He disappeared behind the bedroom door. No one was there, so it must have been someone knocking on the entrance to his quarters. Vampire hearing would be hard to adjust to.
On the other hand, vampire hearing meant it was all too easy to eavesdrop. I didn’t need to press my ear to the door to listen in. I simply focused.
“What is it?” Raphael asked from a wall away.
“She’s missing.” It was Iademos at the door. Looking for me?
Raphael confirmed that theory a second later. “She’s exactly where she’s supposed to be.”
“She’s a threat, to you and this kingdom.”
I froze. It was strange to panic without the telltale pounding heart I’d been accustomed to, but the fear that crawled through me left me with clammy palms, tense shoulders, and frozen lungs.He’s going to tell Raphael I’m the necromancer. But I had bid Demos to forget that I was able to thrall him. That had worked, hadn’t it?
I wasn’t sure how my magic worked, only that it somehow existed despite everything I’d thought I’d known about myself.
“She’s in my care,” Raphael said, the words unhurried and unforgiving.
I could imagine Demos’s stiff posture. “She poisoned you,” he ground out. “Plotted against you.”
Oh. Right. Raphael had surprisingly not brought that up yet. I didn’t imagine he’d takekindlyto attempted regicide, but since he seemed well enough, perhaps he was inclined to move past it to protect his new fledgling. I almost gagged at the thought.
But if he realized I was the necromancer, that he’d made his foe immortal . . . I stretched and cracked my wrists. I needed to get to the grimoire—mygrimoire—soon. I couldn’t leave the kingdom without it, and I couldn’t stay a moment longer than necessary. Hopefully soon, if this fledgling bond just required me to choke down blood for the first few days. I at least needed to put as much distance between us as it would allow. With the truth compulsion of a vampire, I was in danger of telling Raphael I was the very creature he’d been tasked with hunting.
It would be smarter to avoid Raphael knowing I wanted to get back to the grimoire, to leave without it, but . . . it was my magical inheritance. Ihadto see what I could learn about this magic, magic I had gone my entire life believing I lacked.
“Do you know what would have happened if you had died?” Demos continued.
An aggrieved sigh sounded through the door. “Suppose we postpone this conversation for a while.”
“Whatever you wish, my liege. I only wish to not see you murdered by some treacherous rat.”
I flinched at the ice in Demos’s tone. The vampire I’d once almost considered a friend utterly despised me.
“Donotcall her that,” Raphael snarled.
The conversation continued, too quiet for my vampire hearing to pick up between the walls. Demos didn’t seem to be leaving. I debated obeying Raphael and staying hidden. But really, that was only delaying the inevitable. I ran my fingers through my hair, a fool’s attempt to tame the twisted nest on my head, and walked into the main chambers.
Demos and Raphael were farther into the room. Raphael’s back was to me, blocking Demos from the bedroom. The general looked exactly as he had the last time I’d seen him, his white hair combed back and tied at the neck, not a stitch of his uniform ill-fitted.
“I thought I told you to stay put,” Raphael said with a sigh, not taking his eyes off Demos.
“I thought I told you not to turn me into a vampire,” I retorted.
Demos glared at me over Raphael’s shoulders. “Thegiftyou’ve been given . . .” He shook his head in disbelief.
“Gift?” I scoffed.
I wasn’t sure why I was goading Demos. I never would have before. But something in me had shifted. Maybe becoming what I feared most—or maybe learning I had magic,dangerousmagic—had changed more than just my species.
I refused to cower in front of him.
The general’s nostrils flared, and his head snapped back toward Raphael. “Why do I smell your blood on her?”
How acute are vampire senses?
“The natural reason, I suppose,” Raphael replied in a disinterested tone.
“You let herdrinkfrom you?”
