If that was really true, Antanasia Vladescu was at least ninety-five percent of the way to winning her first trial. So all I said was, "You watch your back, okay? You know who your real friends are."
She gave me a look that said I was still number one. "Yes. I know."
Princess Antanasia turned to look at herself in her mirror, but there was nothing to fix in how she wore her dark red suit or her black curls, or especially how she just ... stood so she looked about ten feet tall. So I grabbed my carryon and left her alone.
As soon as I closed the door, I bumped into Emilio, who was carrying a bottle—and a note. "Gimme that." I held out my hand.
He pulled back. "Este pentru printesa."
I didn't know what that meant, but I kept holding out my hand. "Give. Me. That."
Emilio was used to being told what to do, and he handed over the bottle, and I opened up the note and read, Please, Antanasia, drink this before the trial. You will need your strength. D&Y.
Emilio held out his hands. "Va rog, trebuie sa duc asta."
I didn't understand a word of that, either, so I wasn't really lying when I said, "Sorry. Don't speak Romanian."
I could feel him gawking after me the whole time I walked down the hall with the bottle.
Maybe Princess Antanasia did still need me, just a little.
I stopped in one of the gazillion rooms that hardly ever got used in that too big castle and dumped all of my makeup onto a rug, 'cause I wasn't taking any of it home, and the maids might as well get a nice surprise gift. Some of that stuff was Sephora and not even opened. I used the empty space for the bottle full of disgusting blood, feeling a lot better for Antanasia, and a little better about myself, too, 'cause I was pretty sure I'd just saved her butt one last time.
Chapter 106
Antanasia
THE ELDERS WERE already gathered when I arrived in the courtroom, and I paused on the threshold to face the substantial crowd that had come to see Lucius's trial. The room was packed, and there were more vampires waiting in the halls and outside the castle walls.
I'd heard a soft, persistent noise outside at dawn, and I'd gone to my window and looked down to see a steady stream of my relatives shuffling up the icy road, in the quiet way that vampires had, thanks to centuries of trying not to attract attention. At first I'd been surprised, before I'd realized that of course this trial was of interest to the whole kingdom. I hadn't sent out word that it was even happening, and had been too preoccupied to think about how curious our subjects would be. I'd imagined news getting out later, after the verdict, but naturally, even without organized media, the date and time had spread throughout the clans.
As I stood in the courtroom, I took an extra moment to meet some of their eyes.
The same vampires who saw me collapse at Claudius funeral are here.
Even more vampires are here.
Without hesitating longer or looking around at the Elders to see if anyone objected, I went straight to Lucius's chair again—the seat of power—and sat down.
I kept my chin high as I claimed my spot, and then I looked slowly to the left and to the right, meeting the eyes of all the Elders, too—passing quickly over Dorin, because I didn't want to see his fear, which was contagious—and locking my gaze with Flaviu's, because I wanted him to see exactly what I was projecting.
Power.
He didn't look away first, and he smirked a little, but that was okay. I knew that one small victory in a council meeting wouldn't be enough to undo the damage I'd done by cowering for months. It was enough that I'd seen a small measure of respect on several of the other Elders' faces.
Without wasting more time, I turned to the crowd again and announced, in a clear voice that completely concealed the terror I'd locked away deep inside, knowing I could never let it show again in public, "Bring in the accused."
I didn't even waver—didn't even blink, although a part of me screamed inside—when Lucius was escorted to that pale gray circle on the floor.
Chapter 107
Mindy
I WASN'T SURE how Jess held it together when Lukey was led into the packed courtroom, with his hands in chains in front of him. I didn't know where the guards thought he was gonna go, 'cause it looked like he could hardly make it to the middle of the room, which I'd wriggled into by shoving about a hundred vampires out of the way. When I got a spot, though, I almost wished I hadn't.
"Poor Lucius!" I kinda whimpered. Jess had told me he would be almost dying from not drinking blood, but I guessed I couldn't imagine what that would look like. Which was bad.
