I felt a hand enclose my own. ‘Just focus on what you have to do,’ Kaspar murmured, untucking a chunk of hair from behind my ear and letting it fall around my face. It curled itself into a coil – the reason I had pushed it out of my face in the first place. I nodded and said nothing. I should have straightened it, I thought. I always wore it straight at home.
I forced deep breaths into my lungs. The clock struck once; the minutes continued to pass like hours. Nobody made a sound. The air could be cut with a blunt knife, tenser than the guards who lined the outside steps or the fingers of the butlers who clutched the handles of the doors, ready to close them and seal my father inside.
The gravel crunched. There were no shouts; no signs of a struggle, just the regular sound of footsteps. I fought the urge to dart forward and look out at the driveway. Instead, I looked at the Varns. Their faces were blank and they seemed composed. The King, catching my eye, moved forward and came and stood beside me, sandwiching me between Kaspar and himself. Whether he thought I was going to try something or whether it was some act of solidarity, I didn’t know.
The crunching stopped and was replaced by the echoing clatter of several people climbing the steps. I let go of Kaspar’s hand. As soon as I did, Eaglen passed through the entrance, followed by Henry and Joanna. And a few paces behind was my father, each arm clasped by a vampire, but they needn’t have bothered. He walked calmly in like he was strolling into his own home and let his eyes roll over the inhabitants of the entrance hall, the corners of his mouth downturned in disgust.
Something inside me erupted as his eyes settled on me; I broke out from between Kaspar and the King, my duty forgotten as I rushed towards him. He wrenched away from the two vampires grasping him and pulled me into his arms, clutching me to his chest, even as he stumbled back a few paces because I hit him with such a force.
‘Violet,’ he muttered, repeating it over and over into my hair as he pressed scratchy kisses onto my forehead, his beard just beginning to grow back, greyer than I remembered it. I buried my head in his chest as we both struggled for balance. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the King placing a hand on Kaspar’s chest when he took a step forward, his lips moving as he mumbled something to his son. I closed my eyes, shutting off the scene, inhaling the scent of my father’s pale blue shirt. It smelt like home: of freshly washed clothes and burnt toast and the lavender perfume my mother always wore.
‘I am capable of walking, you know. But that doesn’t mean drop me, leech!’
I tore away from my father like he was a hot coal. I knew that voice: it was almost identical to my own, only slightly higher in pitch. I moved around my father.
‘What the hell is she doing here?’ I screeched, my jaw dropping to the floor where a girl with violet eyes was scrambling to her feet. Her skin was pale and gaunt, just like that of a vampire and there were dark purple circles under her eyes. A colourful orange and yellow scarf was wrapped around her head, tied in a knot at the front, and her eyebrows were very fair, like they had been bleached.
‘Lily? Is that you?’
She straightened up, assisted by the vampire who carried her in and very dramatically rolled her eyes.
‘No, Violet, I’m the Queen of England. Of course it’s bloody me.’
I took a few hesitant steps forward and then pulled her into an embrace too, pulling her head onto my shoulder. ‘You idiot,’ I groaned. ‘You stupid little girl. You shouldn’t have come. You’re ill!’
She pulled away as two other men were dragged flailing and kicking through the doors, which were closed with a resounding thump behind them. ‘Not any more. I was given the all-clear two months ago.’ I began to break into relieved stutters, but she cut me off. ‘Of course, you wouldn’t know that.’ She turned and glared at the King, not even a hint of fear in her expression.
‘Scum,’ my father muttered, directing it towards the Varns, as the two men, one of whom I recognized as the Second Permanent Under Secretary, were let down beside him.
I froze. ‘Don’t say that,’ I breathed. He shook his head, blank, and I realized I was speaking too softly for him to hear. Guess that is what happens when you’re around vampires. ‘Don’t say that,’ I repeated as my voice filled my mind.
Remember what you have to do, Girly, it said. Remember you’re a He**ine.
I reached up and touched the locket around my neck, feeling the coolness on my skin.
My father’s eyes met mine before he let them slide down to the pendant in the palm of my hand. The lines across his forehead deepened and he opened his mouth to speak, but I got there first.
