Page 24 of Three Dark Kings and the Gilded Serpent

High above me, the sun is cold, as it always is above the Frost Kingdom.

Far behind me, the battering of claws and teeth continues as Fable fights for her place in her pack.

Ahead of me, snowflakes sparkle in the air, the lightest fall.

But within me, a scream pushes at my chest as I fight against a future I’m powerless to stop.

Too soon, we descend the final incline toward the gravestone at the center of the vast field.

Nara slows her pace, coming to a stop beside the circle of warm soil covered in vines. At one end rests the gravestone bearing the names of Stellen’s mother and little sister.

My father is buried here, too.

As soon as Nara stops and lowers herself to the ground, Stellen’s hand presses against my chest.

“Thyra, will you help me down?”

My arms and legs feel numb, not part of me, as I ease Stellen off Nara’s back and to the edge of the warm soil.

He sinks to the vine-covered earth, his legs collapsing slowly, one knee, then the other before he slides fully to the earth, lying on his back, his eyes closed, his breathing labored, his Voice carrying that quiet song of torment.

When I reach for the blade in his chest, still uncertain if removing it will be worse than leaving it in place, his hand catches mine.

“Leave it,” he whispers.

I curl up beside him while Nara sets herself down on his other side, licking at the wound across his ribs and then the cut at his neck, her whimpers soft, as if she feels as powerless as I do.

The sunlight is too bright for my sorrow.

“Thyra.” Stellen’s whisper is faint. Like an echo coming at me from far away. Far beyond the veil between life and death. “I need to tell you something important.”

I turn my face up to his. “You had a brother.”

“We were supposed to fight to the death. While I waited for him in the arena, he killed Mother and Safra.” Stellen’s whisper hardens. “So I tore him apart. My father, too. Along with every other fae in that arena.”

I asked Stellen once if he killed his family, as was the practice in the Frost Kingdom’s royal family. He sidestepped the question. An omission instead of an outright lie.

How could I not know?

The fourth room, the empty one, back at the Rose Room suddenly means something. But I was isolated there, just as Stellen lived in isolation. I barely spoke with anyone except Lilis and she never mentioned his brother at the time. Juniper could have told me…maybe would have told me…but she chose to speak of Stellen’s heart instead.

Like cracking glass, Stellen’s unearthly eyes open and the corners of his mouth turn down, his exhale carrying deep pain and another painful note. “I was too angry. Too broken. I lost myself to grief and I hurt innocent fae. At least there were no children there. No children…”

I catch my breath. “Stellen, you don’t have to⁠—”

“Juniper’s husband.” Icy tears glide down Stellen’s cheeks. “He was there for me. He had no time to run. I repaid his kindness with horrifying pain.”

Stellen warned me he was capable of unforgiveable cruelty and now Lilis’s admonition takes on a heavy implication.

Ask him whom else he killed that day.

I close my eyes. “Lilis’s mother.”

Stellen’s countenance is gray. “Lilis’s father was drunk on thistleberry wine. Someone from her family had to attend the fight or risk offending my father. So her mother went instead. Without her mother, Lilis was no longer protected. I’m responsible for what happened to her after that. She waited a long time for justice.”

He utters a deep exhale, as if he’s expelling the awfulness of these truths. “I need to tell you one more thing⁠—”

“No.” I lurch upward, reaching for his face. “You need to tell me many more things. You need to tell me all the things. Everything.”