Page 78 of Wedlock

“You did the right thing by leaving the child. I want you to know that. Falcon has no need to search for you now. He has his heir.”

“Yes,” I whisper, looking away from him quickly in case I give something away. I’m a terrible liar and the last thing I need is for this vampire to recognise subterfuge in my gaze.

“How is he?” I murmur, trying to change the subject, but also desperately wanting to know.

“The baby? I don’t know. He has his nannies and wetnurse…”

“I meant Falcon.”

Jag gives me a surprised look.

“He’s free. Asumpta gave the evidence we hoped for. At first it seemed she wouldn’t, Spider had built a solid case against Falcon, but then…”

“Tell me everything,” I breathe.

He leans back in his chair and stretches his legs out, and I get the feeling this is going to be a long story.

“The charge was, as you know, that Falcon killed Sophie. Spider claimed Falcon had been in love with her prior to their marriage. He very convincingly told the court how he’d married Sophie purely to spite his rival, winning the trust of the jury from the get-go by not hiding this. He then claimed that Falcon kidnapped Sophie during her pregnancy and impregnated her before he handed her back. He waxed lyrical about how worried he was about the woman carrying his heir, and how he’d had to petition the Queen to order Falcon to release her and his son. Which was also true. He also presented evidence that Falcon and I had illegally stormed his house, as he’d previously told theQueen he feared we would, and that only a written edict from the Monarch had stopped violence.”

I shake my head.

“All of this is true, except the kidnapping part.”

“Mostly, yes,” Jag sighs. “His evidence then switched to Falcon taking the bodies of The Free Men under false pretences, specifically in the name of the Queen, and delivering them to that foul group. Naturally the jury and gallery were aghast at this transgression, and Spider’s team built a solid argument around this that Falcon had no regard for law and was completely rogue. Moreover, that he might go bloodlust crazy like his father had and bring disrepute to all royal families. A range of witnesses were brought in to attest to his anger issues, and a tape was shown of his first appearance on The Games.”

“Oh shit.”

“Yes. Other footage was shown of his first night on your season. I don’t need to remind you how that played out.”

I shake my head, visions of hearts being ripped out and heads being ripped off swimming before my eyes.

“After this scene had been carefully set,” Jag goes on, “we got to the matter at hand. The court was told that Spider had no idea Viper was on his land, or dead, and that if it was so it was obviously due to the factI’dkilled him after he’d revealed our affair to Falcon.”

“Oh, no.”

“Yes,” he nods, “and Falcon couldn’t refute the affair, or that Viper had been the one to reveal this. He also couldn’t refute that he’d had nothing to do with me since, and by all accounts from those familiar with him, would likely have wanted to kill me. And let’s face it, he does.”

“Yes. But what about the fact I was under a thrall from Viper?”

“Falcon didn’t want that mentioned.”

“What? Why?”

“Because it would have shown the court that you were not under hupotasso, Angie.”

I frown as I think this through.

“And this would have been a bad thing?”

“Very bad.”

“Huh.”

I think over my discussions with Falcon prior to our marriage and try to remember any time he’d told me this. He hadn’t. He’d accepted that I didn’t want the bite. Accepted it even though he must have known if it was discovered that he hadn’t followed vampire rites he would be in big trouble. As it was, when we got to the ceremony he wouldn’t bite me because he thought I was under Spider’s thrall already.

‘But he’d pretended to…’

“But,” I frown, “it’s known within the court that I’ve run away. It must be, there’s never any secrets that can be kept from the Queen, or so it seems. You said yourself that Revna knows, and she has the ear of her royal aunt.”