38 Reading or kissing

Evie had already gone through a few books that she found in the library, but she could not focus on any of them. Her mind just kept going back to the thoughts about Gavriel and his childhood. What happened to his mother, the empress? Vampires supposed to live for a long time. So how come she had already… could it be that she was killed?

The thought made Evie's grip on the book she was holding tightened. Her heart ached at the realization that Gavriel had already lost both his parents and was now labelled as a traitor. Moreover, what had happened to him in the dungeon? How did the empress manage to hide a prince in a dungeon that was located in the imperial palace for sixteen years? Didn't vampires had the ability to sense someone's presence even without seeing them? Not to mention what Elias said about his extraordinary skills. If no one aside from the empress saw him within those sixteen years, how did he even hone his fighting skills?