“Such violence will not be tolerated in our palaces!” the Empress says sternly; she nods towards her head guard. “Sir Cecil, escort these intruders to the adjoining room. We will follow and we will deal with them there.” She spins so sharply her robe swishes around her.
“Your imperial majesty,” an older man dressed in fine robes calls out, “this is most irregular. This woman has attacked a prince of the realm with dark magic and–”
The Empress snaps her head around and peers over her shoulder at him. “Lord Hardy, you and the other members of the privy council may accompany us.”
I peer up at Beaufort anxiously. He nods, taking a grip of my elbow, and then we’re being escorted out of the hall, the guards surrounding us in tight formation and a handful of elegantly dressed men and women trailing after us.
We’re led through a side room, where the Empress is already waiting for us, thunder on her brow.
“You attacked one of our children!” she booms at me, anger flashing in her eyes.
“The cunt deserved it,” Dray snaps. “You should have heard the things he said to her.”
“Ahhh, Dray Eros, we see you are wearing clothes this evening. What a great improvement. We remind you to watch that tongue of yours, if you wish that tongue to remain in your mouth!”
Dray slams shut his mouth. The Empress returns her sharp gaze to mine.
“We do not tolerate violence inside the walls of our palace. We certainly do not tolerate an attack of one of the royal children of this realm. The punishment for this is imprisonment, if not banishment.”
“I’m sorry,” I say, really not caring about the consequences right now. All night I’ve had to endure snide comments and rude looks. Beaufort’s brother was the final straw. “But Dray’s right, he deserved it.”
There are more shocked gasps and the Empress narrows her eyes. “You always speak so freely?”
“She does,” Beaufort says, “but you have to remember, Briony’s not from here. She doesn’t understand …” The Empress raises her hand and her son trails off.
“We remind you that you were not invited to our banquet. There is no reason for you to be here in the first place – something I assume Prince Aaron was pointing out.”
“We needed to talk to you. We need permission–”
“Oh yes,” she says haughtily, “permission to enter the demon realm, And why may we ask, do you wish to travel to the demon realm and so urgently at that?!”
“Professor Fox Tudor has been taken into the demon realm–”
“We assume he has. We don’t know that for sure,” Beaufort interrupts.
“There’s no doubt he has been!” I insist. “He’s in danger! We need to find him. We need to rescue him! Don’t you see every second counts!”
“And what is the professor to you?” She fixes me with her shrewd gaze.
“I … he …” I think of Stanley’s threat. I think of how much trouble Fox could be in if the truth about us ever got out.
The men and women behind us mutter to themselves. The Empress swings her silver gaze around her subjects.
“This is all nonsense,” she states. “We understand the professor is missing but we are sure there will be a reasonable explanation for his temporary disappearance. To conclude such nonsense, to suggest he has ventured into the demon realm is beyond ridiculous.”
“It’s not!” I contradict her, causing another volley of those outraged gasps. “We know that’s where the deputy headmistress has fled to. She’s taken him with her. She’s obsessed with him!”
The Empress fixes me with her steely gaze. My stomach falls. She isn’t going to let us go. I’ve ruined everything. In fact, she’s probably going to lock me up. Blaze too.
“Your majesty, is this true?” the older man who spoke earlier asks. All these people are well dressed and clearly wealthy but he gives the impression of someone who is especially so. He also looks a lot like Kratos the shadow weaver who was Odessa’s protector. “I hear from my son that the young professor is also missing. Why has this information not been communicated to us all? Especially at a time of national emergency such as this.”
I look at the older man, challenge in his eyes, then back to the Empress. She appears unflustered.
“It is true. As you know, Madame Bardin evaded arrest and we believe she has fled to the demon realm.” The man goes to speak again, but she silences him with a hard stare. “Professor Tudor Fox is also missing, although we do not know where he is or if he has been working with the deputy headmistress. Therefore, we were not in a position to share this information until we were certain. What we do know is that the Madame has some kind of connection with the demons. We are still working to understand that connection.”
“This is most disturbing. We entrusted our children to her care,” he continues. “The woman you picked to run the academy in the headmaster’s absence is in league with demons. And now it seems another member of the faculty – another bloodsucker – may also be a traitor to the realm. It seems your judgment was poor, extremely poor.”
“He’s not a traitor,” I cry, although no one is listening to me anymore.
