Page 123 of Captive of Secrets and Storms

If King Korrin married the Fae princess, that means all his children…

How many were there? Four? Five?

They were part Fae.

And all of their descendants… They’d be part Fae, too.

My gaze snaps to Anders.

Rumors said Marek hunted down every one of King Korrin’s descendants at the end of the war.

That every time he sent Shadow Fae into our lands, it was to raze towns allegedly harboring anyone with the distant royal bloodline.

But what if that’s not true? What if some of them escaped?

What if some of them escaped to Virendrell?

“Go ahead,” Anders says gently. “Ask your question.”

Impossible.

I have too many.

I lift my chin. “I want to know everything.”

“Good.” A subtle, proud grin curls his lips. “Come with me.”

Names, dates, and ages on the page blur together. One multi-syllable name mingling with another.

I sit at a rectangular table tucked underneath a tall window overlooking the glistening sea surrounding Virendrell. The sun shines through the clean glass, striking the massive book spread out in front of me.

Anders sits across from me, leaning back in an armchair, hands laced over his stomach, eyes closed.

White streaks highlight his blond hair. His handsome features are cast in relief, relaxed. Calm. So unlike the emotions flowing through my veins and settling thickly in my gut.

For on the pages in the book before me rests the lineage of King Ravenspire from the last one hundred years. A lineage that challenges everything I ever thought I knew about the revered human king.

My fingers hover over the names linked by a solid black line at the top of the page.

Korrin Ravenspire — Calla Luminara

Anders wasn’t lying. The Fae princess married the human king.

Below them are three names. Their children. The heirs to both Fae and human thrones. A thin penmark slashes through each of them, conveying their deaths.

But their demise did not occur before each of them created families of their own.

I try to sum the names, but by the time I reach the middle of the page, my mind drifts.

There are so many. Dozens of descendants of the human king and his Fae bride. Every single one of them is dead, their names marred by the same slash.

So many lives were stolen when King Marek seized the throne—so many innocents whose only crime was being born to a forbidden relationship between human and Fae.

A crime that Princess Calla’s father, King Alaric Luminara, overlooked out of love for his daughter.

I lift my gaze. “I’m confused.”

“That is unsurprising.” Anders’s eyes slowly open. “Given how many lies you were fed in your homeland.”