Chapter 187
Claire’s POV
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Delilah’s warning struck me straight through the heart. She said them with such sincerity, such conviction, that I felt them like a piercing dagger straight through my chest.
Her warning didn’t come from nowhere. She knew things. She had to, to be filled with this much conviction.
“Please,” I said. “Tell me everything you know, everything you remember from that time.”
Delilah started to shake her head. “I don’t know. It was so long ago.”
“Anything you can remember about the past might help Claire stay safe in the now,” Gideon added. “I implore you. We would not ask you to push yourself if it wasn’t important.”
Hannah frowned slightly. “You okay, grandma?”
Delilah rubbed her forehead. “I’m fine, dear. I just… Perhaps if we went somewhere a little less loud. More private.”
There were sitting rooms dotted along the main banquet room for people to have private parties or conversations.
“Follow me,” Gideon said, and let our small group of four to one of those rooms now. When we were settled within, Gideon sent for one of the servants to bring some tea and coffee.
There was a couch there. I sat down on one side of Delilah, with Hannah on the other. Gideon stayed standing near the door. His arms crossed he stood there stoic, like our protector and guardian.
“I spent twenty years at the royal palace,” she told me. “I was well–respected there, and had worked up my way to be in close confidence with the royal family, and with Luna Queen Lena specifically. She didn’t tell me everything, of course, but I saw things. Servants have our eyes and ears open at all times.”
She smiled a little, but that smile did not reach her eyes. “I wish I could give you more details, but no one knew any specifics of exactly what happened. Suddenly I wasn’t allowed in most places, and then I was let go. Alpha King George and Alpha Ivan were so caught up in their grief. Answers were difficult to find. But…”
Before I could lose hope, that tiny little word, ‘but,’ had me leaning closer for more truth.
–
“Toward the end, Daniel and Lena were together frequently. I heard them talking many times,” Delilah said. “They had an agreement. If anything was to happen to Lena, she wanted Daniel to take her darling daughter – you somewhere far away where you would be safe.”
The words startled me. “If that’s what she wanted, then she must have had some idea that she was in danger.”
“Yes… Toward the end, she became very quiet. She spent a lot of time in her room, only allowing a few of us in with her. She even sent away her husband. She was so… frightened, of anyone and everything. But she wouldn’t tell us anything of what was happening.
“I asked her about it, but she was so kind. She said she didn’t want to worry me. Daniel was the only one she really confided in.”
If only Daniel was still alive to tell us what happened. I shook away that disappointment. What was done was done, and I had to work with what I had.
Though I would have liked to know my uncle.
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Chapter 187
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“Delilah,” I asked, as calmly as I could, not wanting to upset her more than this conversation was already upsetting her. “How did she die?”
“No one knows for sure. At least, no one was saying,” Delilah said. “The public statement was that she had died from illness, but… with that fear she had, and the agreement she had made with Daniel. I just struggle to think this could be anything but foul play. Though I’m sorry to say I don’t have evidence of it.”
“Do you think she could have been poisoned?” Gideon asked. Subtly he unhooked his arms and placed his hand over his pocket. Within, I knew, rested the necklace Victoria had given me, the one that was laced with poison.
“Poison…” Delilah lowered her head, her determination clear even if her gaze was a million miles away – or perhaps, 30 years in the past. “It is possible. But… I’m sorry. I just don’t know.”
She seemed visibly upset by this. Hannah immediately wrapped her arm around her grandmother. I reached out and touched Delilah’s hand.
“I’m sorry, I –”
“No, I’m sorry. I wasn’t able to help your mother. I can’t even tell you what she was afraid of. But she was afraid of something, and then she wound up dead. I don’t want to see the same thing happen to you.”
“It won’t,” Gideon said, stepping forward. “I can promise you that. I won’t let the same fate befall Claire, I don’t care who might be responsible for it.”
Delilah held his gaze and nodded, but then slumped a little. “Forgive me. I think I need some rest.”
“You are welcome to stay here as long as you need,” Gideon said. “And then I hope you stay for the banquet as well. Your warning is a kindness, and we will not forget it.”
“Yes. That would be nice. Thank you.”
Leaving Delilah for now, I stood and went to Gideon. Together, we walked out of the room. He stood closer to me than he even had before, his body tense – ready and protective like our enemies might come out of the walls around us.
Who knew? Maybe it could happen.
But that didn’t mean that we couldn’t live while that was occurring.
On the other end of the banquet hall, the orchestra had started to play. When a new song began, I gasped, realizing it was one of my favorites.
Gideon looked over, and then realized. He held out his hand for me. “Dance with me?”
It was so easy to place my hand in his, to allow him to lead me to the dance floor, where other couples had begun slowly turning in small circles, swaying to the melody.
“Thank you for being here,” I told him in a quiet moment of the song. “I was relieved you were with me.”
“I’m always going to be here for you,” he told me. Leaning back, he looked down into my eyes, holding them prisoner. I made mistakes in the past, and I’m deeply sorry for those. I will never betray you again, Claire. On my honor. On my life”
My heart in my throat, I nodded.
Daphne’s POV
Through my contacts, I had procured an invitation to the banquet, under a false identity of course. I had the fake ID to match, but my main plan was to just sneak by without saying a word to anyone. After all, I hadn’t left this pack all that long
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Chapter 187
ago. People probably still recognized me.
And I had many less friends in this place than I used to.
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So far, I’d gotten pretty close to the main entrance of the banquet hall without being caught. I’d already slinked by the first two checkpoints. But this third one seemed to be the most trying. With such a narrow entrance into the hall, I didn’t think I could sneak by. And there weren’t any windows or anything I could hop through without being noticed.
Slowly, I approached the front. And then, it was my turn.
The guard held out his hand. “Invitation and identification,” he said. After I handed them both over, his face pinched together and he looked at me again.
Had I been caught?
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