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“Yes, of course, I’m sure. The spell must still be clouding your minds. I was talking to the three of you about going with Roxbury, when Prince Chandler surprised us by already being onboard along with King Harrison and he overheard my whole little speech. He said he’d come over while we were fighting with each other on the Fancy Lady, on the same boat as Harrison, and he heard everything.”
“Seems like the spell was already working by then if you all forgot,” Rory said. “Why would someone want all of you to do that and why didn’t Brandon forget it?”
“The same reason they clouded your minds over it,” I said. “And Brandon must have been immune to it, or very nearly, the same as I was.” I glanced over at him. “It must have been the blood magic we have. It helped me survive the capsizing.”
He nodded and Lex and the others just looked confused. “You keep saying that, but we have no idea what blood magic even is.”
“All right, let me back up a little. Before I saw you again, I took Brandon to a healer on Igella. He lives in Banshira’s Cave near the sea.”
“Grimora?” Lex asked in a shocked voice. “I thought he’d been dead for years.”
Brandon shook his head. “No, he’s still around. Still in his cave with Banshira.”
“Banshira?” Rory said, looking surprised. “But that’s just legend. There’s no such thing. Not really. Is there?”
“Yes,” Brandon said. “He’s real and we met him and Grimora, who said I had an injury in my brain from the attack in Crillia. He said it would get progressively worse, but there was one loophole—Roxbury.”
Lex could sound really imperious when he put his mind to it. I think he learned it as a child, in his father’s court, and he gave us one of those regal commands of his.
“Explain.”
“Grimora said that the reason Roxbury and I had always felt the way we do for each other had to do with our natures. Even though we’re both Alpha, we have a bond that we were born with. It’s like fated mates. It can’t be broken by anything—neither time, nor distance. He said it was called blood magic and would only get stronger in time. And that if we shared certain… bodily fluids, then Roxbury might be able to heal me. Have you heard of this before?”
“Bodily fluids?” Wyatt said, his eyes wide. “Oh gods.”
“I’ve heard of it,” Asher said, ignoring Wyatt. “Or I’ve read about it in a few arcane old books of magic. But it’s found more in the north. In the Verian Empire, above Crillia.”
“My mother is Verian,” I said, and everyone stared at me.
“So was my grandmother,” Brandon said. I looked over at him with surprise, and he shrugged. “She was. On my mother’s side.”
Brandon turned back to Lex and his cousins. “Grimora said people with the blood magic could and sometimes did hate each other too and become powerful enemies. He said strong marriages and alliances could result from it, but powerful dislike too, and the two people might only want to destroy each other.”
I looked over at Wyatt. “Any chance you have any Verian relatives, Wyatt?”
Brandon kicked my shin, making me yelp. “Ow. I was just asking, dearie.”
Lex smothered what I thought might be a smile with his hand. I wondered if I was winning him over. He tried to steer us back to our discussion again. “Then if it was Roxbury they were trying to kill, that would actually make a lot more sense. With Roxbury dead, Brandon would be free to marry the prince.”
Rory nodded. “You did say he’d already approached you again, even so soon after what happened at sea. He had to know you were still grieving. What’s the big hurry? Why is he so anxious to get married so quickly?” Almost immediately, he gasped and stared at Brandon, and I knew he must have guessed. I thought I might know too.
I could see Brandon was feeling really uneasy, because he’d made the prince a promise not to tell anyone. “Please stop. I promised Chandler I wouldn’t say anything.”
“But things are different now, Brandon,” Lex said. “Whoever wanted Roxbury dead will still want that same outcome, so Roxbury will be in danger until we find out who this is.”
“Oh, my goodness,” Rory said, and Lex turned toward him.
“What? Do you know something?”
“I’m just worried about Chandler. I think I know the secret. He’s going to have a baby, isn’t he?”
Brandon didn’t answer, which I suppose was an answer all in itself. I grabbed his arm.
“Whose baby is it?” I demanded.
Brandon rolled his eyes at me. “Well, not mine. You should know better than to ask me that.”
“How would I know? You were engaged to him when we met up again.”