Jess didn't even flinch, though. She just faced her husband, who was trying so hard to be his old self but looking more like Raniero used to look when he was a surfer. It was like they'd traded places. Lucius's shoulders were slumped over, and his beautiful black hair was messed up, and he needed a shave, and his clothes were dirty, and when he finally opened his eyes to try and look around, like he wanted to tell everybody he was still in charge...
I looked at Jess again. How could she not cry, to see him fighting so hard to still be ... Lucius?
But Jess was fighting, too. Fighting for him, and her eyes were like ice. They were like black ice, like all the brown part was gone. I'd never seen her look like that.
"It is clear that Lucius Vladescu is not prepared to speak for himself," she said, then stopped to give one of the uncles—the one I thought was named Fabio—a look that shoulda killed him on the spot. I shrank down a little. "Because he has been held in solitary confinement without sustenance. And so, because I am his wife and not eligible to render a verdict, I will speak on his behalf, call for his witnesses, and present his case."
That seemed to shock everybody, and the old vampire who looked just like the one I'd seen in a casket not too long ago shot out of his seat and started sputtering like he was having a stroke.
"This is unprecedented! Lucius must speak for himself! And your role is to preside, Princess."
Uncle Fabio shoulda been in chains for talking to her like that, but Jess didn't even bat an eye. She just turned to him and said, very calm, "There is precedent." Then she stood up, taking her time, and spoke to everybody like she was on the Supreme Court.
"Vladescu versus Vladescu, 1622," she said. "Queen Sorina Vladescu both presided over the courtroom as a nonvoting judge and spoke for the accused, her husband, Alexandru, who was close to the state of luat due to deprivation of blood. The cases are identical."
All around me, I heard vampires translating everything Jess said, and I saw some of the Elders bobbing their gray heads and saying, "Da," like they agreed.
"Princess Antanasia is correct," one of 'em piped up. "I attended that trial, as did Horatiu Vladescu, and it occurred as she relates. There is precedent. She should proceed."
"Da. Da." Everybody—except Fabio—nodded. "Proceed."
Holy crap. I was about knocked over for two reasons. Jess had totally won round one. And there were guys there who'd been alive in 1622?
Would Lucius and Jess and Raniero—and Ylenia—really live that long just 'cause they drank blood? It had never seemed real before, but now I realized that at least some of them honestly would still be walking around when I was long gone.
I started looking for Raniero and Ylenia, who I had been trying not to see, and I found Ylenia sitting close to the front, like she was already creeping toward Jess's spot, and I hated her even more right then. I wasn't just jealous anymore. I hated her like I'd never hated anybody else in my life.
And Raniero ... He was nowhere to be found. What did that mean?
I looked back at Jess and Lucius ... and that was the first time I saw her eyes get soft, for just a second, when Lucius raised his face to look at her. He seemed so tired, like he'd been sleeping on his feet, but the weird thing was I coulda swore he smiled at her, and got that Lucius Vladescu gleam in his sleepy eyes, right before Jess got tough again and said to the guards, "Intoarcerea la prizonier in celula. Return the prisoner to his
cell. His presence is not needed now."
Lucius was beaten down, but he was still Lukey, and I got a little lump in my throat when he shook off the guards and walked by himself out of the room while everybody watched in complete silence.
He was freakin' Lucius Vladescu, and I didn't think anybody would ever have the guts to whisper, even when he was half dead. Even then, he looked like a king.
Somehow, fighting to stand up in chains, he looked more like a king than ever.
When he was gone and the door slammed behind him, I started hunting around again for the guy I was afraid wanted to steal the throne—but I didn't have to look long, 'cause Jess sat back down and said, "I wish to summon Raniero Vladescu Lovatu to present the first evidence."
Oh, gosh, did the crowd go crazy, gasping and muttering, and then my heart stopped when Raniero walked in the door Lucius had just gone out and took his best friend's place in that circle on the floor.
