Yes. This is true. But they would not ally with the Black Lily, a mostly human army, against their own brethren. The Arkadian army serves the southern kingdom, and only the southern kingdom. Steward Thorwald ensures it.”
“True,” added Friedrich. “My grandfather used to complain how they never joined the north in past wars unless it suited them and their interests alone.”
“I hear what you’re saying, gentlemen. But they will ally if their queen commands it.”
She felt Mikhail’s passionate response ripple at her side, but she didn’t meet his gaze. She continued while the room stared in stunned silence.
“I have been asleep longer than the few months I was in that tower. I’ve been asleep my whole life, truth be told.” She faced Marius. “I never thought beyond what Steward Thorwald told me. That I was destined to be queen but only next to the Varis king who would rule at my side. I never gave a thought that I could rule on my own.” She smiled, finally looking at Mikhail. “I never realized that I should’ve been queen all along.”
No one said a word. Mina held her breath, waiting for someone to laugh or gently protest her lofty idea. Still, her heart pricked at her conscience. This was what should be done. What must be done.
“Indeed,” said Friedrich, the vampire duke she’d met on occasion when he visited the southern kingdom. “No one here would question your right to the Arkadian crown. But I imagine there are a few lords in the House of Arkadia who would.”
Brenna nodded. “I believe Friedrich is right. It may not be as easy as you think.”
“It won’t be easy at all.” Mina thought a moment. “I imagine one of the lords you’re referring to is Lord Rathbone, Earl of Devonshire.”
A look of surprise lit both their expressions.
Brenna stepped from Friedrich’s arms, closer to Mina. “You know Lord Rathbone?”
Mina tilted her head, sensing a spike in Brenna’s heart rate. “Of course. He’s one of the three high counselors of the House of Arkadia. My question is, how do you know him?”
She glanced with a nervous smile at Friedrich who was not smiling at all. But he answered before her.
“Brennalyn met him at King Dominik’s ball a few weeks ago.”
“Oh. I imagine you met Lord Maksim and Steward Thorwald.”
“Yes,” answered Brennalyn. “They were all there together.”
Mina dipped her chin. “Though I was never allowed to participate in the political affairs of the House, I attended parties and balls hosting politicians and diplomats. The three high counselors—Rathbone, Maksim, and Thorwald—hold the power of the House. Thorwald thinks he holds the most, but he’s merely Rathbone and Maksim’s puppet.”
“You seem to have a plan already in mind,” cut in Marius.
Her stomach twisted in knots at the idea of confronting the three most powerful men of her kingdom. Her kingdom. She notched her head a little higher.
“I believe the best course of action would be to pay a visit to Lord Rathbone’s estate in Devonshire. Then—” she inhaled and blew out a deep breath—“if I’m lucky, I’ll inform him of my plan to call the House to order and demand my coronation. I’ll also inform him of the threat Dominik and Morgrid pose to Arkadia.”
“That may not take much convincing,” said Friedrich. “Maksim and Rathbone are well-aware of my uncle’s threat to them. They left the ball quickly after the queen announced his intentions to marry you.”
Mina swallowed the lump in her throat. Mikhail stiffened at her side.
Nikolai finally spoke up. “That’s because they know if Dominik married Mina, he’d rule the southern kingdom as well as his own.”
“Right,” agreed Friedrich. “Which means they may very well be amenable to a strong ruler who holds Arkadia’s interests at heart. But the southerners are a stubborn lot.”
“Not to counter that lovely sentiment,” interjected Grant, “but how will Arkadia allying with the Black Lily be in Arkadia’s best interest? Especially if as you’ve said before—” he looked to his brother, Friedrich “—they’ve always bowed out of conflicts where there was no advantage for them.”
For the first time since they’d entered the room, Mikhail spoke up. “Because without Arkadia, we will lose this war. And if we lose this war, then Queen Morgrid and King Dominik will dominate the people and the land with brutal violence, spreading the blood madness and building their vampire army until Arkadia has no chance of defending themselves against such a force. Arkadia will fall if they wait and stand alone.”
Tension sparked the air as the truth of Mikhail’s words settled in the room. Marius was the one to finally break the silence.
“You’re right, Mikhail. But I know these men. Even worse, I know the pompous politicians of the House of Arkadia. They will not be persuaded easily.”
“To hell with them then.” Arabelle scoffed and slapped a hand at her side. “We’ll go straight to the people of Arkadia.”
“Arkadia is a prosperous, healthy land,” said Mina. “The people trust the noble lords of the House.”
“And so how do we persuade them?” asked Arabelle. “Obviously my normal strategy of brute force won’t work. What do we have so that we can show this is the only course of action? That they must ally with us?”
Dmitri stepped from the outer circle and bowed before Mina, punching a fist against his heart. “You have me, Your Highness.”
Nikolai took a step forward as well with a slight bow. “You have a former lieutenant to the Legionnaires of the Glass Tower.”
“And a Fire Witch.” Sienna smiled beside him, gold sparking in her eyes.
Mina still wondered what that meant exactly but felt the magic swirling in the air around her red-haired friend.
Friedrich followed suit. “You have the Duke of Winter Hill, royal nephew to the Varis crown.”
Brennalyn made a bow of assent beside him, then Helena as well as Grant.
“And you have a prince of Varis,” said Marius, falling in line.
“The leader of the Black Lily.” Arabelle winked.
“You have our clan of the hart wolves,” Allora promised.
Mikhail turned to her with fierce adoration in his gaze.
“You have the Captain of the Bloodguard,” he whispered. “But you already knew that.”
With tears welling in her eyes, she scanned the room, unable to process her own emotions brimming to the surface. But it was the emotion rippling from the black-haired man closest to her that swallowed her heart whole. He had enough hope and belief and determination to build a new world. With him at her side, she could easily build that world. One where humans weren’t trampled on as inferiors, but given the rights and respect and opportunity they deserved. One where the monarchs ruled not simply with a just hand but with generous hearts. One where she would be happy and loved and whole.
Inhaling a ragged breath, she said with regal confidence, “Then we set out for Arkadia at once.”