“She never figured it out, did she?”
“Never figured out what?”
“She is thedaughterof a god, princeling,” Lord Astoria sneers. “Her blood is more gold than anyone else’s in our kingdom.”
My palms start to sweat, and I wipe them on my pants. Shit.
Lord Astoria laughs bitterly. “I see you understand. By our kingdom’s law, she is the rightful ruler. If your father were to find out, he would dispose of her without a second thought.”
I palm my face, hating that he’s right.
“I did what I had to do to keep her safe,” he spits venomously. “And without fail, every few years, you’d come back into her life and ruin everything.”
“No one can know,” I reply, my voice low and menacing.
“You don’t think I’m aware of that?”
“Please explain, then, why you allowed your bitch of a wife to come into my home and risk everything out of, what? Some petty ploy to bribe her way into a more powerful position at court?” I lean forward and yell in his face, “You were okay with her having your daughter assaulted?”
“Do you actually think I wanted that?” he yells back, wiping spit out of his eyes. “That never should have happened!”
“You’re a foolish man, Lord Astoria.”
He scoffs.
“If I find out you had anything to do with the attack on my wife, I will hang you myself,” I growl menacingly, then hold my marriage bond up to his face. “I will not leave her. This is binding.”
Lord Astoria sighs, slouching back into his seat. “It does pose quite a problem.”
“Can you undo it? The memory poison?”
His eyes glitter with something I can’t quite identify. “I cannot undo anything.”
“But is there a way for her to get her memories back?” I demand.
Lord Astoria shrugs. “Not that I know of.”
I slump in defeat. He’s given me nothing of real value, and I’m even more confused about how to move forward. “Something I haven’t been able to figure out is why you didn’t erase her memories after your wedding ball. I saw her then, and she remembered me when I returned.”
Lord Astoria grimaces. “Perhaps that was a mistake on my part, but I had to leave, and the last thing I wanted was for her to wake up and not remember I’d been bound to a new woman. I told Olivia to keep you away from her, but clearly, that didn’t work out. The tonic would have kept her symptoms at bay if you’d done as you were told.”
“Do you even care about what you’ve stolen from her all these years?” I ask, remembering the pain in Raelyn’s eyes at having lost so much time.
“I don’t expect you to understand the choices I’ve made.” He picks a piece of lint off his coat. “Now, if I were you, Your Highness,” he says, voice dripping with sarcasm, “I’d find a way to get you and your lovely wife exiled far from here so that your father never finds out the truth. I don’t think it’s possible to suppress her godhood much longer, but you should still put her back on the tonic to prolong it. I fear the truth will come out if you stay here.”
My heart sinks. As much as I’d love to steal Raelyn away and never return, I can’t abandon my people. Things are only getting worse, and if I leave without finding a solution to our missinggod problem, they are doomed. Despite his fears, there is no way I am going to keep this from her or poison her without her knowledge.
“I’d take this unfortunate event as a blessing in disguise,” Lord Astoria continues. “Have you told her about her heritage yet?”
I frown. “With all the shit she’s had to deal with? I haven’t gotten to that reveal yet.”
“It’s probably for the best.” Lord Astoria’s lips form a thin line. “But you should still get her out of here.”
“How doyouknow what she is?” I can’t help but ask. “How did you, of all people, end up with custody of the daughter of a god?”
Before he answers, my research about the lost god comes back to me. I’m an idiot. I should have seen this sooner.
An almost wistful look crosses his face. “Not that it’s any of your business . . . but her mother. I loved her.”
