My Vampire King Husband Died on Our Wedding Night? novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: Gathering of Houses

By dusk the throne hall was full of strangers.

Nine houses of the vampire court had sent their heads, and they stood in a half circle under the high windows in their own colors.

Edmund sat on the black throne with his hands on the arms of it.

I stood at his left in the deep red dress Hester had laid out for me, with my bandaged palm in plain view.

"The Charter is plain," said the oldest of the heads, a stooped woman in gray who wore a silver brooch shaped like a burned branch. "A king accused before the Conclave does not speak in his own defense."

"Who speaks?" I said.

"His queen, if she will. Or nobody, and the king is judged on the accuser's word."

Edmund did not look at me.

His hand turned over on the arm of the throne, palm up, and stayed there.

I put my good hand in it.

"I'll speak," I said.

Rooke stepped forward from among his four dukes, in his gray suit, with a folder under his arm.

He bowed to the throne.

"Honored houses," he said. "I take no joy in this."

"You look well on it," Hester muttered behind me.

"The queen refused a husband the court approved, on the strength of words nobody else could see."

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