Page 18 of Sky’s Edge

That being, not only a prince of that realm, but its rightful future king.

I, like everyone (especially females), had been fascinated for years by the brooding, tragic figure of Prince Tanyn of Sky’s Edge.

Also, I, like everyone (and that would just be everyone), admired how he comported himself through this, fought for his place after his father’s death—ethically, lawfully and patiently—and won his rightful status.

What I had not done, specifically recently, was let my mind go to what all he’d endured must have taken from him. How it had to affect him. How harmful it had to be.

His mother had passed before his father, many said from a broken heart, because she’d died very young for a demon (or even a human), and there’d never been an official statement of how that came to pass.

Now, he was an orphan. His only sibling was a murdering, pedophilic, now-deposed-and-incarcerated tyrant.

And unlike all the other realms, the monarch of Sky’s Edge had more than just voting powers in the Center.

They had a democracy. They had a legislature with elected officials. They had a Premier.

But the buck stopped at Tanyn.

He could intervene. He could veto. He could introduce his own laws, and unless the legislature voted against them with a ninety-five percent decision, they would pass.

Arnaud had used these things for nefarious, frightening, and sometimes disgusting reasons (like lowering the age of consent of females to ten years old).

For the past three weeks, Tanyn had been in the thick of disentangling all this mess, overturning Arnaud’s most morally despicable edicts and setting his realm to rights.

Obviously, there was a good deal of work to be done, but he didn’t dally in diving right in to do it.

I didn’t want to think about any of this either.

I refused to be fascinated by King Tanyn.

And I definitely refused to admire him.

“It isn’t yet my place to intervene in your family dynamics,” Tanyn brought my attention from thinking about him to talking to him. “It also is. I’m simply saying, it’s something to think about.”

“Right,” I replied, before I noted, “I thought you weren’t calling about that.”

“I lied.”

He said this dispassionately.

Then again, he was full demon.

Of course he lied effortlessly.

“Dad and I have had these situations before.” Not this bad, I did not share. “We’ll get over it.”

“Good.”

“I have a spa-visor program to finish,” I informed him. “Are we done talking?”

“Is that what that thing was?”

“You’ve never seen a spa-visor?”

“I’m a male.”

I scoffed. “Males use spa-visors.”

“Not this male.”