Chapter 30

I expected him to get angry, for some sort of rage to takeover him. That he might even draw his sword and cut me down.

But he pulled away and smiled bitterly, a laugh echoing in the library, full of all the dryness of a desert.

"I know, Madeline. I know" he said in such a melancholic manner I felt guilt stabbing away at my heart, but I couldn't be won over by guilt. My entire life was at stake.

"Then why?"

"You wouldn't understand even if I explained. After all, you're a complete human. I'm barely a man" his words made me scoff.

"That doesn't make any sense. You're only half vampire , and being vampiric doesn't make someone less of a man" I countered.

"Does it not?" He leaned away from me with a stare that looked so cold I shivered.

"No" I stubbornly replied.

"Then do you dream of spending your life with a man who bites into your flesh each night? " he asked.

"I don't dream of men" I shot back.

"Then… women?" He looked at me in surprise and I flushed.

"No!"

"Then what? You dream of a life alone with twelve cats?" He no longer seemed terrifying as he held a hand over his mouth to cover a smile.

"Wha?- no! I mean- I just meant that I have no interest in men right now. I just want my business to thrive, so I don't care who it is i spend my life with after!" I huffed, turning away to leave, but his next words had me planted.

"Even if it were with a vampire?"

I snapped my head back to him in surprise.

Was he implying what I think he was?

If he was, his gaze didn't give it away. In fact, I could only feel that he was testing me with a cold aloofness about him. As if whatever my answer was, it made no difference.

I turned away from him again, clutching the book closer to me.

"I don't plan on spending my whole life in Grandor…" I confessed.

He didn't reply, but I felt heat radiate onto my back and a shadow fell over me.

"I was hoping that if the store in the capital is a success I would begin tailoring clothes towards other species. After all, why stop when my brothers have made it so much farther. "

I hadn't planned on telling this to a single soul. For fear my father would catch wind and lock me up. Most of my travels were kept secret from him. As far as he knew I had never met anyone outside the capital and our village. I didn't even dream of confessing that I had travelled to the Empire twice already.

"Then you have no plans on settling down here?" He finally spoke.

I tensed when I felt the warmth of his breath on my neck, his voice seductive as always. A finger coyly played with a loose strand of hair that fell by my earlobe.

"No. I don't care if they're human, but I learned too much about Grandor to consider it the lovely nation I've been brainwashed into thinking it is" I answered thoughtlessly. Or rather maybe I was so comfortable with the thought of speaking to Jules I forgot he was also the future ruler of the land I despised.

"Then… why not change it?"

I frowned at his words.

"Change it?" I caught sight of him in my peripheral view, there was a smile on his lips and his eyes were trained near my face. Where… I couldn't pinpoint.

"The land you so despise has given you a chance. You could change it all for the better future you dream of. To make Grandor have whatever you know it lacks" his words made my head spin.

"I have no interest in being queen!" I turned to him our faces barely apart as I glared at him.

He gave me a wolfish grin, clearly finding my troubles entertaining.

"You don't need to be queen to make changes. Rather it's better not to be queen for such matter" he stepped back as my brows knit, "I can promise I'll help you avoid being queen if you become a royal advisor".