Emily failed to understand why someone would hate her so much as to want to poison her. She had never even met the man before. What could his motives possibly be?
The thought troubled her, and saddened her in equal measures, so much that Liam felt compelled to say in a joking manner, “The court is poisonous, literally.”
“You don’t say?” She giggled humorlessly, feeling on the verge of a breakdown now that she was in her and Theo’s bedchamber. “What did I do to earn such a treatment?”
“You did nothing, dear,” he told her softly, “but your very existence is a nuisance.”
Her eyes narrowed despite her tears as she no longer felt the need to keep up pretenses, and he went on, “A royal mating with a human is unheard of at the court.”
“Well, surprise, I won’t be human for long now that I am mated to Theo,” she told him sarcastically as a lone tear escaped her eye.
“Be that as it may,” he said almost feebly, “we royals don’t always have the choice of having the mate we desire. Sometimes, we are predestined to have someone else.”
“What are you saying?” She gasped in shock. “Was Theodore betrothed to someone?”
“No,” he waved her worries off. “Our parents didn’t manage to force him to mate with Princess Tatiana.”
“So, they did try to have him mate with someone that isn’t his mate?” Emily exclaimed, flabbergasted.
“Three hundred years is a long time to spend alone,” he told her with a sheepish smile. “He could not take on the throne without someone by his side, but he waited anyway.”
“Liam,” she then uttered his name in a small voice, “please tell me you didn’t take his place.”
He averted his eyes at that and then said, “Just because he didn’t wish for a chosen mate doesn’t mean the wait is easy. Although I don’t have any illusions as to who the throne will be handed down to, I – contrarily to my brother – actually enjoy life at the palace, despite all the scheming and the plotting.”
“You’re not making any sense,” she told him softly. “Please tell me you didn’t agree to an arranged mating.”
“I did,” was his flat response. “The alliance between dragons and werewolves was long overdue. It was only fair that since my brother, Theodore, didn’t wish to go through with it that I – as his younger brother – take responsibility.”
“But Liam,” she tried to protest, realizing that not only was he rushing into a loveless mating but also tying himself down with a werewolf – a supernatural that probably had other ways than they did as dragons.
He shook his head negatively, and she failed to give him words that would dissuade him from going through with this sham of a mating.
“Back on topic,” he then said in a much more pleasant tone, “You’ll be one magnificent queen, my dear Emily. You stood your ground and managed not to make a scene at lunch, despite all that had transpired. I admire you.”
“I was just in shock,” she told him with a hesitant smile.
“That doesn’t make your reaction any less commendable,” he told her sweetly.
She agreed with a distracted nod, wondering what Theodore was up to. Hadn’t he already eliminated the threat?
She also wanted to help Liam out of the loveless mating he was throwing himself into. The feelings she could almost taste emanating from him – dejection and dismay – were not to her liking – not one bit. She wanted to see him happy and accomplished, not resigned to his fate this way.
But how was she to do achieve that? She didn’t know yet but she was set on playing the meddlesome she-dragon part already.
** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
Theodore wasn’t fond of interrogation techniques – mainly because they took time and he wanted to go to his mate – but he wasn’t fool enough to believe that Amos acted on his own.
How did he know his mate loved pears to begin with? There was a rat at the palace. And he was going to find the rat.
“Son, kindly take it easy on the nobles,” his dad said.
“I’ll be easy alright,” he told him, plastering a fake smile on his face, “I don’t wish to kill anyone that doesn’t deserve to die. But I would appreciate it if the accomplice stepped forward at once. That would spare me time I don’t wish to waste here.”
His words had the desired effect – chilling the atmosphere.
“I promise to hunt down and kill everyone who even dares to aspire to harm my mate,” he said, his eyes trailing from one face to another.
He didn’t even bother skipping over his parents. Everyone present needed to understand how serious he was. His mother stiffened slightly but she, thankfully, didn’t utter a word to provoke his wrath despite her obvious annoyance.
“Is that any way to treat us?” One of the nobles said in indignation. “We went to war with you and followed your every order…”
Theodore didn’t allow him to finish before flashing to his side. He put his hand on the man’s shoulders, leaned down, and then whispered in his ear, “I don’t recall starting the war to begin with. Nor do I remember needing the help of the likes of you to end it.”
The man started to sweat profusely. “I meant to say that…”
“Shh,” Theodore told him in a deadly cold voice, “Do you really wish to vex me? I don’t tolerate disrespect. Maybe you all thought I have become too lenient with the years,” he all but scoffed before carrying on in a dangerously low voice, “I can assure you that I am still the Theos most of you saw in battle.”
Deafening silence met his statement.
“Now,” he tightened his hold on the man’s shoulders and this latter gasped in pain. “Shall I have a word with each and every one of you to pinpoint Amos’ foolish ally, or will you give yourself up out of free will?”
He then started walking around the table at a dangerously slow pace.
His sister Serena stood by the door, almost as if to make sure no one would make a run for it.
“It was I, the foolish ally,” one of the nobles announced once he was close to her chair. Her head was hung low, in shame and submission both.
“What, pray tell, were your motives to want my mate killed?” He asked in a deadly whisper. “In my blind fury, I never bothered to ask Amos.”
“Mercy please,” she begged.
“Answer the question and I might consider killing you softly,” he bargained matter-of-factly as he reached her chair.
In a flash, she left her chair and was by his feet, in a kneeling position, sobbing for kindness he wasn’t about to show her.
She received no satisfactory response, and thus found it fitting that she would hold onto his calves as she continued to wail.
“So unbecoming of a noble,” he laughed her pleas to a scorn.
“I beg of you, your highness.”
Why she thought she was above anyone else he had killed before for treason was beyond him.
“Are you going to spill or do I have to gut it out of you?” He said simply.
Her wails stopped and she looked at him, fear painted on her face.
“My only wish was to protect the crown,” she said in a miserable attempt to hide her true motives. “Long live the crown!”
“As you wish,” he shrugged.
It was not long before she was laying in a pool of her own blood after he fed her from the same slice his mate was given.
She uttered one last word before she succumbed to the poison. “Sophia…”
He guessed he had just found his next target.