Chapter 108
Mindy
HOW COULD SEEING somebody so strong and gorgeous, who I didn't even know how I felt about anymore, hurt me even more than seeing a good friend who was sick and broken?
I guessed it was 'cause Raniero looked more ruined to me, standing there in a tailored suit, than Lucius did struggling in chains. It didn't help that Raniero's eyes got very black, too, when that creep Fabio and the other old vampires started squawking right away, "But he is blestemata ...condemned himself!"
Yeah, there was a pretty big uproar while the Elders decided if they could—or should—listen to testimony from a vampire who was, like, the worst criminal ever.
I watched Raniero stand very straight through the whole argument and saw that they might as well have been punching him. I could tell he was trying hard not to duck every time somebody said, "But he is damned.... His testimony is not valid."
Jess kept punching back for him, though, and she told them all, still very calm, "You trained Raniero Vladescu Lovatu to be what he is: the world's most skilled assassin—an expert in destruction, wounds and blood—and in his own way, the most credible witness our clans could produce." That was when she started to win round two.
There was this big moment of silence, then old Fabio said, very slow, like we were idiots, "He will lie to protect his friend."
Jess took a sec to let everybody think about that. Then she gave the knockout punch—by saying the very thing that was making me a little sick right then. "Raniero has much more to gain by seeing Lucius Vladescu sentenced to destruction than he does by saving him. He is in line to rule as my regent. Thus, if his testimony exonerates a prince, it is more credible than any other, for it comes at great cost to himself. He will lose the chance for wealth, privilege, and power that most only dream of."
Jess sounded like a different girl—a different woman then. Like she was channeling her birth mom and using a whole new vocabulary that was even better than Romanian. She was speaking royalty.
There was more silence. You coulda heard half a pin drop. Then somebody finally said, talking for all of 'em, "Let the blestemata vampire speak. There is no rule against it."
I watched Raniero cross his hands in front of himself, standing like Lukey had just done, but without chains—at least not ones you could see—and with his head held high and his feet planted wide apart. And while I thought I'd seen Lucius smile when he stood on the spot, I was sure Raniero's eyes flickered like they were on fire in a way I'd never seen before—and wasn't too keen to see then.
I looked at Ylenia, and she was kinda smiling, too, as that trial got under way for real.
Chapter 109
Antanasia
FOR A VAMPIRE who once claimed that he wanted everything Lucius had, Raniero did an impressive job of defending the very prince who blocked his path to power—even though just showing up at the trial really did cost him. If not the chance at a throne, in terms of pain.
"He's an assassin ... Damned ... Condemned himself..."
As we'd heard the Elders—especially Flaviu—speak those words, I'd known that Raniero was finally being pushed to that place he'd feared going. His eyes had grown black and dangerous. And yet he did his best for his friend.
He produced Lucius's stake and showed everyone how the bloodstain was all wrong. And he got the servants who'd prepared Claudiu's body for burial to confirm that there were three wounds to the destroyed Elder's chest.
"Two are shallow, and made by a right-handed vampire—and one final thrust is made by someone who attacked with the left," he told everyone. "It is very easy for myself—as one who has destroyed often—to see the pattern. And we all know that Lucius Vladescu would destroy with a single left-handed thrust. He would never use his right hand—or miss." Raniero actually smiled a little. A grim smile of appreciation for Lucius's nerve. "And Lucius Vladescu does not ask for help when he does battle. If Lucius did this act, there would be no right-handed wounds."
Most of the Elders, and everyone in the courtroom, agreed that Lucius would always use his dominant hand—and destroy more efficiently, and certainly without any pathetic assistance from some weaker, right-handed vampire. Everyone knew his reputation, and his power had been apparent even when he'd walked into the courtroom, shackled but fighting to stay upright, still every inch a sovereign.
But unfortunately, it still didn't seem like he was going to win his trial.
