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My eyes widened as they took in all three of the boys, kneeling in a neat row, with their chins down.
The one in the middle was the biggest—and oldest, I assumed. Espen, Laith had said his name was. He hadn’t mentioned the name of the other brother, who was the littlest one, furthest from Laith and I. The one beside me was clearly a younger version of the king I’d claimed on the beach earlier. Espen couldn’t have been more than twelve, and and the youngest couldn’t have been older than five or six.
All three of their heads were bowed. There was anger in the expressions of both Laith and his younger brother, but Espen’s was hard, his emotions concealed.
“Surely Laith wasn’t responsible for any of the noise,” the cruel-faced woman purred. “Espen and Namir will take the punishments, as they deserve.”
I didn’t know what they were talking about, but had a sinking feeling in my chest when I saw the fear that crossed little Namir’s expression.
“Fine. I’ll take the middle child while you deal with the other two.” The man took the woman’s hand and pressed his lips to the back of her palm. My gaze trailed over the markings on their throats; the pair were fated mates, evidently.
The panic in Laith’s eyes as he followed his father out of the room broke my fucking heart.
And the horrors that followed that walk out almost made me grateful for the prison that had been my home for so long. Because I’d been hurt, in every way a person could be hurt… but those lifting their hands to me weren’t my family. They weren’t the people who were meant to love and protect me.
The things Laith’s parents had done to their own children…
No one deserved that.
And I was fucking glad that they were dead, because people like them could turn even me into a murderer.
I pushedLaith’s magic to skip over most of the memories of his childhood. I saw the way his mother made him believe she loved him, even though she abandoned him to his father’s cruelty. I saw the way she pitted him against his brothers, preferring him because he held lunar magic and they didn’t. I saw enough of the king and queen to be fucking grateful they were gone.
But I didn’t skip over the moment Laith took that last hit from his father. The one that pushed the teenager over his limits—the one that lit a fury in his eyes.
I watched as his magic flared, as he used every ounce of his lunar power to hold his father down and break the mind of the man who had done so much wrong to him, ending his life.
Tears tracked down my cheeks as I watched Laith collapse over his father’s body, sobbing and apologizing as the throne’s magic split into three and dispersed itself between the brothers.
Pain clutched my chest when I watched him rise, and lie to his brothers.
His father had just collapsed, he claimed.
They didn’t know enough about his magic to disagree.
The funeral followed.
Then Akari, Diora, and me.
And then, more horrors began.
When I finally slid out of the man’s memories, I was on my knees in the sand. Tears still soaked my cheeks.
Laith hadn’t done anything wrong. He had been fighting for his life for as long as he lived, but while his other two brothers had each other’s backs, he had no one except his cruel, horrible mother.
And he had ended her life, too.
After him and his brothers had begun fighting, his magic had gotten uncontrollable, and horrible things had happened, but that wasn’t his fault any more than the abuse was. He had learned to control his magic as quickly as possible, but he had never actually expected to inherit his father’s power. Not when he had despised the man so damn much.
The power had been too much, the memories had been constant unpleasant reminders, and truly awful things had occurred.
But through all of it, Laith had done everything he could to stay strong. To stay alive.
And if that was a sin, it was one every fae in Bluhm had committed.
I slidout of Laith’s mind as soon as I felt steady enough to manage it. When I came to, the king and I were in the same place we had been when I entered his mind.
I turned around and pulled myself up onto the man’s lap, straddling him. My knees dug into the sand as I took his face in my hands, pulling his mouth to mine.
