Chapter 100

I barely managed to get any sleep at night. As soon as I finished with Christine, I had to check on Camilla and I didn’t leave her side until well into the early hours of the morning. I was barely able to sleep three hours before I had to get out of bed to deal with the elders. The news about the vampires had spread and people were flooding the palace gates with their concerns and fears. I couldn’t help but wish that Camilla was here. She always took the edge off and it was easier to get through a long day with her.

The elders were already waiting in the council room when I arrived. I could tell they were looking for Camilla because they kept glancing at the door. Her whereabouts was something I planned to keep under wraps for as long as possible. The people didn’t need any more reason to go into panic mode.

“Will the Queen be joining us?” one of them finally asked as I took my seat.

“If she were then you would have seen her by now,” I drawled. “She has other duties to attend to. Is there a problem?”

“I just thought she would be more concerned with the well-being of her kingdom and people. It should be a topmost priority.”

“It is, that is why she is spending her time in a productive manner and not sitting here arguing with fools that lack brain cells,” I shot back and his cheeks flushed pink. I was already in a shi tty mood and he was making it worse. “I’m not someone you can push around, elder. I would tread carefully if I were you.”

He bowed and took his seat at the edge of the room, as far away from me as he could possibly go. There was silence for a full minute before anyone dared to speak. I could tell that they were analyzing the room and the atmosphere. Contrary to what anyone thought, they weren’t fools, they were just lazy and proud. I had no idea how Leanor put up with them for so long. I made a men tal note to look up the history and find out if there was any way to disband or change them.

“The people are concerned about the vampire attacks. I was thinking it would help alleviate their worries if the Queen made an announcement telling them that the problem is handled.”

“That will not be possible,” I said immediately and his brows furrowed.

“Your majesty, it will help ease the people’s minds.”

“I know but I said no. Now, are you going to keep kicking a dead horse or will you come up with something else? I don’t know why I bother spending so much time here when it never breeds anything productive. I would have better results if I spoke to my daughters.”

There were varying levels of anger on the faces of the elders. If they had their way, they would have left me a long time ago, I could have bet that they weren’t used to people speaking back to them. I wouldn’t have been surprised if Leanor was the first person to do so. One of them opened his mouth to speak and I waited to see if he would have the balls to say what they all wanted to but at the last moment, he closed his mouth and breathed deeply.

“We cannot fix this without the Queen.”

“You are not looking to fix it. You are looking to slap a cotton cloth over an open wound. If you wanted to fix it, you would have tried to find out something about the vampire attacking us. Have you tried that? Have you done anything to figure out how to stop the attacks?” none of them could speak.copy right hot novel pub