I could tell that nothing Raniero said was enough to counter their repeated, almost confused, refrain. "But Claudiu's blood is upon the stake, and Lucius cannot explain it."
Even my time-stamped evidence of e-mail messages, exchanged when Lucius would have had to be in the foyer if he'd really destroyed Claudiu, didn't sway them. If anything, all the information I presented about computers only seemed to baffle and raise suspicions among the older vampires.
They understood that it was strange that Claudiu's blood had still been bright red when Lucius had been dragged from bed and we'd all convened in the foyer, but they didn't see how a computer could prove that he'd been busy in our room for a long time before that, too, so that the blood would have had to coagulate and darken if he'd committed the act.
I had been so certain that we would win—that my new attitude would carry the day—that I thought Raniero and Mindy, who knew me so well, must have seen the disbelief in my eyes as I brought down a gavel and said, "We will adjourn for the day and reconvene tomorrow." Because by late afternoon, I had run out of ideas to save Lucius, and felt like the best I could do was hope for a miracle that night. And if I didn't get one...
I wasn't sure what I would do.
As the Elders and the spectators shuffled out, I finally did meet Dorin's eyes, and for once he didn't meet mine, even for a second. He was looking at Ylenia—and they both looked more perplexed than I felt.
Chapter 110
Mindy
THEY MET IN a different garden the night after the first part of Lukey's trial. I followed Ylenia right to the tiny secret courtyard where Jess and Lucius got married.
Back on Jess's wedding night, the wild, twisty vines that crept up all the walls had seemed romantic, but that night it felt like they were choking the life out of that little place. Like they were gonna sneak around my arms and legs and squeeze the life out of me, too. Out of everybody in that castle.
Lucius was in big trouble.
Those vampires were too old to understand real evidence, like from computers. Or maybe they just wanted to see a young, strong, up-and-coming king go down hard 'cause they were old and had never been anything but weaklings themselves. I'd about got sick of watching even Jess's uncle Dorin fretting away like he was gonna pee his robe.
And I about threw up in the shadows, too, when the guy I'd been in love with, who stood just about on the spot where I'd first seen his unbelievable eyes, whispered to Ylenia, "You are certain that you wish for this life? For you see how Antansia suffers. If I were to achieve power, it could be dangerous for you, too."
Her little eyes, no longer hid by glasses, glo
wed even brighter than before. "Yes, I would be ready. I could handle it."
I tried real hard to understand what Raniero was doing, 'cause I coulda swore he fought hard for Lucius back in the courtroom.
Or had he? Was that why Jess had lost, in the end? Because Raniero hadn't really tried hard at all?
I honestly couldn't tell. It had seemed like he said the right stuff, but then again...
"It is good that we have come together again," he told Ylenia. He spoke soft, but not like he used to talk to me. He didn't sound sweet. Hot, yeah—but not sweet. "It is good to have a second chance."
I turned around and left 'em alone, and went back to my room and made sure that bottle I'd snatched was safe and sound. I even stuffed a few extra shirts around it in the carryon, just to make sure it wouldn't accidentally break when I took it to the sentencing the next day.
I was gonna let Jess keep doing her thing, 'cause I wasn't one hundred percent sure I was right about that bottle, or Ylenia, or especially Raniero. He seemed like two vampires in one, and I couldn't figure out which was the real thing.
But if it all went down wrong in the end ... Well, I was no vampire, but I was gonna uncork that bottle and spill some blood myself. I was gonna raise a little hell in a place that already seemed pretty darn close to there, if you asked me.
Chapter 111
Antanasia
I SUPPOSED BY that point I could have roused the drunk, sleeping guard and just demanded the key. But as I stood in the shadows of the dungeon, part of me clung to the small hope that the Elders would still find Lucius innocent, based in part on his continued insistence on obeying the laws that were sending him to a world of mad nightmares. So ultimately I stepped quietly toward my husband, who was stretched out on his plank bed already looking like a corpse, and whispered, "Lucius."