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Clay ran a soft hand over Lacey’s forehead, leaning down he kissed her cheek. He then turned back to me. “She wanted her away from me as she thought that nobody outside of these walls would know who she was. She became Dan’s daughter. We made no special announcements about her and that’s why we called her Sunshine outside of the oak perimeter. We also veiled her to hide her aura.”
“To hide her from the dark king?” I asked.
Clay nodded. “All the kings, Kane. If they found out when she was younger, they would have been wars to claim her. Her mother was right, and we had to do anything to protect her. Unfortunately, it meant I lost her.”
“And the bind between you and her mum?” I asked.
“Her love for Lacey overtook the bind. She wanted to protect her for as long as possible, and that was her way of doing it. Be with someone who was not high in the kingdom.”
“Your brother? I thought...”
“He never was. It’s not a given when the child is born that they’ll follow the royal line and Dan didn’t, and that was why I wanted you to be the father of Lacey’s child. The chances were much higher.” Clay smiled a tight smile.
“Is he magical? Is he even powerful?”
He nodded. “Magical yes, Powerful, no. Elizabeth, Lacey’s mother, is more powerful than Dan because I bound her to me. But Lacey’s life became endangered because my so-called safe brother drilled into Lacey all her magic, which infuriated me. He was desperate for it to work. He nurtured it too early and because he did, he had to make a deal with the dark king.”
“A deal?” I narrowed my gaze at him. “Your brother did that?”
“Yes, one day Dan and Elizabeth told me they were adopting a boy, and I was shocked and probably a little angry that an outsider was going to be so close to Lacey. They argued he was a child.”
“The dark king sent Lucas?” I blew out a breath. “Did you get rid of Lucas?”
“Yes, I did. Many times he tried to lure Lacey outside the Perimeter. She recalled one time in a dream. He befriended Carter to make it seem it was Carter, but I unravelled the dark magic from him, and he was a human, not supernatural at all.” Clay glanced at Lacey and lowered his voice a little. “I sent him to live with a couple in the North and I hope he now leads a normal life and remembers nothing at all.”
I tried to hold in a gasp, but one slipped out. “Lacey’s parents accepted Lucas into the family on purpose?”
“My brother, in his wisdom, made a deal with the dark king to not take her until she was eighteen. The dark king agreed, providing Lucas was put into the family. It was his way of protecting his interest.”
“Eighteen...”
“You know, as a knight you were ready to protect from the age of eighteen, that was the reason. The original agreement was eighteen. I renegotiated, but I didn’t know if he would keep the deal.”
“I’m surprised he agreed.”
“Remember, I was going to cast a lifelong spell on her to love no one.”
Tears sprang to my eyes at that.
“The dark king wants Lacey to love him. He would never have taken the risk,” Clay said.
“And her mother? Why did she agree with it?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “She claims she never knew.”
I glanced at Lacey as I realised it was her parents, the people she loved so dearly. They were the ones to make the deal, and all along, Clay had been trying to save her.
“I should never have allowed her mother to take her.”
“I’m sure you thought it was better for her to be with her mother,” I said. “What caused the chain of events to fake their deaths?”
Clay walked to the corner of the room and one by one brought two chairs back, positioning them next to Lacey. I took a seat, and he did. Clay picked up Lacey’s hand and held it.
“They were taking too many chances with her and the dark king nearly took her twice when she was at outside tournaments.” He nodded to me. “One of those times was after she fought you because I had just got rid of Lucas. And then the whole New York thing unfolded and I was furious they’d planned it behind my back without me knowing.”
“So it wasn’t about Carter and Lacey?” I whispered.
“That couldn’t happen, but I used it to my advantage. I told her parents what was going to happen that night. They had two options, go along with it...”
