Alexander
“I’m worried about Fiona. She didn’t look well this morning.” I wiped my brow with the back of my wrist, slicking off a film of sweat.
Kayden jumped neatly over a fallen log, landing his lead foot in a puddle. We both got doused in mud.
“She looked pale. Had dark circles under her eyes.
And I don’t know if I’m imagining this, but she looked thin, too. Like she lost weight over the past few days.
It’s not good for her or the baby, the distance she’s keeping between us.”
“Still won’t let you near her, huh?”
“It’s not like I don’t understand. But she’s punishing herself more than she’s punishing me.” We slowed our pace as we neared the end of the trail we were running. I took a long, deep breath, relishing the tastes and smells of the damp forest air.
“You going to get to see her later today?” Kayden asked. We turned our bodies in unison and started running back in the direction from which we came.
“What’s she doing after she goes to see her
“I don’t know. Talking to her lately, it’s like trying to bleed a stone. She’ll answer when I speak to her, but only in as few words as possible.”
My beta fell quiet a minute, apparently fresh out of assurances on the topic of Fiona. It was just as well. It didn’t seem like there was really anything I could do to break through my fiancée’s cold anger with me. And obsessing over our fight and begging her for forgiveness only seemed to be making things worse.
Kayden changed the subject. “I know I don’t need to ask if you’ve thought more about what we learned last night.”
My heartrate spiked and my temperature rose. All thoughts of Fiona fled from my mind, chased away by the whirlwind of my other obsession. “I didn’t sleep a
single second last night, thinking about it.”
“Figured as much.” Kayden turned his head away and spat into the dirt. “Can’t say I was surprised, Alex.
What are you gonna do?” He wasn’t asking for a battleplan, just wondering where my head was at.
“Well, I am going to kill her,” I said flatly. It felt good to say it aloud. “But not until the time is right. As for what to do next, I need to talk to my uncle and get him up to speed before anything else.”
I had lain awake all night mulling everything over and playing out scenarios in my mind. Planning for how to hold my mother’s murderer accountable for her atrocious crime, now that I had a suspect in my sights, one with the motive, means and opportunity to mastermind the entire plot.
Every scenario I played out for taking revenge on this
suspect, though, was likely to end very badly for me.
Every scenario I played out for taking revenge on this suspect, though, was likely to end very badly for me.
I looked at the yellowing envelope in my hand. My mother mailed this letter to her relative just before she started getting sick. About a month before she died.
“Here.” I handed it to my uncle, who pulled the folded paper out from within the envelope slowly, as if he were afraid it would crumble under his touch. He read it silently, holding his chin in one hand.
In the letter, my mother revealed a secret of my father’s.
The King had a mistress, the letter said. One that he moved into the palace, and who my mother feared was becoming obsessive, and maybe even
dangerous. In fact, the mistress had threatened my mother – indirectly – more than once. Mother didn’t state the woman’s name, but she described her. It was immediately clear to me who it was.
It was the woman my father married only weeks after putting his first Luna in the ground.
My stepmother, Scarlet.
I could only have guessed, before, that my father had likely bedded Scarlet before marrying her, and perhaps before my mother died. But I knew nothing for certain. And I was quite surprised to learn that Scarlet had moved into the palace while my mother, the Queen, was still alive.
It made me sick, thinking about my father doing such a thing.
Conrad finished reading the letter and set it on the table. He stood and crossed the room, retrieving a pack of cigarettes. “After all these years…” He coughed out a cheerless, self-deprecating laugh.
“Alexandra’s killer was right under our noses the whole time.” He propped a cigarette between his lips and headed over to the balcony. I followed him.
Once outside, my uncle lit his cigarette and took a big drag. Blew out a white stack of smoke that dissipated into the blue sky. “I can’t believe the old woman is still alive,” he mused. “Was she alone out there?”
“Yes.” After considering a moment longer, though, I added, “As far as I could tell.”
“Hm.” Conrad was still processing all the information he’d just received.
“And you were right, Mother did send money back
after you two moved away. Not just once, but many times over the years. All of the letters came with cash inside.”
“And what did she have to say about all this?
Agatha?”
I frowned. “She was concerned when she received the letter, of course. But it was not long after that she heard of Mother’s death. She considered going to the King with the information, but she was afraid he may have been involved.”
Conrad raised his eyebrows. “And what do you think about that?”
“I honestly don’t know. Either way, he is complicit and culpable, even if indirectly.”
I sincerely hoped my father was not directly involved in the plot to kill my mother. Because needing to kill the reigning Alpha King was a burden I did not wish to take on.
“Let me make some phone calls, nephew.” Conrad narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. “I have an idea. But let me chase it down first. I’ll let you know if anything pans out.”
I hadn’t even made it back to the palace by the time Conrad called with an update. I pulled off the highway and parked.
“I think there may be a witness,” my uncle said, his voice urgent. “Your mother had a maid who began to serve also as her caretaker when she became ill.
Apparently, the maid had raised concerns that the Queen may have been poisoned, and even claimed to
have seen someone slipping a substance into Alexandra’s drink.”
My heart started pounding in my chest.
“Iris.” I knew exactly who Conrad was talking about. I had no idea, though, that the maid had witnessed any such events in my mother’s last days.
“You’re familiar with her?”
“I am.” I remembered my mother’s maid very well, in fact. My mother was very fond of the girl, who I recalled was about my same age, maybe just a year my senior. “But where is she? I never heard another mention of Iris again, after I returned from the war.”
Conrad sighed. “I’m afraid I’ve told you everything I know, Alexander. I am not even sure if the girl is still alive. But I said that about the old woman, too, and
I turned this new information over in my mind. Iris witnessed someone poisoning my mother. It had to have been either Scarlet herself, or someone my stepmother had been using to do her bidding.
This was huge. This was everything.
I told my uncle, “We have to find her.”
