Free Long Live the Queen (The Immortal Empire) by Kate Locke

pudding. “We don’t feed like that, though. We try not to kill humans.”
    She cocked her head to one side. My father had a corgi that did the exact same thing. “But that’s what the meat is for. We eat it. I eat it.”
    Vex barked – literally – with laughter, and not the what-a-jolly-day-this-is sort. He had to be thinking the same thing I’d been – that they’d fed her humans in the lab. Live ones.
    This just got better and better.
    “Humans have been around a lot longer than us,” I told her. “Thousands of years.”
    She frowned as though she found the idea distasteful. “But we’re better than them.”
    “Indeed, though they think they’re better than us.”
    She laughed. I didn’t blame her. It was ridiculous when you thought about it. We of aristocratic descent were faster, stronger, just
more
overall. The fact that we ate humans was proof that we were top of the food chain. I could spout that we all had rights, but that would lead to even more discussion and questions, and I wasn’t prepared to play matron tonight.
    Her laughter stopped abruptly, and I could see the tips of her ears perking up through her hair – they were pointed, more like a goblin’s than human. It was a little disconcerting, like those hairless cats.
    I heard it then as well – the distant wail of a siren, drawing closer. Special Branch.
    Val was part of Special Branch, and I’d got into trouble before with his colleagues. I’d also caused him enough problems recently. “Come…” I didn’t even know her name, or if she had one.
    Her fingers took mine once again. “They called me Alexis.”
    My heart twitched. My full name was Alexandra. Coincidence? Not very bloody likely. How had they managed to make her?
    Were there more?
    I couldn’t think about that right now. The sirens were definitely closer, almost to the Mayfair gates. They’d be let through almost instantly. I shot Vex a meaningful glance before running for the nearest underside access, Alexis in tow.
    She followed me without question, as though instinct told her I could be trusted. Well, yay for her, because my instinct was screaming that this was going to get very messy very quickly.
    Victoria just might have to get in line if she decided she wanted my head. And I had a feeling the line was about to get a lot longer.

    William gave Alexis a room of her own in the den. There was a comfortable little bed tucked into it, and it wasn’t far from one of the bathrooms – yes, there was civilised plumbing – but it was a good distance from the regular goblin sleeping space. That was where I took our guest upon our arrival. Dozens of pairs of amber eyes watched us – some in awe, some in suspicion. I think others were downright frightened.
    I couldn’t say I blamed them. I wasn’t quite certain how to feel about my doppelgänger, who was becoming less of a doppelgänger with every new difference between us I noted. Her pointy ears were just one. Her joyous, unhinged naïveté was hopefully another.
    The room held a faint scent of opium, and I noticed small vents against each wall near the floor. Were they there to clear the air, or to pump smoke into the room? I suspected the latter, and applauded my prince’s thinking. They just might be able to get Alexis stoned enough to keep her relatively calm. Hopefully she wouldn’t get the munchies.
    Again I questioned my judgement in bringing her here, in hiding her. It seemed the right decision, but now… Was I putting my goblins in danger? Was I asking too much of them? I should have waited for the Yard and let them take her, but she probably would have killed them all, and then Ophelia would have shot her.
    And I’d have been no closer to the truth. It wasn’t enough to know about the labs and shut them down. I wanted to know what they were doing, why they were doing it – and what part I played in it. Was it really about breeding? Because Alexis didn’t strike me as the maternal type.
    I asked one of