All the Queen's Angels

Chapter 6: Kiss of Death

Evangeline Vincenzio is the ugliest name I've ever had the misfortune of hearing. It's not capable of rolling off the tongue because there are so many "v's" that it has to crawl off the tongue. And now I'm being legally adopted into my enemy's family. Damn you, Ambrose.

My internal rage is interrupted by Leander displaying a sudden, rare show of concern for his younger brother. Laurent is somehow even paler than before and sweating profusely.

"He's just hungover, Father," Leander explains. King Lucius and Queen Lillian barely acknowledge either of their sons in their eagerness to finish organizing my affairs.

"You must sign various contracts to renounce your allegiance to the Vlahos empire and pledge your allegiance to ours," my new stepfather explains. I nearly vomit at the concept.

"And of course we shall establish where you will reside in the palace, as well as clothing, classes, and your royal portrait," my new stepmother gushes. Heavens save me.

"Oh! And we must see to who you will marry—". A soft thud cuts Queen Lillian off and she gasps. We all turn to see Laurent sprawled on the floor, his eyes rolled back. Courtesans and advisors rush to the prince's side, the clamor of questions filling the room. As a servant picks him up and tries to rouse him, a flash of red catches my eye.

"Blood," I rasp. Everyone turns to me and I point to the blood pooling in his ears. The room falls silent. Blood starts dripping from his nose.

"Plague!", Leander breathes. All hell breaks loose.

The crowd trips over themselves in their scramble to get as far away as they can from the fallen prince, their screams ringing in my ears. Guards instantly gather around King Lucius and Queen Lillian, both of whom are shouting questions and commands at the dozens of people flurrying around me. At the king's urging, Leander grabs me and leads me away from the chaos and through the castle. We hurry through elegant white walled halls with delicate gold chandeliers and flowers blooming from every corner.

"What's going to happen to him?", I ask. Leander clenches his jaw and grips my wrist tighter.

"He dies."

I stop in the middle of the hall and wait for a proper explanation. Leander scowls and rolls his eyes.

"It's a plague, Vlahos. People catch it and they die. If you wanted all the gory details, I could tell you that in the next 7 days, Laurent will probably go from bleeding out of his nose to coughing up blood and ultimately die of brain hemorrhage. But you should know that already," he snaps, his hazel eyes bitter. No cure, then. My stomach turns, but I stand my ground.

"Ambrose mentioned the plague once in the last 48 hours but couldn't go into further detail because we were too busy trying to stay alive after you nearly killed us," I snap back. "Before that, I was completely isolated from the outside world, remember?". Leander seems to back down, to my surprise.

"How long has it been going on?", I pry further, but I let him continue to guide me through the palace. We pass through a walkway lined with walls of windows displaying a now-overcast sky.

"It surfaced maybe 10 years ago. We don't know from who or where, but the first cases were in the north, which was why your kingdom had been struggling with it recently. We'd been pretty good at keeping the plague from entering our borders—until now that is." He glares at me and I'm tempted to inform him that it's not my fault Laurent fooled around with potentially infected strangers in a tavern in my kingdom, but I decide to spare him a lecture since he's losing his brother. And it's not my kingdom anymore anyways, I remind myself. We reach a hall lined with identical doors and he slows down to scan each one.