The Red Queen by Meg Xuemei X

Vladimir. It was excellent. He looked pleased.
    “So how did you persuade Aida to leave the house?” she asked.
    “You don’t want to know,” said Vladimir.
    Lucienne smiled sweetly. Keep chatting with him. Keep up the small talks. Be more engaging. But part of her wasn’t there. It had left with Ashburn. And that wasn’t something she could control. She prayed that Vladimir wouldn’t detect her subtle shift in mood, but from the look on his face, she knew he wasn’t fooled.
    He understood that she needed Ash. When she lapsed, Ashburn was the only one who could calm her. That pained him to a degree she didn’t want to know, but he never asked her to stay away from Ashburn. Instead, he put up with Ashburn’s every jab, until the day Ashburn had flown her off Sphinxes.
    Vladimir was unapologetic for bein g self-serving, but he wasn’t selfish when it came to her. He’d once told her that he couldn’t stand any man except him to have her, and he’d counted that as his most self-interested act. H e’d told her, “Even if you can move on, I can’t. Call me selfish, call me whatever you want, but I’ll not let any other man have you. You promised that one day we’d be together. I won’t release you. I know you’re a warrior of honor. As long as I stay true to you, you won’t move on either.”
    “What do you want to do after breakfast, miláček ?” Vladimir asked, dragging her back from the memory of sitting on his lap in the Hungarian café in Chicago.
    She finished chewing and swallowed potato skins . Vladimir indeed had a talent for cooking. Who could imagine an eighteen-year-old fierce prince warrior loved working in the kitchen?
    “I’ll go spy on the generals,” she said, “and see if they’re still behaving.”
     
    ~
    Accompanied by Vladimir and her guards, Lucienne visited Sphinxes’ air force base.
    Soldiers saluted her wherever she went. They shouted that she was one of them, a worthy warrior. She promised them a nation to give them new hope and a legitimate home. It kept Sphinxes together in a difficult time. But what if, in the end, she failed them? She couldn’t be their queen if this madness didn’t leave her. A mad queen would be the worst sovereign.
    General Fairchild, Admiral Enberg, Director Pyon, and other officers joined her. Kian came as soon as he heard she was at the base. They all knew about her improved health and had high hopes that the poison had run its course.
    She listened to her officers map out Sphinxes’ future—nationalization, expanding the military, and investing more in scientific research and technology.
    After the air force meeting, Lucienne went to inspect her navy fleets and troops. They cheered her enthusiastically, as if she were already their Siren queen. Staying with her people, she temporarily forgot the pain caused by Ashburn’s leaving.
    She’d achieved the goal of encouraging her army. At the end of the day, she was more exhausted than she expected, but she insisted on going to see Ziyi and the scientists before retiring to her mansion.
    While Ziyi embraced Lucienne again and again, she didn’t forget to send Vladimir glares. Ziyi had excused herself from helping Pyon’s intelligence division track the remaining Sealers’ forces. The girl deployed all her genius in the cyberworld to search for a cure for Lucienne, but she hadn’t had much success and had become testy.
    “Dinner tonight?” Ziyi asked hopefully. “I’ve been feeling lonely without talking to you.”
    “Lonely?” Lucienne raised a brow. “You have a short date with a different guy almost every night.”
    “How do you know?” Ziyi blinked. “You haven’t stepped out of the house for a week.”
    “You have your ways of knowing things, and I have mine,” Lucienne said.
    “You know all about my ways,” Ziyi said, “but I haven’t figured out yours.”
    “Haven’t you sworn on your Girl Scouts’ honor that you wouldn’t put your ears on my walls?” Lucienne