‘Don’t you dare say that.’ I let the locket fall back against the material of my shirt, beginning to back away. Then I turned and walked away from my father and my sister, towards Kaspar, whose face broke into relief as a small, triumphant, even proud smirk appeared on his lips. Maybe I was imagining it, but the corners of the King’s mouth seemed to upturn too.
I slipped in between them both, allowing Kaspar’s arm to wrap itself around my waist as I matched him, folding myself into his side.
My sister’s hand flew to her mouth as she gasped and my father looked from me to Kaspar, stuttering over his words like he couldn’t comprehend what he was seeing. But then with a thunderous roar, he surged forward, only just grabbed by three of the vampires.
‘You promised!’ he yelled, his chest heaving and his face becoming bright red, almost purple. The vampires pulled him back and wrapped his arms behind his back until his hollers became questions and then pleads. Kaspar brought his hand down to mine and gripped it like he was trying to hold on whilst we were being torn apart. I couldn’t help but feel he was worried I might rush forward again, but I didn’t plan to. On the other side of the room, I saw Eaglen and Henry exchange glances, Henry’s eyebrows raised. I flushed.
‘You promised, didn’t you? Violet? What the hell have they done to you?’
I didn’t reply. What is there to say? But I was saved from doing so as the King moved forward, stopping just a few metres short of my father, who raised his chin as the King neared.
‘What have you done to my daughter?’ he demanded. ‘What has your bloody Kingdom done to her? Tell me!’
The King sighed and a chill passed around the walls of the room like a wind. I shivered; so did Lily. ‘More than you can ever imagine, Michael Lee,’ he murmured, yet I could hear him as clear as a chime in the still air. He turned back to me with a face splintered with emotion that he seemed to try to be hiding. But his eyes were empty of life or feeling, as ever. ‘She knows what you did,’ he continued, looking back at my father and gesturing around the room. ‘We all do.’ My father’s eyes widened then and for the first time, Lily looked afraid.
‘Is this your revenge then, Your Majesty? Poisoning my daughter?’
‘That was certainly not the preferred method of vengeance,’ Eaglen said with the slightest hint of distaste, although he maintained a straight face. He came forward. ‘I suppose you are familiar with what we call the King and Crown’s Protection?’
‘Of course.’
‘You and your family are under it.’ He cut off my father’s surprised response with a wave of his hand. ‘It can wait. I suggest we continue this conversation somewhere a little more comfortable and perhaps a little more rationally, I hope, for both your children’s sakes.’
Neither of them objected and with a wave of the King’s hand, my father was steered from the hall, his eyes staring straight ahead in a defiant effort not to look at me. He was followed by the two other men; the man who had carried Lily in went to take her arm but she pulled it out of his reach, recoiling from his touch like a spring. She strode forwards before he could attempt to grab her again and stopped just short of me, the lines across her brow deep. A slight blush tinged the apples of her cheeks like they had been pinched as she allowed her wide but bright eyes to pass across Kaspar, and then the rest of the Varns, who were dissipating and following in the wake of my father and the King.
‘Why?’ she demanded, turning her attention back to me, her face betraying her confusion and I realized with yet another sink in my stomach, her anger.
‘It’s complicated,’ I muttered, extracting myself from Kaspar’s hold and blushing myself.
‘Really?’ she said, dryly.
‘Yes, it is,’ Kaspar answered, his tone as cold as it had been when I first arrived. At my side I could feel his hands stuffed into his pockets to hide the fact they were clenched into fists and that he was flexing them.
Taken aback at being directly addressed by one of the vampires, Lily flustered for a moment. ‘I wasn’t talking to you, bloodsucker.’
‘My God, there’s two of them,’ Cain chuckled; strolling over with a grin on his face like this was a happy family reunion. ‘Same eyes even,’ he added, leaning forward and peering into her face. She didn’t flinch but blushed as bright as the scarf wrapped around her head, which Cain was trying hard not to look at. If she noticed that his gaze flickered towards the short, almost grey tufts of hair that poked out from beneath the material around her ears, then she chose to ignore it.
‘Feistiness must run in the family,’ Kaspar said. Lily opened her mouth to reply, as did I, but we were interrupted when Valerian Crimson also joined us.
