My Vampire King Husband Died on Our Wedding Night? novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: Rooke Falls

Rooke looked at the cup, and for the first time I saw the thing under the polite voice.

It was plain fear.

"I will not," he said.

"It is only a blessing," said Edmund.

"You cannot force a duke of the court to drink."

"No," said Edmund. "I cannot."

He did not move.

He held the cup out in the quiet, with his arm perfectly steady, and he waited.

The gray woman rose from her chair.

"The Charter has a rule for a lord who raises a hand against a king," she said. "He may choose his answer in front of the Conclave. The cup, or the sun."

"The sun?" Rooke's voice cracked.

"The vault your own people built, Alistair. It has stood empty for three hundred years. It will do."

Every house in the half circle nodded, one after another.

Even the four dukes who had stood at his side that morning did not look at him.

"You have no proof of what the cup does," Rooke said. "It is a rumor. A servant's lie."

"Then drink," I said.

He turned his head and looked at me.

I had been afraid of that look for days.

I was not afraid of it now.

"You wanted a widow," I said. "You will leave this hall without one."

"Madam."

"You let me be told for six months that he was dead."

"You'd have walked me to the altar again, with Bryson Straker on my arm."

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