Page 90 of Fate of the Sun King

The Staff pauses. The arks are objects of immense power, but many were taken.

“Where do I find them? What are they? Taken by who?”

She who was there knows.

“There? You mean…”

I mean when the Heart Queen tried to take too much.

I swallow hard. “Who was there?”

One of Zerra’s blessed sat at the feet of my lost king.

“What do you mean?”

I can show you. If you like.

“Yes.” The word escapes in a whispered breath with a pulse of anticipation.

Show me. Can I see what really happened that day? A bend in the air around me tells me that what I witness next is about to change everything, yet again.

A moment later, the scene melts away, and I’m standing inside a castle with white marble covering the floor and walls.

A group huddles together in a corner, and a baby cries, and then I see it all. My grandfather Wolf holds a child in his arms while my grandmother watches from the settee where she lies. She’s covered in sweat and surrounded by a group of women cleaning up the blood between her legs. She’s clearly just given birth to a child.

To my mother.

I almost choke on my grief, a strangled sob threatening to drown me. I can’t tear my eyes away as I take in her round face and her soft limbs. My mother.

No one marks my presence, and it becomes obvious I’m not really here. I’m watching this scene only as it happened.

Another woman, with dark hair and wearing the Heart Crown, speaks in hushed tones with Wolf. Daedra. My great-grandmother.

She moves to the door and speaks with someone beyond it before a pair of guards enters the room. A noise diverts my attention to another figure lying on the floor.

A woman balled up with her arms wrapped around her knees rocks back and forth, babbling to herself. She looks like she’s been through hell. There’s something vaguely familiar about her, but I can’t put my finger on it. This must be the High Priestess.

My attention redirects once again as the scene flashes in and out of my vision. Wolf is now transferring the baby to his guards as my great-grandmother looks on. Tears streak his face, and my heart cracks apart at the depth of his loss. It breaks for my mother, who never had the chance to know her parents at all. And for all of us who would never get the chance to know one another.

The guards prepare to leave, but my great-grandmother stops them and unhooks the chain around her neck. A red jewel glints from it, and my breath hooks into my throat. I know that jewel. I spent half my life protecting it. That’s how my mother got it. Why did my great-grandmother give a piece of it away? What was the purpose of that?

After the guards leave with my mother, a blast rocks the room, and a ball of light hovers outside like a star drawing too close. The unmistakable colorful ribbons of light tell me it is Aurora magic. Rion is here.

The scene warps as my grandmother levers herself up from the sofa. She’s surprisingly nimble for a woman who just gave birth. She snatches the Crown from her mother’s head and places it on hers, the steely glint in her eyes veering from lucid to manic.

I don’t need to hear every word to understand that my grandmother stole that crown.

She tried to take the magic of Heart.

My blood turns to ice as I bear witness to this unspeakable crime. One that was scrubbed from history because no one knew.

And now, I’ve been granted this glimpse that has become my curse to bear.

My grandmother grabs the High Priestess by her collar, dragging her to the center of the room as the woman babbles incoherently. My grandmother stares down at her with such naked loathing that something twists in my chest. It’s clear she’s balancing on the edge, ready to tip, and nothing will stand in her way.

She rips a book from the woman’s pocket and then flips to a marked page. Wolf joins her as she begins to recite a series of lines, and it’s then I truly comprehend what else I’m witnessing.

This was the moment. This was the end.