Deadly Lovers (The Prussia Series) Read Online Free

silently.
     
    “What is going on?” I asked, the silence started creeping in and sending my mind on wild paranoid adventures about what it could be a list of.
     
    I watched as the Queen chewed on her bottom lip and made a slight tsk sound every few seconds. The paper wasn’t very long and the Queen wasn’t a slow reader. In fact, she probably read it five times before she looked up again.
     
    “This is what is going to happen,” said the Queen, the shadows doing nothing to add kindness or youth to her features in the harsh candle light of the dungeon, “Sebastian, no one leaves. 24 hour surveillance. They will be watched wherever they go on the grounds until this has been sorted out,”
     
    “Everyone?” asked Sebastian.
     
    “Yes,” said the Queen with the deepest frown I had ever seen on her face before, “I am not authorizing anything outside of questioning until we know more,” said Victoria very firmly.
     
    I crossed my arms in front of my chest, still unsure of what was going on. I didn’t like that the Queen had simply started barking orders. It didn’t seem like I was needed at all. Actually, it seemed like the opposite. It seemed like another way for the Queen to stop me from leaving.
     
    “What is going on and what does any of this have to do with me?” I demanded, arms still crossed as I looked back and forth between the three of them.
     
    After a pause, the Queen handed Sebastian the list he had given her before and looked at me.
     
    “There is a spy in the court,” said the Queen, a great deal of sorrow settling onto her face, “And I need to ask you a favor,”
     
    My mouth fell open as she spoke, giving me very little detail and explaining what I would need to do. The Queen, Victoria, had asked me for a favor. She wasn’t ordering me, she was asking. Be still my beating heart, I thought. She didn’t ask much but she also didn’t tell me much either, Just that one of the people on the list would need to be questioned.  She claimed she couldn’t do it because of a conflict of interest.
     
    While I knew how unprecedented it was that the Queen would ask me for a favor rather than command me, I still hesitated. I had no way of knowing when Josephine might come looking for revenge for the death of her brother. And there was no telling when the war would actually start, officially. Friday at the latest but the castle could be under attack by evening. There was a very real chance that this could be my last window of opportunity to escape and secure my safety and freedom.
     
    “I can’t do this without the Chancellor,” said the Queen, “I know you’re planning on leaving and I understand. But I can’t go to war with a spy in my mix. And if I am seen as heavy handed in seeking out the truth…they won’t rally behind me and go into battle.”
     
    “We,” said Sebastian, “We are leaving. I’m going with Prussia,”
     
    The Queen’s eyes grew wide with rage and surprise. The guard, John Campbell, took a step back, with his eyebrows raised high. He didn’t seem to want any part of what might follow.
     
    “You’re going to leave me to go to war by myself? Asked the Queen.
     
    “I just got married. And this is not your typical war. You said she’s your sister. She’s family.” said Sebastian.
     
    “You don’t know what she’s like,” said the Queen.
     
    “I may not have ever met her, but if she’s family I can’t imagine she would want much more than to be included in the court,” said Sebastian.
     
    “She wants to take the throne for herself,” said the Queen.
     
    “Fix your feud. It’s not as if your own sister would drive a spike through your chest,” said Sebastian.
     
    “So you leave me without an army, then?” asked the Queen.
     
    “I am not the whole of your army,” said Sebastian.
     
    “You are the commander,” said the Queen, “without you, there is no army.”
     
    “I don’t understand why I’m needed,” I said.
     
    I