“Then we shall begin with the gardens.”
The gardens of the Red Palace were very different from what I had formulated in my mind. I’d imagined something slightly more grand than what my mother had created and my father had maintained at Castle Fiora. What I walked into was far more magnificent. In addition to lush flowers, trees, and plants, there were statues, fountains, and decorative stones that created a maze of distinct gardens, each with their own theme and flair. I was enchanted, to say the least.
“This is beautiful,” I said as I walked ahead of Ana, down a bank of white marble steps that led into a formal garden, encased by a frame of box hedges. The center design, crafted from aromatic florals, reminded me of the stained glass windows in the palace. “Did this survive from King Dragos’s reign?”
“It was very small,” Ana said, keeping a few paces behind me. “It was Adrian who insisted on something far more extensive.”
That both surprised and intrigued me. “Why?”
“He felt it was important,” she answered. Just like when Sorin answered questions about Adrian, I felt she was being evasive, which was even stranger given we were discussing the design of a garden.
I looked up at the red sky and wondered how things survived here since the sun could not shine directly on anything, but clearly the flowers had no trouble thriving. There were several varieties—datura and foxgloves, oleander and lily of the valley, irises and larkspur. I wandered farther, losing sight of Ana as I slipped between openings in the stone walls. Each garden had a different centerpiece: some a pool, others a fountain, this one a gazebo with a delicate, filigree roof. I took the steps one at a time and stood for a few minutes at its center, enjoying the quiet of the garden.
“Queen Isolde.”
I turned and found a woman standing outside the gazebo; her arm was looped through that of a younger companion. One was dressed in lilac, the other in gray. I did not recognize them or know their names, but they were vampires, not human, and I wondered how they had come into existence, what use had Adrian found in them.
“Yes?” I inquired, and they both bowed.
“We wanted to welcome you to Revekka,” the woman in gray responded.
“Thank you,” I said and looked away. If I were in Lara, it would have communicated my dismissal of their presence. Here, it only seemed to encourage them.
“The whole kingdom is intrigued by you,” she continued. “The mortal who managed to snare our king.”
What a coincidence. I never suspected I would be snared by anyone either, I thought, still not looking at them.
“We, of course, thought that if he married at all, it would be one of the women at court,” she added. “But it seems he merely enjoyed sampling.”
“Have you merely come to boast about how you fucked my husband before me?” I asked, finally looking at the woman. Her eyes widened slightly and then narrowed, mouth hardening into a tight line. She did not need to tell me she had—her jealousy had to have sprung from somewhere.
“He is not a man you can satisfy on your own,” she said. “He needs more. You would do well to remember that.”
“Are you suggesting you can somehow make up for what I lack?” I asked.
The woman in gray straightened, lifting her head. “Everyone knows you have not let him feed from you,” she said. “He has to receive blood from somewhere, and now that you have forced him to dismiss Safira, well, one of us must take her place.”
I should have anticipated that Safira would not make a secret of her dismissal, least of all that I had commanded it. Still, that did not surprise me so much as this woman suggesting she could satisfy my husband in other ways.
“Adrian doesn’t fuck those he feeds from,” I said.
Both women laughed.
“Is that what he told you?” the woman in gray asked between laughs. “Oh, and you believed him!”
“He must care for her at least a little,” said the woman in lilac. “Or he wouldn’t spare her the details.”
They continued to laugh, but as I turned toward them fully, they quieted.
“Are you suggesting my husband, the king of Revekka, is a liar?” I asked, and their amusement died. I took a step toward them. “Because if you are, I think he should know what you think of him.”
The two exchanged a look. “We only meant to inform—”
“You meant to mock me,” I said. “But I will not play this game. You will either respect me or be eliminated from this court. Do you understand?”