“It was,” Ana said. “He keeps it as a reminder.”
My brows lowered at her comment.
“A reminder for what?” I asked.
“Why he conquers.”
We continued walking, and I glanced at a mirror to my right. Just as I was about to walk out of frame, I caught site of something—a reflection that was not my own. It was a woman with ginger hair—the same one I’d seen in the reflection of the window at Sadovea.
I halted and stepped back, finding her staring back.
I could see more of her features this time—light olive skin, freckles across her cheeks and nose, full lips, and green eyes. She was beautiful, and as she stared back at me, the corners of her lips lifted.
“Are you a ghost?” I whispered.
“Who are you talking to?” Ana asked.
I whipped my head to the left and found her at the end of the hall, waiting.
“There is a woman.” I turned back to the mirror, but only I looked back. “In the mirror…” My voice trailed off as Ana came to stand beside me. I blinked and shook my head, confused. “I…must have been imagining it.”
Perhaps this was just another strange vision like the one I’d had of Adrian in the grotto.
Ana frowned. “Come. We’ll be late.”
The hall of mirrors emptied into a large corridor. A flight of steps inclined upward to higher floors. To the left, the hall curved out of view while the right led to a set of doors that reached the ceiling. We turned right through the doors, only to be greeted by a room full of men.
My disgust was immediate as they all turned to look at us. At least they bowed at my presence. The room where Adrian held council was far narrower than it was wide. A large marble fireplace framed the Blood King as he stood before a round table with Daroc only a step behind. I noted how the hearth was not full of raging fire, only glowing embers, and I wondered if he had done that for me. The rest of the room was just as extravagant as the hall we’d exited, with towering, gilded mirrors and chandeliers dripping in crystals. The ceiling was covered in a fresco that appeared to detail the creation of the world. I noted Asha and Dis, one depicted in white, the other in black, one haloed by the sun, the other by the stars, surrounded by the lesser goddesses, the ones we no longer worshipped in Cordova.
I did not have long to inspect every inch of this room, as my attention fell to the noblesse present. I only recognized a few—Tanaka, Gesalac, Dracul, and Anatoly. I noted that Ciro was absent from the mix, which was just as well. He had done his people a disservice and needed to rectify it. There were five other men I did not know, but none of them looked at me with as much mistrust as Gesalac, whose gaze made my stomach sour. I wondered if he was thinking about earlier when he’d found me in the grotto.
My gaze shifted to Adrian, who seemed on edge, his eyes burning with an infernal light. I wondered if he could hear my thoughts at this moment. If he was trying to guess what happened at the grotto.
“How unfortunate,” I said, “that no women advise you.”
“You advise me, my queen,” Adrian said.
“One woman and nine men—how revolutionary of you.”
I held Adrian’s gaze as I moved to his side. He stared down at me, and a little of his coldness had melted away.
“Your concerns are noted, my queen,” he said.
Tanaka cleared his throat, and Adrian shifted his attention to the older vampire. “Do you have something you wish to share, Viceroy?”
Tanaka hesitated, mouth working. Clearly, his interruption did not have the intended effect.
“Uh, no, Your Majesty.”
There was a strange silence, and my eyes shifted to a map that was spread upon the table, and I noted three small, red pins—one in Vaida, one in Sadovea, and one in a place called Cel Cioran.
“Was there another attack?” I asked, my chest tightening at the thought.
“Yes, but it was not recent,” he said. “Like Vaida, it was discovered late.”
I wondered if it was another one of Ciro’s territories but did not ask as Adrian jumped into an explanation of what we’d discovered on our way to the Red Palace. I felt more and more dread as he spoke of the state of the bodies, of the horror of hearing the man’s screams as he ran from the gates of Sadovea, and the child who had attacked me.
“A child?” one of the noblesse asked, looking just as devastated as I had felt. His name was Iosif. He was a tall man with blond hair that came to his shoulders and a smattering of facial hair.
“She was possessed by whatever magic was unleashed,” Adrian said. “And it turned her into a monster. We brought her here for an autopsy, which Ana performed.”