“Meaning he’d have to die.”
“Yeah, no thanks. And stop licking my neck like some deranged, non-hot vampire. You are not part of my paranormal fantasy and I do not want to think about all the antibiotics I’ll require after this.”
I shove him away from me and punch his face. The giant diamond on my hand catches the corner of his eye, splitting his skin open and instantly causing him to start bleeding. I was hoping to stun him and grab an extra second, but this is so much better. Before he’s able to react, my heeled foot flies, kicking at his middle and knocking him back another few paces. Heoomphs, snarling and growling out a curse. Fury locks his face, and he’s about to charge me.
With a terrified shriek, I grab a book off the shelf behind me and hurl it at him, hitting him in the forearm and flank, causing the knife to clatter on the ground and slide behind him. A lucky break. One I hadn’t planned on but will happily take. It’s now or never, and the knife is too far away for me to lunge for it without him grabbing me.
I start to run, the phone in my hand, and I unlock it with my face. But before my finger can press the distress button and before I make it even two steps, he takes me by the shoulders, swirls me around at light speed, and slams me down on thefloor so hard the wind is knocked out of me. Worse yet, my phone tumbles from my hand and slides across the floor straight to Samil. He lifts it just as it starts to ring and smashes it on the floor, the sound dying immediately.
Fuck.
Samil’s face twists with a sadistic grin as he climbs right on top of me, reaching for the knife while pressing me down with his weight and size. I thrash, scratching and hitting at him, screaming at the top of my lungs. A punch to the side of my face dazes me making white crackles of light dance across my vision and pain explode through my cheek.
I wheeze out a breath, tears pouring from my eyes.
He lifts the knife and presses it right up against my neck, over the cut he already gave me. “Like I told you, Bellamy. The body will be unrecognizable after it falls. That doesn’t mean I can’t play with it before that time comes.”
With a sinister smile, he moves the knife down my neck to the top of my dress, cutting and ripping at the fabric before he presses the tip directly over my heart, and I know there is no way I come out of this alive.
29
SEBASTIAN
Blood thrums through my ears, my feet heavy on the floors as I practically sprint across the palace. Two attendants track me, but they can hardly keep up as I shoot up the stairs and fly down the hall, ripping my bow tie that feels nothing short of strangling from my neck. The door to my office is closed and I force my weight into it, slamming it back against the wall and entering only to shut and lock it behind me just as fast.
Rowan is pacing, hands in his hair. Javier is sitting behind my desk, his fingers on the keyboard of my computer.
“Samil killed Nora,” I declare, because even though I have zero proof, I know it in my blood. That’s all the proof I need. Otherwise, I’ll be arrested for killing a prime minister, and while I might not typically have cared about such a crime given the circumstances, I have children, a fiancée, and a kingdom to protect. For once, I’m forcing myself to use my head.
“What did you say?” Rowan stops mid-pace to glare at me.
“I said?—”
He holds up his hand, stopping me. “You realize the level of that accusation,yes?”
I go into an account of what Samil said to me tonight as well as what Bellamy told me. “He knew about Nora. How she wasn’t supposed to be on the helicopter. Maybe he didn’t do anything. Maybe it’s an awful coincidence. Prove that to me. Before I find the man and strangle him with my bare hands because I’m a half-beat from doing just that.”
“Where are Bellamy and the children now?” Rowan asks. “Please tell me they’re in the ballroom.”
“Yes. And I put an attendant on each of them.”
“Okay. So…fuck.” Rowan runs his hands through his dark hair, starting to pace again as he works this through. “He had to have been there,” he agrees. “That’s what all thatshe wouldn’t leave him or betray him, and she wouldn’t listenshit was. He had to have gone to her in France at her parents’ home to try to get her to leave you or something. Fine. I’ll buy all that. But just because he knew and possibly was there doesn’t mean he killed her. It doesn’t mean he had anything to do with the crash at all.”
“I know,” I concede, sitting on the edge of my desk. I rip my tuxedo jacket off and toss it on a nearby chair. “But it’s insanely coincidental. He wanted her for himself, and he hates me.”
“It’s clear he must have had contact with her at some point. That’s what I’m checking now,” Javier explains, typing on the keyboard. “We keep all surveillance footage in our archives for five years. After you married, we installed cameras at her parents’ estate and gained access to places we knew you were flying in and out of. It was standard practice. We did it with all the residences and private hangars.”
Rowan’s hands hit his hips. Tense and edgy, his pace quickens. I stand, too, needing to move, and somehow, I find myself behind my desk, staring over Javier’s shoulder.
“The man hates you and loved her,” Rowan states, desperation clear in his voice. “But you honestly think hetampered with the helicopter intending to kill you?” He knows what this means.What it means not only for my family but also for our country. Accusing the prime minister of attempting to kill the king and killing the queen instead is no small matter. It will be international. It will be a scandal to overshadow everything else.
“And my children.” My fists ball up, my jaw clenching tighter than a drum just thinking about that. “He knew Nora wasn’t supposed to fly that morning, and he knew we were. All of us. It’s one thing to come after me, but my children?”
I release a shaky breath.
After the accident, I didn’t sleep for weeks. Fuck, I hadn’t slept well in years until Bellamy came along. Back then, all I could think about was that the children and I were supposed to be on the helicopter. All I could think about was how close my children came to their deaths. It was then that I resolved never to leave this palace. It was then that I resolved I’d do anything in my power to keep my children safe and alive.
The curse. I spent three years of my life trying to thwart a curse when Samil was my curse all along.
