Page 98 of Fate of the Sun King

“I learned something else from the Staff,” I say, biting the corner of my lip. “About Tristan.”

Nadir’s gaze turns shrewd. “You should talk to him first.”

“Thank you,” I say, grateful he understands the need to speak to my brother alone. It wouldn’t be fair to Tristan.

“Is that all?” he asks.

“There’s something else about my grandmother,” I admit.

“What about her?”

“She did it on purpose, Nadir. Her mother. The priestess. They all warned her it wouldn’t work. That she was destined for ruin. She tried to take the magic of Heart, and she did it. She stole the Crown off her mother’s head and tried to take it. None of it was an accident. Or at least not in the way people assume.”

Nadir is quiet for a moment, and I listen to the crackle of the fire and the stirring of the leaves in the breeze.

“What bothers you the most about knowing that?”

The question forces me to consider several options. What is bothering me?

“I suppose it’s knowing that she was selfish and didn’t care what happened to anyone else in her desire for power. When Rhiannon told me about her, none of her stories painted my grandmother in the most flattering light. I thought maybe she was just young and foolish, but after seeing what really happened, now I’m not so confident about that.”

“But you understand none of that is a reflection on you and the person you are?”

Zerra, how does he always see straight through me?

“Isn’t it, though? They already curse her name throughout Ouranos, and they don’t even know the whole truth. What do you think everyone will believe of me if they learn this too?”

Nadir leans down and presses a soft kiss to the space below my ear. “They’re going to judge you for the queen you are. Not the one that died centuries ago.”

My answer is a wary look.

“Right. Because I’m sure you’ve never been judged against the evidence of your father’s actions.”

“That’s different,” he says, his jaw clenching. “My father is still alive and very much indulging in said ‘actions,’ but your grandmother lived many years ago. They can judge me because I am his son and have been under his thumb for my entire life.”

His eyes darken with some unvoiced trauma, and I decide not to push him on what he’s saying, knowing there are things he hasn’t shared with me yet. Perhaps in time he will. Still, I’m not sure how it’s actually different, and I am positive no one will overlook what my grandmother did. Everyone wants a scapegoat for the wrongs done to them, and if it can’t be her, then it will be the one who wears her crown.

I lean my head against his shoulder and let out a sigh. His arm wraps around me, his hand running up and down my arm.

“Nadir?”

“Yes, Lightning Bug?”

I peer up at him, and he cocks a smile.

“What?” he asks.

“That’s going to take some getting used to. You calling me that. Us like this.”

There’s a brief flash of uncertainty in his expression, and I sit up, taking his face in my hands.

“I don’t mean that in a bad way. Just that we’ve been one thing since the day we met, and now we’re something else. And it’s just like that. There was no transition. From enemies to mates.”

The last word echoes in the silent clearing. A promise and an oath.

“You were never my enemy, Lor. I never saw you that way, even when I was tearing my hair out in the manor house because you were driving me insane.”

I snort out a laugh. “You had just kidnapped me.”