“I know you have suffered,” his mother says softly. “What your father did was abhorrent, and yet he came to me boasting about it, telling me that he asked her to be his Queen so that they could make this baby together.”
He looks at his mother’s wretched face with a feeling of nausea. His father was a complete bastard.
“And that was Aelfric on a good day,” she adds. “Thrace was exactly like him in every way and I have it on good authority that he, too, took
your wife in this very palace.”
“No,” Sebastian says, shaking his head. “That is a lie. I would know if he had touched her.”
“That is what the servants are saying,” Pyleah says with mock innocence. She is testing him, but for what?
Sebastian growls at her. He will not allow the servants to gossip about his wife in such a slanderous manner.
“It angers you,” Pyleah says. “Then do something about it, Kalen. Get her with child instead of screwing the help.”
He blinks at his mother’s coarse language. He has never even heard her use the mildest of curse words.
“I will go to her today,” Sebastian says, taking his mother’s hand.
“No,” she says sadly. “There is a complication, my son. Aeval is already with child.”
Time stands still for just a moment as the dagger enters his heart and slowly rotates. “Whose?” he asks quietly.
“No one knows. Aeval hasn’t even told anyone yet. But Drake came to me and told me. He said he could sense the power of the child and I also caught a glimmer of it earlier, but I wasn’t sure what it was,” she says.
“How far along?” he asks, his stomach twisting into a sickening knot.
Pyleah shrugs. “She cannot be that far along as she isn’t showing. If it is yours, she will only start showing at about six months. Or seven perhaps in her case as she is so small, she might not show as soon. Is there a chance this could be yours?”
“Yes,” Sebastian says. “We have been together. What are the chances?”
Pyleah looks uncomfortable as she answers, “I suppose that depends on how many others she is sleeping with.”
“Is there a way to find out?” he asks, ignoring the last comment.
“Drake and I have come up with a plan, but we need you. Drake is waiting downstairs, please get dressed and attend as soon as you can. I wanted to warn you before you spoke to Drake. He is not happy about this and I needed you to be prepared.”
Sebastian nods. He isn’t happy about it either. If this is anything other than his child, it will feel like his heart has been ripped out of his chest. “Leave me and I will be down momentarily,” he says.
“Of course,” his mother says, standing up. “Do not show your emotion when our plan is revealed. It is all for the greater good of our people, and you must assist.”
She turns to leave after that cryptic remark. Sebastian climbs out of bed and ducks into the shower. He needs a minute to get himself together. He has been sideswiped by this news, but he daren’t let himself feel excited that the child might be his. He knows all too well how many other men Aefre is sleeping with and she did, after all, perform the ritual with Constantine. He just has to hope and pray that when Rosalina offered him the chance to take her as well, that is when she conceived. He still feels sick thinking about what he did to her while she was unconscious, but if it got the job done then he can live with it.
He places his hands on the cold tile of the shower and lets the hot water pound down on him. He only feels a fraction of the heat due to the Vampire in him, so he turns it up. The water is probably scalding as it steams up the room, but it clears his head. Delilah’s blood affected him more than he thought it would. He remembers how intoxicated Aefre got when she drank from Thrace, but he thought he was stronger than that. He must be careful never to do that again. It will be a downward slope.
He feels his eyes start to droop. He is tired from his lack of sleep. When suddenly, an icy hand trails down his back and his eyes pop open. He turns around but there is no one there. He looks up as the shower water has turned to blood, raining down on him in dark red droplets.
He yells in horror as he leaps out of the shower, turning to the mirror, but he is spotless. Only drops of water remain on his skin and the shower water is running clear. He shakes his head again to clear it. He is seriously losing his mind.
Once dressed, Sebastian heads downstairs for this meeting with Drake. The dread wells up in his stomach, but he pushes it back down. He is King and he cannot let anything disrupt his thoughts now. Whatever Drake and his mother have to say, it is going to be serious and he needs his head in the game.
He enters the throne room and sees Drake’s grim face and he clenches his teeth. This is going to be far worse than even he could imagine.
Buckinghamshire, England, July 2014 – Aefre
I wake up, curled in a tight ball on the mossy ground of the clearing in my Earthly garden. I was out for a while and I feel refreshed and rested, even though I have been sleeping on the ground. No one came to find me, which is good. Hopefully they think I am still in the D.F.K.
I breathe in the clean air deeply and my brain, which has been so tired for so long, is finally awake and the idea pops into my head as if by magick.