“Kar, there are things that need to be discussed. Things I’ve kept from you,” King Grath said, not moving from his position right in front of me. He was not going back to his throne nor removing his hand, still warming my shoulder.
Son… my son.
“You knew my mother,” I rasped through the tightness in my throat.
The king nodded.
“You know who my father is?”
The king nodded again, but if he was going to discuss it with me now, he didn’t.
“Who is Heriot?”
All eyes turned to Isay, since she was the one to mention the fae’s name. They expected her to explain. The king didn’t know everything, after all. I couldn’t look at Isay, wasn’t ready to see the accusation in her eyes.
“Heriot is a life fae that shares the force of his ecos with females from any court as long as it has a chance to produce a descendant. He was Elia’s father. Your grandfather.” Isay’s voice was so soft I raised my eyes to her despite myself. She glanced at Queen Siya, biting her lip in uncertainty. “Elia said… she said he is my father, too.”
“No, he isn’t,” the queen responded sternly.
“No?” Isay gasped, a perplexing mixture of emotions playing across her features, some of them seeping through our bond. Relief, agony, exhilaration, grief. I got a taste of the blend before she shut it off. “Who then?”
A stillness filled the room. Sinister shifted on his feet, disturbing the momentary quiet. Regar watched it all play out as if we were in a soap opera, although I doubted he found any delight in the scene.
“You were bound to find out sooner or later,” Queen Siya sighed. “Especially since he’ll be attending the council meeting tomorrow morning.”
A high fae. Her father must have been a high fae of Hessian court to be attending the council meeting.
“His name is Nefari. Unlike the male you described, he does not go around sharing his ecos. He is not permitted to.”
Nefari, as in Prince Nefari? Isay was royalty by blood, just not by Vindican blood.
“What?” Isay asked in astonishment, coming to the same conclusion.
“I believe several matters are to be discussed,” King Grath repeated. “Hiko, Kar, why don’t you join me in my study? Siya, dear, I trust you’ll tend to Isay’s needs in the meantime. Once this misunderstanding is resolved, we’ll come back to the nature of her relationship with one of my sons. I gather we both approve of the mating, unannounced as it was. There is no stronger union than their pairing, if they so choose to proceed.”
I was left staring at the back of Isay’s head as the queen guided her out of the room. Isay met my eyes, questions burning behind her stormy gaze just before the door separated her from me.
“Kar, Hiko?” The king gestured towards a different exit, one closer to his study. “The rest of you are dismissed.”
More questioning glances were flipped around our group as I took an indecisive step in the direction the king was walking, Hiko right beside me.
“What just happened?” he muttered under his breath.
I raised one of my shoulders in a poor attempt at a shrug. My voice would betray me should I attempt to speak.
I had a hairy suspicion as to what the king was about to say. After he’d called me ‘son’ two and half times I had a very, very clear hunch as to what this conversation was headed toward. A boom and a crash, that’s what. As if I hadn’t suffered enough today.
I was about to hear that my now only surviving parent had not claimed me to maintain his image. Indeed, what the hell had just happened?
Chapter 43
ISAY
I’D FORGOTTEN ALL ABOUT MY PHYSICAL PAIN AND THE STATE I WAS in, but it all came back to me as my mother steered me up the stairs to my assigned rooms. On the way up, my limping worsened with every step I pulled myself up with, so she stopped a maid carrying fresh linen.
“Please send for a physician,” my mother ordered her gently.
The woman took one look at me, placed her linen on a display cupboard just below the staircase, and rushed off to wherever physicians gathered at this hour.
“I’m fine,” I muttered, wincing through the pain as I leaned on the hurt leg for too long.
“Let him make that assessment.” Mother waited for me on the landing, attempting to make that assessment for him, inspecting me the way Karmuth had in the warehouse. “You always were astonishingly resilient, Isay. The way Kar screamed when they tortured you… It couldn’t have been easy. You can allow vulnerability to show. A woman’s greatest weapon is to appear weaker than anyone suspects.”
I raised a brow at her and scoffed, “Is that what you’re doing? Pretending to be weak?”
“I’ve never been as strong as you are, darling.”
“You’re saying you don’t have to pretend, you only want me to appear weaker.” I shook my head.
“Isay, that is most definitely not the case. All I’m saying is to let others take care of you should they choose to do so. Karmuth is a capable young man, a fine match. I couldn’t have chosen any better for you.”
“Mom!” My cheeks heated up and I avoided looking at her. It was easy to do occupied with stumbling up the stairs as I was.
She hooked my arm with hers when I reached the landing, nose crinkling only a little at the way I smelled. Keeping step with my wobbling gait, she shook her head light-heartedly.
“Don’t you go evading the topic! I do know how mating bonds are formed. Yours is very strong, and you should cherish it. Not many fae your age manage to find a mate this competent. Even females my age have trouble forging a bond such as yours.”
“I’ve heard,” I admitted quietly, a blush warming up my cheeks.
