Lord Xenon snorted. “He didn’t even show it while he worked on the shield. How the hell did he use it without holding it?”
“The same way we do ours?” Lord Pippin’s brows furrowed, thinking aloud. “Maybe he used it before we saw, and bound himself to it by blood and spell?”
Lord Belshazzar nodded slowly, staring at his own lap, deep in thought. “That would make sense.” He tapped his fingers on my shoulder, still thinking. “Or perhaps it goes even deeper than that. I can always feel it on him. I’ve pondered this often, and the only answer I’ve ever come up with that makes any sense is that he’s literally bound the amulet to himself—always. But…it’s never on him. Not even hidden. I would have felt that. I’m missing something, like how the magic flows to him when he never holds the damned thing.”
I opened my mouth ever so carefully. “I… actually… saw him use it. Like, he showed it to me.”
All eyes snapped on me faster than a rattlesnake.
“What?” Lord Belshazzar bellowed, dropping his arm from around my shoulder and turning on the loveseat to stare directly at me. “When the fuck did this happen?”
I quickly held my hands up into the air. “Calm down. I had no idea no one hadeverseen him with it before. I didn’t think it was a new occurrence.”
His nostrils flared as he exhaled heavily. “Explain. Now.”
I nodded. “It was when we were in Cape Argent and went to visit the Three. He said he had to use it for us to travel there within the timeframe you allowed. But I think it was more because of where the Three live. It wasn’tnormalthere. It was…removed? Maybe hidden? Either way, he used the Original druid amulet to open a portal to get us there.”
The muscles in Lord Belshazzar’s jaw ticked in his attempt to hold back his aggravation. His voice was rougher than usual as he explained, “The Three are hidden, by their own choice. You are correct there.” He rolled his right hand in a circle between us, a gesture to keep me talking. “I want to know more. How did he obtain the amulet to use it? Where was it?”
My nose scrunched. “It was in the ground. We walked out to the tree edge of a forest, he stared down at the ground and used his power to bring it up. And when we returned from the Three’s home, he just tossed the damn thing up into the air, and it disappeared.” I shook my head. “Like, poof, the sky ate it.”
Lord Belshazzar’s frosty eyes began to shine with malicious glee. His lips curled up at the corners so damn slowly until he was grinning full on. His head tipped back, and he shouted in his deep baritone at the ceiling, “Finally got you, you motherfucker!”
I stared wide-eyed.
Lord Xenon sat forward and placed his elbows on his knees. “I take what the queen said is a good thing, my lord?”
Lord Belshazzar’s eyes were blood red he was so pleased—and more than a little bloodthirsty with that look in his eyes. “Yes, it is. The brat is hiding it in the sublunary sphere, an old druid trick. The water. The air. The earth. The fire. It’s all around us, so that’s how he’s able to pull the magic to himself. Wherever he is, the amulet is too.Veryclose to him.”
Lord Xenon expounded, “Can you get it, though, if it’s hidden and bound by his power?”
Lord Belshazzar teetered his head back and forth. “I can, but I’ll need to drug him first so he doesn’t fight. I’ll need to use the Original vampire amulet to syphon his power out of him and redirect it with a spell to make the Original druid amulet show itself. Once it does, I can kill the king. It shouldn’t take too long once he’s drugged.”
Lord Pippin muttered in confusion, “What the hell kind of drug will knock out that fucker? He’s near indestructible.”
“Vampire’s Draught.” Lord Belshazzar’s lips twitched at whatever he was remembering. He even chuckled a little. “Well, in all honesty, it’s a little different than the Vampire’s Draught I manufactured ages ago since the earth doesn’t have winter slumber blossoms. I’ve had to substitute that ingredient with angel’s trumpet. I call the new version Vampire’s Draught 2.0. I believe it to be even more potent.”
Lord Pippin blinked and repeated his question for clarification’s sake, “It’ll knock him out?”
“If the original draught can knock my brother on his ass, then yes, this draught will knock our asshole king out.” Like a mad scientist, he grinned with all his teeth—and fangs—showing. “I’ve even managed to make it tasteless thanks to technological advances over the years. He won’t even know he’s drinking it.”
I patted his knee, and teased, “You’re very proud of yourself, aren’t you?”
My lover shot a playful squint at me. “Well, I was proud when I first tested it on my brother. The results were funnier than hell.”
I patted his knee again and snorted. Jesus.
Lord Xenon’s sigh was long-suffering. “Do you have this draught on hand?”
Lord Belshazzar raised a black eyebrow at the question—or the stupidity of it. “No, I’d never keep a supply here. It’s too dangerous. But I can make it within a week’s time easily enough.”
“So…” Excitement built up inside my chest. My foot tapped on the ground, and my fingers drummed on my legs. “We’ll have the Original druid amulet in a week. And the king will be dead.”
Lord Belshazzar nodded once. And grinned.
My father tipped his head to me. “And you’ll be the queen of the vampires until you die, our sole ruler, per the new laws Lord Belshazzar will place on the amulets. Are you ready for that commitment, darling?”
Air rushed out of my lungs in a shaky rush. “I won’t lie—it frightens me having that responsibility, especially since there won’t be a partner by my side.”
