Almost Everything by Tate Hallaway Read Free Book Online Page B

grudgingly acknowledging her sovereignty.
    As I stood leaning against the broom, I suddenly felt exhausted. The clock on the wall ticked hollowly. Elias frowned, watching my mother head upstairs.
    “Why didn’t you tell me you were sick?” I asked, feeling an old hurt. We talked so little these days; yet I couldn’t believe he’d kept something so important from me.
    He gestured with his chin in the direction Mom had disappeared. “Her Majesty,” he said, his voice dripping with disdain. “I haven’t had a chance to have a private conversation with you the entire time I’ve been her guest. Do you think that wasn’t intentional?”
    I’d thoughthe just wasn’t that into me anymore. I didn’t want to say that, though. To cover my expression, I took the opportunity to put the broom back in its place. “I had kind of noticed, honestly,” I said.
    “She’s been desperate for just this sort of information. At least I will no longer have to endure the interrogation she called ‘tea’ when I leave.”
    OMG. Elias hated tea too? This news was almost as shocking as finding out that he was a vampire slayer. But I felt as if he and I had been attending a completely different event all these months. “Are you saying she was pumping you for information this whole time?”
    He looked a bit surprised I hadn’t guessed. “Subtly, but, yes. I know this sounds a bit paranoid, but I think she was putting potions in my tea.”
    “I doubt that,” I said quickly. I mean, my mom a poisoner? We didn’t always get along, but I couldn’t go that far. “I seriously thought you guys were talking about American history.”
    “Sometimes we were, but more often it was barely veiled attempts to get me to give over information about the kingdom and what we have been doing since the secret war.”
    “Oh.” Wow, I felt stupid. How did I manage to miss all that subtext?
    “And now she has something she can use at last. Damn it all. Damn my weakness.”
    Grippingthe edge of the table, Elias pulled himself up on wobbly knees.
    “We must see your father,” he said. “He may have a war on two fronts now.”
    “With witches? And Luis?” He nodded. I could hardly deny the urgency in Elias’s face. “But how are you going to get in? They’ll kill you. Didn’t we already have this discussion? Don’t you remember last time?”
    “I surrendered before because I mistakenly trusted in my prince’s mercy. I will not go so unarmed this time.”
    I wanted to believe the fierce flash in his eye, but his face looked so stark and pale. “You’re sick, Elias. You can’t fight. You can barely walk.”
    “Then you have to go.”
    “Me?”
    “Your father wouldn’t dare harm his own blood heir.”
    I wasn’t nearly so sure. My loving father had no problem calling a hunt on Mom, a woman he was still officially married to, or sending his vampire minions to attack me when I had the talisman. Still, Elias was in no shape to do it. “I guess I can go. You think I should try to go tonight?”
    “I do,” he said. A creak in the wood floors upstairs had him lower his voice conspiratorially. “If the others suffer as I do, they’ll be even weaker now that the dawn is soon upon us.”
    “So, what you’re saying is that now is a good time because I won’t get eaten before I can reach Dad?” I asked. He didn’t deny it and had the decency to look a bit chagrined. I sighed. “Fabulous.”

     
    HaveI mentioned how much I hated going to see my dad?
    First of all, thanks to their sun allergy, the vampires have to live underground—literally. In fact, St. Paul was the vampire capital of the Midwest because of its extensive sandstone tunnels, underground rivers, and warrens of natural and man-made caves. And, while that might sound kind of cool, trust me, it’s not. Sandstone always seems to smell kind of like dog piss, and, every time I go, I end up finding gross grit in my hair and clothes for weeks.
    The other reason I loathed going to