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“Your father would have never given up your mother. Not even to the king himself,” I state knowingly.
“You’re right. He wouldn’t. Neither would any righteous man who loved his wife,” Levi says assuredly. “The north may think differently when it comes to their women, but us? Here in the east? Women are not bargaining chips, nor are they something to be traded off. Not even if that trade guarantees your life. For what is a life without your heart? That is who my mother was. Not only to my father, but to his kingdom. There was no possible way he or the east could depart from their queen.”
I swallow dryly and turn to face Levi once more, his gaze never having left me.
“So what did your father do in response?” I ask, knowing that whatever it was wasn’t enough if both of them are now dead because of it.
“The only thing he could do. If King Orville had obviously gone mad, then he was no longer worthy of the throne. So my father rallied his troops and called on his allies to help him rid the world of such oppressing force.”
“Save his wife while gaining a crown. Doesn’t seem all that romantic to me when you put it like that,” I interject, angry that diplomacy wasn’t even on their scope of alternatives.
“Romantic?” Levi chokes out the word like it’s a curse. “What room is there for romance when lives are involved? No. My father did not want the crown for himself, only that it no longer belonged to yours. Once my father was able to bring down Orville from his high seat, the kingdoms would have to come to a consensus as to who would be his successor. My father had even made his feelings known that if it were up to him, the north should still rule.”
“You mean—” I stutter, flabbergasted, not expecting Levi to insinuate such a thing.
“Yes.” He nods. “As far as he was concerned, you were to keep your birthright. His war wasn’t with you or the north, per se. It was with your king.”
“So what happened?” I ask hurriedly, fully invested in his tale of woe and sorrow.
“What always happens when power is at play—betrayal,” Levi explains, hatred once again tainting the gorgeous hue in his eyes. “My father trusted the wrong people. People that he considered not only allies, but friends. He wasn’t the only one,” he growls, his teeth grinding so hard I can hear them clatter. “They came to our home under the guise of forming a plan with my father that would ensure our victory, only to butcher us in the dead of night. They murdered my mother first and then killed my father next. They did it in that order because your father insisted mine see his love die before his very eyes. It was sadistically cruel how they waited and held my father back by his arms as he suffered for his loss. Unable to touch her. Unable to kiss her goodbye. They waited. And laughed. And joked. And desecrated her body in front of him before cutting off his head. That was what they did! That was what your father ordered them to do!”
My eyes begin to water at the imagery of such a scene.
“If…” I stammer, emotion getting the better of me. “If this is all true, and my father was such a villain, then that must mean that he is responsible for Teodoro’s and Atlas’s parents’ death also.”
I don’t miss how Levi’s nostrils flare in utter contempt at the mention of the southern king.
“What your father did or did not do to them, is not my story to tell. But hear this now and hear me true. If Orville has blood on his hands, then Teo is soaked in it.”
My brow furrows at that ominous remark. I open my mouth to ask what he means by it, but Levi shakes his head, closing the door on that conversation.
“I’ve said more than enough for one day. Having to go back to that place brings out the worst in me. And I’ve treated you too poorly as it is.”
Levi begins to lightly caress my neck, his sullen emerald eyes losing its shine with each tender touch. I hate that he believes his anger hurt me. It didn’t. Not when it was the catalyst I needed for him to confess the reason behind his loathing of me and the north.
And then it suddenly occurs to me.
In his recounting of events, both he and his father were reacting to what my father had done to them. I was never viewed as a threat or a danger. So why have I gained that same hatred toward me?
“Why did you march north?” I ask outright. “Your quarrel was with my father. If your intention was to seek revenge, then why not do it when he was still living? Why aim your thirst for vengeance on me?”
Levi doesn’t so much as bat an eye at my accusation.
“Because through it all, you didn’t lift a finger to help us.”
“I didn’t know. Any of it. I didn’t know any of it. If I had, I would have done something. Anything to prevent it.”
His gaze digs into mine as if trying to decipher if I’m telling him the truth or not.
I am.
If I had a whisper of an inkling to what the east had to endure under my father’s rule, I would have done something. What, I’m not sure. But I was never given the chance to either.
His now stern expression never wavers, but neither do the small caresses his thumb makes on the side of my neck.
“Once my parents were gone,” he begins to explain, “your father made sure to keep his spies spread throughout my kingdom. I never knew who to trust. I never knew if I could trust you. But through the years, I kept a list. A list of everyone I believed to be loyal to the north and its king. When news arrived that the king was dead, my first order was to gather up all my suspects and drag a sword through their wretched hearts. I would not be betrayed again,” he says with a chilling snarl. “And then I waited. I waited for your coronation to see what type of queen you would be. And when no decree was sent abolishing the law that sent infants to the battlefield, I had my answer.”
“You could have abolished such a thing from continuing to happen. You didn’t!”