‘I believe you are wanted, Miss Lee.’ He took Lily’s arm and gripped it tightly as she tried to pull it away. Cain, who was closest, didn’t need prompting and wrenched her from his grip as I tried to place a lid on my anger.
‘Don’t touch my sister, Crimson. Don’t even look at her,’ I hissed through gritted teeth, but he wasn’t even fazed. Bending his back slightly to bow, he spoke with all the false civility he was so skilled at using. ‘Of course, My Lady.’
Lily, torn between looking at Cain’s hand, which still gripped her, or Crimson’s retreating back, didn’t comment on the title he had used to address me, but her confused expression told me she had heard. I was glad. I didn’t know where to begin explaining, and knowing that, I was anxious to join the King and Eaglen. I turned to Kaspar, who picked up on my anxiety.
‘They’re in the study. We’ll join you in a moment.’
Cain abruptly let go of Lily’s arm, almost as though he had forgotten he still grasped her and I led Lily towards the main corridor. She followed, silent with her lips pursed. It didn’t seem as though she planned on talking and I stuffed my hands into my pockets, feeling the chill in the air from her distance.
‘You look a lot better,’ I prompted. She had gained weight around her legs, which disappeared behind a pale orange woollen dress that hugged the beginnings of curves. There was a permanent baby-pink tinge to her cheeks too, which were less chubby and swollen than I remembered them. But the scars of chemo were still there. Her eyebrows were not bleached, but nonexistent, drawn and filled in with light brown eyeliner. She still retained the puffy-eyed look of someone who was utterly drained as well.
She shrugged and I could see that she was fighting to not let her eyes roam over the splendour of the Varns’ home, where paintings and marble and old-fashioned lamps lined the walls, and the floor was so polished and smooth you had to fight not to slide over it. ‘I finished the chemo in September. I go back to school at the end of the month.’
‘That’s really great. I was worried about you,’ I admitted.
She shrugged. ‘You look worse. You look more tired than me and I have the excuse of the chemo.’
‘I have been—’
‘Shagging vampires all the time?’ she cut in, her voice full of disdain. I froze in shock, first at hearing my little sister practically swear and secondly at what she was implying.
‘I have not!’
She stopped and crossed her arms, blocking my way in the corridor as I tried to carry on. ‘Dad said this might happen. He called it Stockholm syndrome. I didn’t believe him because I didn’t think you’d ever fall into bed with a murderer, but now I can see I was wrong.’ She huffed and turned on her heel, marching down the corridor with her arms still folded. I darted after her, grabbing her arm and spinning her back around.
‘You have no idea what’s been going on, do you? None at all.’
‘Try me,’ she challenged.
I took a deep breath. ‘Dad ordered the death of the Queen. Their mother,’ I explained, gesturing back towards the entrance hall, trying to keep calm and make her understand.
‘I know. Dad told me everything when I finished the chemo.’
‘And that doesn’t bother you? Not even one bit?’
She shook her head. ‘Why should it? I never knew her, did I? Besides, they’re vampires. Murderers. And I don’t know what they’ve done to you, but you sound like you’re defending what they do.’
‘I’m not saying killing is right, but once you get to know them—’
‘I’m not going to get to know them, Violet.’
Again she marched away, missing the entrance to the King’s study. The ballet pumps she wore were too big and slipped off her feet every time she took a step, the sound echoing around the walls as a ‘flip-flop’. I waited beside the door until she realized there was not a second pair of footsteps behind her. After a while, she hesitated and turned, blushing and hurrying back.
I knocked and the door swung open to reveal the King stood beside his desk, large drapes screening the light from the windows. My father was sitting on the high-backed wooden chair in front and the two other men were perched on the divan sofa a little further away. The vampires that had escorted them in were gathered around the edge, beside the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, which Eaglen walked over to and pulled a large, red leather-bound book from. He looked up and acknowledged our presence as one of the manservants pulled a second chair up for Lily and offered me one, which I declined, preferring to stand as my stomach continued to clench. Setting the book down on the desk in front of my father, Eaglen opened the book, flicking through the pages until he was about a third of the way through.