matter what outer form he took. I had no doubt that my father was a good man, even though he was also a demon.
It sounded completely crazy, but I believed it.
I wasn't afraid of him. I hadn't known him for my entire life, but I knew at that moment that I loved him. I loved my father so much and I didn't want him to die.
My eyes burned with tears. I'd seen him one last time. I'd done what I wanted. I'd shown him that I wasn't afraid of him-I didn't want the last time he saw me to have been last night when I screamed because I was afraid of how he looked.
Now the only thing I was afraid of was losing him before I got the chance to even get to know him.
I cleared my throat and looked around the room. 'The pictures. Where did you get them?'
'I painted them myself. My memories of being in the human realm are still very vivid. I wanted to remember what I'd seen.'
'And the one of my mother?'
'I painted that one as well.' His eyes moved to it. 'I can still see her when I close my eyes, as if I was with her only yesterday.'
Just then, his face convulsed and he clutched at his stomach. The veins and muscles in his neck bulged. He was in pain but wasn't crying out this time.
Was it because I was in the room next to him? Did he not want me to see how much agony he was in? Was he holding in the scream so it wouldn't scare me? I felt like sobbing for him, for his pain, and for everything he was going through.
Why wasn't the pain medication Elizabeth gave him working? Was it too late?
When he settled down he met my gaze again. 'I'm sorry, Nikki,' his voice rasped. 'For all of this.'
I shook my head and clutched on to his hand tighter. 'Don't be sorry.'
He turned to Elizabeth. 'May I have some more water?'
'Of course.' She poured more and brought it to him again, holding it up so he could drink. He was so weak he could barely swallow.
I knew then that Elizabeth was right. He had only hours left. Perhaps not even that long.
Michael's expression was tense. 'I'll get more water.'
'No, I will.' Elizabeth absently touched the small bottle she wore around her neck and I took a good, close look at it.
It was the same bottle as yesterday. I was sure of it. Why would perfume and pain medicine be in the exact same bottle? Why would they be the exact same color?
My thoughts churned together in a big confusing mass as I tried to make sense of everything I'd seen and heard. It felt like there was an answer there-something I was missing. Something that would make sense of everything.
Michael, I projected telepathically. Does my aunt control everything that my father drinks or eats?
There was a pause. 'As far as I know. After she sent the rest of the servants away, no one else was here to do it. And she doesn't let me do anything.'
She sent the servants away? She told me that my father did that.
'No, it was her decision. I was only able to stay because the king insisted.'
Does she have another boyfriend or is it just the prince from the Underworld?
'It's just him. She's very devoted to him. I'm surprised she even came back to the castle since she had to leave his side to return.'
It was right before my father got sick?
'Yes, that's right.'
My aunt turned to me then and gave me a kind smile. 'I must go get more water. Have a few more minutes with your father, but then he needs his rest.
Before you leave, however, I must insist that you drink the potion. As you have seen for yourself, there is no other solution to this unfortunate situation. I will have to take the burden of becoming queen. There is no other choice.'
I nodded and watched as she took the tray and left the room. My father closed his eyes and I watched him, sensing how close he now was to the end.
My head was spinning, my brain swarming with information that I knew was important but that I couldn't quite piece together. Things that Kieran had told me only added to my confusion.
He made it sound as if Elizabeth wanted to be queen more than anything, but she'd told me she was only doing it out of duty. That it was, as she'd just said, a burden.
He hadn't given her perfume even though she said it was a gift from him. And now what I thought was a perfume bottle held medicine that she mixed into my father's drinking water.
My aunt had returned to live at the castle, leaving the man she said she was in love with, just before my father became sick.
I started breathing very fast then as it all began to click into place and my heart pounded twice as quickly in my chest.
Michael, I thought and turned to look at him. Michael… I don't think my father is really sick. I don't think he's got an illness at all.
'What do you mean?'
He's. . he's not sick. It's Elizabeth. She wants to be queen. She wants me to drink the potion so I don't get in the way of her taking the throne. That has to be it. It has to be.
He frowned at me. 'Nikki-' Oh, my Qod, Michael. She hasn't been giving him medicine, has she? It's poison. Elizabeth has been poisoning him slowly, hasn't she? He isn't dying at all. He's being murdered!
Panic clutched at my throat. I had to be wrong. She couldn't do something like this to her own brother, could she? It was impossible.
Michael didn't think anything for a very long time and I looked at him and waited, wanting him to tell me I was crazy, that I was overreacting, that I was grasping at straws and seeing clues when there were none. His expression was unreadable. And then in the back of my mind, I heard him project two small words that changed everything for me right then and there. 'You're right.'
I was stunned.
How do you know? I thought frantically. Why didn't you tell me?
But before he could answer me, Elizabeth returned to place the tray next to my father's bed. Her hand curled around my shoulder.
'It's time, Nikki.' She glanced down at my father. 'He's sleeping now. He falls in and out of consciousness. It makes it easier for him that way.'
I just stared at her.
Then I heard Michael's voice in my head.
'Nikki, say nothing. Don't let on that you know anything. Please, trust me.'
'This…' I tried to breathe normally. 'This has been very difficult.'
She shook her head. 'Did I mention how beautiful you look today? That dress is lovely.'
'I… I was at a dance before I came here.'
'And that's how it should be. Sixteen-year-old girls shouldn't have to worry about these sorts of things. You should think about dances, and friends, and boys. It'll be fine, soon. Everything will be back to how it was meant to be. I promise you.'
I just looked at her. How could she seem so nice, even now? Even when I knew the horrible truth? Maybe I was wrong, maybe Michael was wrong.
But no. It was true. I felt it deep inside of me.
'You said that Darklings die before they're eighteen,' I said quietly. 'But you didn't say how they die.'
'That part of history is quite vague. I searched for as much as I could find, but the details are sketchy. I
