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“I bet he wanted you to kill him. He would have died a martyr if you’d done so,” she said.
Worse, still, a fragment of the king’s soul would have stuck to him forever. Wouldn’t the bastard have loved that—an easy way out but not a permanent end. To whisper in his son’s ear and torment him for the rest of his life.
“I’ve not dismissed you, Orion. We must devise a plan to kill Leir!” the king slurred, hanging crookedly from the shoulder of one of his guards.
Orion paused by the door, resting his hand upon the gold handle. “My name is Arkimedes. After what I just learned, the name you gave me means nothing.”
Nava had been right. In his attempt to hold on to the family he’d never had, he had pushed away the man he’d become on Grey Island. He regretted that he’d allowed this kingdom to suffer during his absence, but he wouldn’t have changed it for the world now. Those precious years in seclusion had made him more human.
Months ago, when the king offered him the chance to take the name he’d been given at birth, to fill the role of prince, he’d been eager to impress. To be wanted by the father who he thought had abandoned him.
He’d wanted to forget all the crimes he had committed in the name of the Crows. Orion was a fresh start. A fit name for the ruler of a kingdom.
But his mother hadn’t abandoned him. She had saved him and given him a chance to survive, to become a better man away from this. And for that, Arkimedes would be eternally grateful.
“He is bringing the demons in,” the king urged. “We have to talk.”
“Not tonight,” Arkimedes said. He didn’t look over his shoulder. What was there for him to see? Nothing. “We will meet tomorrow and discuss how to handle the villain you’ve brought to our doorstep.”
He curled his fingers around Nava’s hand and drew her out into the frigid hallway. The king had little time left, and Arkimedes would not be a part of his life any longer than necessary.
36
ARKIMEDES
Arkimedes needed to be as far away from the king as humanly possible, for the darkness within him still craved retribution. It was hard to silence the spirits of his aura when anger blinded him like it had back in that room.
He and Nava went down a set of long, wide steps until they reached a spacious hall. In the absence of daylight, its towering ceilings made him feel like the tiniest speck. The only illumination was wall sconces holding individual candles on either side and the promise of windows at the far end.
Nava’s breaths came in short, quick puffs that gave away her exhaustion. She hadn’t complained about his punishing pace so far, allowing him a moment of respite as they moved down the king’s wing and toward?—
Where were they?
He slowed down, taking in his surroundings, from the warm gray walls mottled with age to the tall columns and cobwebs that had accumulated in the corners.
“Do you know where we are?” Nava’s voice had turned soft as her brows pinched together in the middle.
Arkimedes shook his head to clear his numb mind. “I don’t think I’ve been here before,” he admitted, dragging his hand over his face.
The space was unfamiliar and cold. Other than being built of the same stone as the rest of the castle, there were few similarities. It was desolate. There were sculptures but no wall tapestries or furnishings. Now that he thought about it, their steps had been echoing down the hall because of the lack of runners.
“Are these your ancestors?” Nava trailed a finger over a marble pedestal that supported an unfamiliar bust of a fae. This male wore a crown of thorns, molded perfectly to his thick, wavy hair with an impressive level of detail that depicted every last crevice of each sharp thorn. It looked very much like his own crown, so this must have been a prince from long ago.
Beside him, the statue of a female fae stood proudly. Both of them appeared young—perhaps in their twenties, although age showed differently in fae than humans.
“I suppose so,” he said with a shrug, looking down the infinite hall. “It makes me wonder if all my family were as conniving as the king or my uncle. It seems to run in the family.”
“Not you,” she said.
Arkimedes nodded, feeling a weight lift off his heart. This time, he believed her. He was definitely not as wicked as them. Even in the Society, he’d never burned his wife alive, the woman who’d birthed his child. Much less threatened to kill an entire city for the sake of vengeance.
“I think you’ll be a great king when the time comes for you to take your place here. We will show this kingdom what true soulmates can do when they work together instead of against each other.”
Arkimedes sucked in a breath. After all that had happened with the pirates, the emissary, and the king, he had never expected that Nava would want to stay in this castle and assume their roles as monarchs. Of course, he had hoped she might, but even though this life called to him, he was ready to leave and never wear the crown again. So this meant a lot. “We are staying, then?”
“Why would I ever want to leave this cozy, lovely place that speaks to me?” She gestured at the creepy hallway with a quirk to her lips.
A laugh escaped him, and he shook his head. “Are you changing your mind because you know the castle is sentient now?”
