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“Keep us updated?” Sundar asked, glancing at Inez with a worried look.
“Of course, but I’m not worried about the situation,” Kristof said firmly, loudly in front of everyone gathered.
“He’s telling the truth,” Sundar declared and nodded. “Good. Let us know if we can help.”
Kristof chuckled darkly. “Thank you, but I have no problem squishing bugs who want to use my princess, declared family or not.” He left it at that and brought us to her tower, clearly intent on getting her tucked in bed.
“You won’t want to be away from her and there’s a lot to do,” I muttered, worried even if he said he wasn’t.
“Right, but it has the best soundproofing, and I don’t think I’m the husband who will be the one to help her with this.” He gave me a hard look as he stepped on the elevator. “Aether is giving you a chance to show your love for our wife is true. Do not fail either of them again.” He glanced past me and made a disgusted noise. “And where is Jaxon?”
Wait, where was Jaxon?
“I haven’t seen him today,” Sebastian said, swearing several times before racing off.
“Tell us,” Kristof ordered Eddie once we were safe in Inez’s lounge and she was tucked in on a chaise lounge.
“Viola was the name of the princess my mother wanted me to give my oath to,” Eddie told us, my knees feeling weak at hearing that. “I never met the princess, only that man, Emil. He was brokering the whole thing like a fucking sale, and not only did I have questions because he wasn’t a noble—I didn’t know it was his sister. It wasn’t like family. It was clinical.”
“And knowing your mother, you weren’t worth explaining it to,” Branko grumbled, nodding when Eddie did.
“It was all kinds of red flags and every instinct in me screaming something was wrong,” Eddie continued. “The guy found me and pulled me to the side making it clear that I would answer to him and he’d let me have what I wanted from this Viola. I told him to fuck off and remember I was a noble. He told me that he was basically and to remember that.
“It was all crazy, and my mother then told me to use my charms and get Viola to agree to be adopted. She was like giddy about it and honestly, it was maybe the most terrifying I’d seen my mother. I told her I didn’t even believe in that practice, and the fact she wanted to lock her own son up like that was—she told me to do it or she would have my head, not just kick me out.”
“That’s not what we were all told,” Moon whispered, his eyes full of horror.
Yeah, I felt the same. It was one thing to kick out a child even for distasteful reasons, but if anyone found out a princess killed her own child for not following her orders… It would be chaos and takeover time.
Eddie gave Moon a dry look. “Yeah, because the rumors and what we’re all told are normally how things really go down, right?” He sighed when several people snorted. “I ran. I grabbed what I could and took off, coming to America and getting papers saying I was a citizen. I joined the military even because I thought my mother would start too much trouble—”
“If she ever tried to drag you back or made good on her threats,” I muttered. “Smart. Very smart, Eddie.”
Sebastian and Ceawlin came in carrying Jaxon with a few of Inez’s knights following.
“He was passed out in his bathroom, vomit all over,” Ceawlin grumbled.
“He got a vision,” I muttered, shivering as I remembered the feeling of the first time. “It was urgent. That’s the nauseous part, that dread. I remember—it had to be a doozy for him to not make it or even be able to call for help.”
Honestly, I wanted to cuss out Aether, but also I was glad She was so involved in protecting Inez. Couldn’t our Goddess seriously come up with something better though?
It took several minutes to get Jaxon settled, Nick and others who loved Inez from the castle getting what he needed but then staying to hear what was going on.
“She met them?” Jaxon whispered, hanging his head in shame when we told him what had happened. “I couldn’t stop it. I was supposed to stop it. I tried so hard, but Aether was so worried that—”
“There’s fucking dried blood by his ear,” Simon cut in. He had fed Jaxon to help him hear but moved so Sebastian could see. “Whatever the vision was, it made your brain fucking bleed so go easy on yourself.”
“I can’t keep failing her,” Jaxon rasped, covering his face. “I never wanted her to be that scared. It was like seeing her when she spun out and lost herself. That’s her greatest fear and I was supposed to stop it.”
“You did the best you could, Son,” Sebastian comforted. “Tell us the rest. Clearly, there was more.”
Jaxon had some more of the ginger tea and let out a huge blech before focusing on me. “You were the one who abducted her.”
“What?” I gasped, my heart beating in my throat as everyone looked at me with a range of expressions.
Jaxon nodded and took another sip. “Aether had you show up and witness Inez’s abuse. She knew if anyone would act, it would be you with how—what your sister went through. You abducted Inez, but someone saw you, and Aether knew people could sense you. She had you run until Inez was of age, it seemed like a month, not long.
“But then Aether erased your memories of it and all of Inez’s memories. She realized you wouldn’t be enough to undo all of Inez’s training and brainwashing, and She had to risk rebooting Inez basically. She wiped the slate clean and trusted Inez to grow into the champion She needed—the world needed.”
