Callius took a hesitant step toward me before falling to his knees on the charred terrain.
He lifted his already fogging eyes to meet mine as blood dribbled from his lips. “What have you done? I taught you everything you know… You were like a son to me,” he rasped out, barely above a whisper as he clutched his wound.
“Apparently not,” I grumbled. “I was not raised in a castle and handed everything on a platter of gold, as yourtrueson was. I was raised in filthy barracks and kicked down more times than I could count before I was able to climb the ranks and make something of myself. You made sure of that,” I hissed, my face twisting into a sneer.
His body swayed to the right as he spit blood at my boots. “I raised you the way any son of mineshouldhave been raised. With honor…dignity…balls,for gods’ sake.” He coughed up more blood as it continued to pour from his wound. “I had no say with Kai. He was to be known as the heir to the throne and sired by Jameson Valderre. Kai knewnothing of it. He was never supposed to. Idina never told him, and we never planned to.”
His wheezing deepened. “You have now taken my only true son from me, my plans I have worked for longer than you’ve even breathed, and now you’ve stolen my life.”
I rolled my eyes at his dramatics. “You have enveloped yourself in the queen’s secrets for far too many centuries, Callius.” I tsked. “I hope her pussy and doting on her every beck and call was worth whatever failing plan you two conjured.”
“You willnotspeak of my mate that way,” he growled viciously. Callius’ lips curled back as if he were an animal.
I barely heard the words as my mind emptied. I couldn’t even form words at what he had just admitted, and then he continued. “And as I said, you stupid fuck, I’m significantly more than just a cock that awaits in her bed.”
“What in the gods’ names did you just say?” I blinked, confusion flooding my every thought.
“Idina is my mate.” Callius lifted his chin to greet death in the face as he confessed his lifelong secret. “Andeverythingwe have done since we were barely older than younglings has been to obtain the crown. Her father? He planned it all.All of it. Aside from assuming his infant daughter wouldn’t have a mate when he promised her to the Valderres, but I made myself useful to keep her near.”
My jaw fell as I lifted my blade once more and aimed it at him.
“Her father’s death,” he spoke again. “Was obviously not part of the plan, either. When everything unfolded, we needed to conjure something entirely new. A new planto take over the throne and Elianna’s birth made that possible.”
I shook my head rapidly from side to side. “I’m not following.”
“The queen’s war opened the doorway for everything her father wanted!” he spat, and out of the corner of my eye, I noticed William lurking behind the other side of the wagon.
His strength slipped, and he nearly face-planted into the ground, barely catching himself with his hands as they slid through the dirt and ash that surrounded us.
“Get up!” I hissed as I shoved at him with my boot, keeping my blade fixated on him.
He sat up once more on his knees, wheezing with almost every breath. “The plan was to kill Jameson in battle, make it look like an accident, or that he was struck by the enemy, but he rarely left the castle. Between that and Salvinae following him around as if he were a lovesick puppy, it was impossible to get him isolated, so after a while, we left it alone. The king was fixated on Elianna and too busy grieving the death of his love to even notice what was going on around him, the old fool.”
Callius huffed out a pitiful excuse of a laugh. “It took over a century to solidify a new plan, and it didn’t come until I stumbled upon that wyvern’s egg out of pure luck as I searched for more mortal camps at her orders. The king’s death couldn’t have foul play suspected, and poison wasn’t an option. Those things take time, but we finally had our chance to seize the throne and Velyra entirely. The queen did everything in her power to make sure our plan worked,and that included keeping our son in the dark regarding his true lineage. We had to wait until the opportune moment. You have no idea what it’s like to be berated by your own child because they believe you arebeneaththem. I have spent over a century dealing with exactly that. Elianna almost once again fucked everything up by being in the king’s ear about ending the war.”
My eyes roamed over his dying body. “If the queen is truly your mate, then how could you stomach it knowing that she entertained his bed?” I questioned.
He let out a wicked chuckle, but there was nothing but wrath within it. “Icouldn’tstomach it, but we had an image to uphold. Surely, if she fell pregnant without having slept with the king, then that would raise alarms with him. It nearly killed me, and I wanted to kill him. I imagined what it would feel like to strangle the life from him every time I was forced to endure the thought. I spent my entire life preparing for those nights. Her father nearly beat it into me so that I would have to grin and bear the agony of it. Everything I have ever done has been for her. Her father tried to keep us apart, but I wouldn’t allow it, so if I wanted Idina, I needed to learn to live with it.”
“If she never cared for King Jameson, then why in the realm would she ban healers? To her own fucking armies!”
Callius eyed me. “Idina doesn’t take kindly to being disrespected. It was her way of punishing Jameson for believing he had a mate in Elianna’s mother and acting out on his feelings about it while she couldn’t. And in the end, they weren’t even gods-damn mates, for he never felt her pain when we killed her.”
I continued to stare at him in disbelief.
“While she never wanted his love, she expected his respect. She even hoped he would occupy himself between the legs of another female one day. We just never expected him to give someone else the firstborn,trueheir.”
He paused and took a few painful breaths. “The wrath of a female scorned could rival that of the gods.”
I was silent for a few moments as I watched him. My mind raced at everything he had thrown at me between his dying breaths. The corner of my lip tilted as my new plan formed.
“…And now I will be leaving her without both her son and mate.” I leaned down closer to him and whispered, “I wonder how easy it will be for me to infiltrate the castle now.”
His eyes flared wide as he moved to stand and make his final move to strike, but instead, I plunged my sword once more down into his sternum, straight through the other side, killing him instantly.
His body went limp and slid down the blade, hitting the ground with athudas I stared down at him, trying to process everything he had admitted to me.
“Captain?”
