Page 40 of His Realm

“Sorry,” I said, huffing out a breath. “I was thinking about how many lovers the king has. If he were human, we’d call this a midlife crisis when he started dating younger women, and it would be over once he bought a sports car.”

“I suspect, if the king started driving sports cars, that Varic would be thrilled. He’d have to actually leave the palace if he adopted that as a hobby.”

That was a huge part of the problem. The king had become so insular, it was getting harder and harder for him to relate to those who came to the palace. His father, Magnus, had traveled the world endlessly, just as Varic did now, always meeting his subjects. I had asked how that worked with a consort and was told that the king’s consort was always at his side. Magnus had been joined by his mate, Livia—until she’d been murdered by Gideon, something that had been thought an accident at the time. If Messina were to travel, Isabella would go with him. As he didn’t, she saw no one either, preferring to stay on her island. It was so sad that they were isolated from one another and from the world. It was why Varic was so beloved—his was the face the Noreia knew and treasured. But not in Ophir…

“You went quiet again,” Zev remarked.

“I was worrying about Varic and our trip to Decimus’s holding.”

He grimaced.

“What’s that about?” I asked him.

“Did Varic tell you specifically that you would be making the trip with him?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Those are the words he used? When you and I get there?”

I couldn’t remember exactly.

“I have to wonder about the prince taking his consort on a trip that could prove dangerous for both of you.”

“Oh, I’m going,” I assured him. “I’m not some delicate palace flower over here, yeah?”

“Yes, I know you’re quite capable, but this is different. You’re going to a place that’s deadly outside its walls, and inside you don’t know what you’re up against. Do you imagine the prince would want you with him?”

“He doesn’t have a choice,” I told him, confident in my relationship with Varic. “We made a new deal: no one goes anywhere without the other, except on short business trips that are going to be so brain-numbingly boring that my eyes would start to bleed.”

He stopped walking and turned to me. “That’s disgusting.”

“Really? The thought of bleeding eyes freaks you out?”

He scoffed as we started walking again.

“I do think Varic worries about what he’ll find in Decimus’s court,” I told Zev.

“Well, he’s had to end houses before.”

“When?”

“There was the one where you first met Tiago, as I understand.”

I remembered that night in Washington when I’d run out into the snow to save someone who turned out to be Tiago. The Rothschilds had him bound and were going to drain him. I knew that now, but at the time, I’d been terrified about what I thought was some blood sacrifice.

“The Rothschilds had left Europe,” Zev continued, “where they were suspected of many deaths, but nothing was ever proven. Finally, Varic got a location on them and sent Hadrian and Tiago.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Another example is that royalty used to marry its own. It was done all over the world by humans as well as vampyrs, at the level where you ruled. There was inbreeding, which only succeeded in making those set in the greatest positions of power to be riddled with disease, frail, weak-minded, and morally compromised.”

“Would we say all of them?”

He grunted. I couldn’t very well argue. He was the thousand-year-old vampyr, not me.

“Now, of course, we know better. But up until a hundred years ago, the Duke of Corbin, who has a small holding in Wales, was still marrying his sons to his daughters and wondering why his vampyr children never lived past twenty.”

“That’s fuckin’ horrible,” I said flatly.