Deadly Lovers (The Prussia Series) by Karisha Prescott Page B

for him, each night I had lay awake mourning him. Perhaps I had been blinded by my own desire not to be alone, to never be alone. It was much easier to see clearly when I knew I would never be alone again. My mind wandered to Sebastian and I couldn’t help but smile. But that wandering thought was interrupted.
     
    “Will you gather them? I want to go now,” said Robert, his nose turning slightly up into the air.
     
    I watched the Queen’s arms fold in front of her as she leaned back in my chair. I had a feeling that she was about to start laying a smack down on demands and orders being tossed around.
     
    "You can take anyone not on my list," I said, bluntly.
     
    “What list?” asked Robert, looking at my hands but seeing nothing but the blood dripping from my fingertips, a cringe casting shadows on the soft creases of his pale face.
     
    “My list for treason against the crown and the court,” I snapped at him, making no move to stop the steady drip of blood streaming from my face, shoulder, the gaping wounds streaking my arms down my elbows and finger tips, into tiny blood soaked stains in the carpet on either side of me.
     
    I could hear the muffled sound of the blood dripping off of me and onto the carpet on both sides of me and found it oddly soothing. I tried to hold on to my anger as I waited for Robert to say something. He looked at me with a wariness that made me uncomfortably self aware of every movement or lack of movement. I felt the tension rise as the silence continued, as though two dogs were about to riot over territory and dominance.
     
    "This is my list," says Robert, slowly handing me a handwritten piece of folded parchment.
     
    I snatched the piece of parchment quickly away from his hands, my fingers leaving bloody streaks and prints on the soft brown colored paper. I unfolded the paper and glanced briefly at the names just before I began walking out of my office, list still in hand but eyes on the door.
     
    "Well?" Robert called after me as I headed down the hallway, "Which ones are on your list?"
     
    "They're all on my list," I barked over my shoulder as my eyes narrowed and I made my way down the hallway towards the marble staircase where the vampires of the court still gathered.

CHAPTER SIX
     
     
    I stormed out of my office, the Duke ’s blood still caked on my hands, and I headed straight for the podium. The Queen had been right. No one had left. They had all stayed, waiting to hear the fate of the high ranking court officials. If I hadn't hated him as much as I had, it would have been hard to really care. Politics, treason, it all seemed so very...trivial.
     
    This wasn't what I ever imagined myself doing. I had spent most of my young adult life as a cashier and barely managed to do that. Now I stepped up to a podium in a castle where I had been placed in line as heir to a throne I hadn't known existed a couple of years ago. I felt a few drops of blood fall from the tips of my fingers as I stood there, in front of that podium, and looked out at the pensive faces waiting for my words to fall on their attentive ears.
     
    "The Duke has been executed after an excruciating but informative session," I said, biting the words that translated barely into the truth.
     
    He had been tortured until his last breath.
     
    "Names have been named. I have a list and I will not hesitate to drag you out of your warm coffins in the middle of the night if I get the slightest inclination that there is merit here," I finished.
     
     
    The room began to churn with the murmurs and exclamation of a court in complete shock. I couldn't tell whether the shock had been the result of the death of the Duke, who held a position of power and respect in the court, or if it had been because of the mention of a list of treasonous lords or ladies.
     
     
    "Who’s on the list?" asked Quinn.
     
     
    He didn't look very nervous, more curious than anything. I bit my tongue for a moment, wondering what exactly I