"Where are they now?" Ambrosia asked her son.
After seeing Penelope and Cora to their rooms, Grayson had come to find Ambrosia where she was in a meeting with her private secretary. She was going over the day's official papers that required her attention—documents from a blood red box that required signatures and responses. This was part of what it meant to be Queen of Gray Vale, the most distinguished and powerful kingdom in all the nine vampiric realms. She took great pride in it. To vampires, power and prestige were everything.
"They are settling into their rooms," Grayson answered.
"Have the dressmakers attend them. If they are living in the palace, they will not be wearing whatever rags they brought with them from the human world," Ambrosia said, flipping to another document.
"I do not think they will have patience for that at the moment. They are worried for the boy and wish to see him immediately," he told her, folding his hands in front of him.
"And you told them that was not possible, I hope," she glanced up from the papers before her with the slightest twitch of impatience on her brow, a pen poised in her hand.
Grayson cleared his throat. "Can we have the room?"
She pushed back into her chair, glaring at him with the full weight of her attention. These new residents of the palace should be easy to deal with. They were not even vampires. She gave a curt nod to her secretary who speedily left the room.
"Something is wrong," Ambrosia deduced. "How could that be when they have only just arrived?"
"I am not sure how to describe it in a way that will be satisfactory," he chuckled.
Ambrosia's glare deepened. Grayson was always far too entertained by the girl and her family. It was odd.
The half-vampires and their human mother were unusual, of course, and for their kind who lived for centuries, she supposed that novelty in itself was something. But this was a delicate situation—having the family here. There were plenty of things that could go wrong, and up until now they had dealt with the girl as delicately as possible—giving her the illusion of freedom and distance from the royal family.
Until today, the family had their own home. They were not required to be evaluated, aside from Cora who had received regular doctor checks by a seasoned scientist who was trained in how to imitate a human doctor as much as possible.
But things had changed. The boy was now a vampire, and Cora had thrown a small though controlled tantrum in the middle of the white forest that alerted every villager about her explosive potential for life. Ambrosia's patience was wearing thin.
Cora had to be made to understand what her role here meant. They needed to exert influence over her if the royal family was going to profit from her existence. And that influence clearly was not going to be from Grayson with his relaxed attitude about the whole situation, chuckling here in her office about something unusual that had happened as if he had brought home a new puppy.
"Tell me, Grayson," she said, her lips pressed together in a thin, unimpressed line. There was no humor she would find in anything that the girl had done, she was sure of it. And yet he was standing here trying to restrain a smile.
"She is… seeing things," he said cryptically.
"Seeing things?" She repeated, an eyebrow raising. Was this a game? Why was he not telling her exactly what she was seeing?
"Yes. Her heart speeds up and she becomes focused on something unseen in the distance. It happened as we approached the palace and then when I was leading them to their rooms."
"Well what is it she is seeing?" She threw her arms out in exasperation. "I do not like riddles, Grayson. Just tell me."
"I do not know. If I did, I would tell you," he told her.
She groaned and moved to the edge of her chair once again, lifting the last paper she had been studying. "Then ask her."
"She is terrified. You think she will tell me about it? She does not yet trust us."
"She needs to be made to trust us, Grayson. I will have Rayth work on it," she said, attempting to shut down this conversation.
"Rayth?" He repeated, a sudden edge to his voice. "Rayth detests them. She will sense it."
"Rayth has a great desire for us to remain the most powerful family in the nine realms. That is enough to motivate him, and now he understands what Cora's place is in that future for us. He will convince her, I am sure of it."
"And if he doesn't?"
Her eyes flitted to his. "If he does not succeed in convincing her, she will have little choice in the end but to place her trust in us anyway. She needs our protection above all else, especially with her dear mother so vulnerable. There are many who will wish to take advantage of that vulnerability."
A muscle feathered in Grayson's jaw. She was speaking of herself. If Cora did not do as Ambrosia wished, she would use the vulnerability of Cora's love for her mother to manipulate her. It was as simple as that.
"They are not to visit the tower until we are certain the boy's transformation is complete. I am sure you can handle convincing them of that much. Yes?"
She did not bother glancing at him again. It was an order, and she expected him to comply with it.
"Yes," he agreed. "I will see that she is given access to the East lawn. It will keep her mind off of her brother for the time being."
"I suppose that will do. No one else must know of her activity back there," she said. "And the death by desire continues as scheduled today."
"Of course, mother."