Death's Finest Hour

Chapter Forty-Two

Faith knocked softly on the door to the royal nursery, finding Queen Zara bent over the crib on the inside, messy dark hair spilling down her back.

"Good morning your highness," Faith said, dropping low into a practiced curtsey.

Zara blinked. "Don't bother with all of that. It's still weird."

"I'm sure it'll grow on you."

"Curtseys waste time, so I doubt it."

Faith grinned, shutting the door behind her. Zara was more real than she'd been expecting. The stories spoke about the porcelain Queen, cowering behind her husband—all bollocks. Zara was in the family way, often overshadowed by powerful forces like Viktor and Annaliese—but she wasn't spineless. Surprisingly, she had a decent sense of humour.

"How is she this morning?" Faith asked, stopping beside the Queen to peer into Nazreen's crib. So weird. Faith had only met the ex-vampire royal a handful of times since she kept to herself, but seeing a woman as a baby knowing full well this baby was twenty years older than her was beyond weird.

"Absolutely perfect," Zara beamed. "Look at the fangs in that little smile. Gorgeous."

Faith nodded her agreement, getting her supplies ready to do the Queen's hair. She knew the drill, having been the woman in the chair so many times before herself.

"I just wish Killian will get us some answers," Zara sighed.

Faith tried to act natural as she brushed the Queen's hair.

"Answers, your highness?"

Could this be the motivation?

"There's a vampire halfling in the cells. We don't know what she's mixed with—but Nazreen might very well be the first of her kind. If the prisoner's like her, then at least we might know a thing or two about how she'll turn out."

She's talking about Reagan.

The future Queen of the vampires.

Faith forced a smile. "I'm sure she'll grow into a happy, healthy young woman."

"Yes, but a mother worries."

"Up or down?" Faith asked, hands still in the Queen's hair.

Their eyes met in the mirror. This woman—this Queen—looked so much like Nazreen. Is this what me and my mum are like? It still happened now where people would confuse Faith for her mother.

"Down," Zara answered, smiling fondly at her baby. "She likes to play with it."

Twisting small sections of her hair for a half up half down braid, Faith did some more digging, just as Damien was doing elsewhere in the castle.

"How is Killian coming along?"

"Viktor says he interrogates the prisoner endlessly, but her lips are sealed shut. We don't know how to motivate her into speaking, and we only have so much time with her left."

"She's being put to death?"

"She killed a number of people, unprovoked."

Which means it's not long until this woman dies.

Faith clamped up at the thought of it. Sure, she didn't know Nazreen's mother well, but Zara was lovely. She was young, too, as far as immortals went.

Reagan wouldn't die here in the next two weeks, but Zara would.

And there's nothing I can do about it.

Not without the magic turning dark.

They chattered idly as Faith finished getting the Queen ready. She was set to meet with Killian and the King in the next half an hour to talk business. Faith had managed to wrangle herself a spot as one of the servers. From a safe distance, she'd be able to listen in on everything the three of them had to say.