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Hevdrin was a tall man who liked to clean his weapons when he was deep in thought. He didn’t speak often, but when he did, people listened.
Madinia was still in a terrible mood. I’d attempted to talk to her twice now, and she’d shut me down. I was relatively sure the only reason she was attending this little meeting was because she hadn’t otherwise left her tent since the moment she’d dropped a king’s ransom of gold at my feet.
“You’re traveling to your kingdom the day after tomorrow,” Conreth remarked.
“Yes,” I said. “As you suggested.” I was just a poor, silly young girl, here to be led by rulers much older and wiser than me.
He smiled, as if he’d expected nothing less.
I smiled back. One day, I would make him pay for everything I suspected he had done to Lorian.
That day wouldn’t be today. Pasting on my most placid expression, I took a deep breath. “I’d like to know about the barrier.”
Conreth sighed. “This isn’t the first time your people or mine have attempted to receive help from other continents. Almost four hundred years ago, when the human king learned an army was finally coming to challenge him, he gifted the boy then known as his son with stolen power—so much that his body could barely contain it. With his most loyal men, Regner traveled out into the sea, until he could glimpse the armada from the continent on the horizon.”
My stomach churned. Part of me wished I could hide from whatever I was about to hear.
“He followed the book’s instructions, used its ancient magic, and slit the boy’s throat,” Conreth said, and for the first time, his eyes glinted with sorrow. “The explosion of power allowed him to create the barrier.”
My heart hurt. The boy hadn’t been his son, but he’d been treated as Regner’s child just the same. And yet Regner had slaughtered him like a pig. “Why didn’t the fae take it down?”
“We have…enemies in other kingdoms. Ancient discords that ensure we always have to be wary of threats.”
“And you decided the barrier could benefit you.”
“Not at first. I was not yet king then,” he reminded me. “I hadn’t even been born. The fae will never be ruled the way of humans. There are wild creatures in these lands—creatures so old and so powerful that to kill them would be a challenge even for me.”
I’d be willing to bet Lorian could do it.
Conreth smirked, as if reading my mind. “My brother would never admit it, but he adores the wildkin. They’re brutal and arrogant, cunning and wicked.”
Just like Lorian.
Conreth left the words unspoken, but he gave me a knowing look.
Demos cleared his throat. “So, the barrier would protect you from your enemies across the oceans.”
Conreth’s expression tightened. “Yes. If the fae could only be convinced to fight as one, we would lay waste to any who attempted to harm us. But that will never happen. At best, we cooperate only when necessary to prevent catastrophic bloodshed.”
Conreth met my eyes. “You remember I told you one of the amulets belonged to a powerful family who hid the disappearance from the rest of the fae.”
I nodded.
“They should have notified the king immediately. Instead, they chose to hide their shame, ensuring the fae didn’t know the amulet was missing until too late—when the barrier had been in place for several days. A century later, we learned another boy would be sacrificed.”
“The fae tried to stop the sacrifice?” Asinia asked.
“Yes. But Regner had learned how to make the most of his sacrifice. He ensured the boy he called son was exposed to more and more power over the years, building that power up—including his tolerance. This made the sacrifice even more powerful.”
I rubbed at my temple, where a headache had begun throbbing. “So, wherever Regner’s false son is now, it’s likely he’s trapped, brimming with power his body can barely hold, and about to be sacrificed so Regner can reinforce the barrier, pretend to die, and take his place.”
We had to find Jamic. The boy who’d been raised as the king’s son. Not just because he was the only way we’d have a chance to bring that barrier down…
But because he’d been used by the king. Would be killed by the man he called father.
Did he know it was coming? Or did he truly think he would rule one day? Would he believe that right up until the moment Regner slit his throat?
The horror of it crushed my chest until I could barely breathe. But I forced myself to gaze at my family and friends gathered in this tent. All of them willing to go to war with me.
