The girl looked ready to bolt, but he knew she wouldn’t leave. He was the king, after all. “Why did you steal food?”
Her fist tightened around the top of the sack, and she swiveled toward the counter. “I paid with my credits, Your Grace.”
He chuckled at her stricken expression. Rory would have thrown her food at him, but Brynne sat obediently, maintaining her innocence. “I know that, Miss Taylyr.” She shivered slightly and slowly set her sack of food on the table. “I am asking why you stole food in Erdikoa. The Crown provides its citizens with enough food, does it not?”
She looked ashamed. Not guilty, but ashamed. “Tell me,” he urged quietly.
“I had to trade some of our food credits for moedas.” Refusing to look at him, she prattled on before he could ask questions. “My older brother is aSibyl. He’s almost forty years older than I am. My mother shouldn’t have been able to get pregnant with me at her age, but she did, and the pregnancy took a toll on her body.” A dismal quiet settled over their table until Brynne spoke again, “She was almost seventy-five, you know?”
“She was aFey,” he guessed. They live longer than other mystics, and he’d heard ofFeywomen having children in their sixties, but in their seventies was unheard of.
Brynne nodded. “My father did his best, but it was hard since my older brother is aSibyl. His abilities manifested when I was five, and by the time I was sixteen, I had to drop out of school to care for him.”
Caius didn’t know a simple question would have such a complex answer, and a part of him wished he’d never asked, but the other part of him needed to know why she wasn’t taken care of by The Crown.
“My father was aVisitant,” she continued. Caius wondered if he ever used his abilities on Brynne to provide her with a happier childhood. He hoped so. “He died when I turned twenty-one. I never graduated, and I had trouble finding a job that paid enough to cover our bills and a day nurse for my brother while I worked.”
“And you had to sell your food credits to pay for his care,” Caius concluded, and she swiped at a rogue tear. “Did you go to the mystic services office and petition The Crown? There are programs available to help.”
Her eyes hardened. “I did. They said their funding had been cut drastically, but that they’d put me on their waitlist. Their verylongwaitlist.”
Sitting back in shock, he scratched his jaw as he thought. Why would Gedeon cut the funding to the assistance programs? He didn’t need the money. On top of being the Lux King, each of theRoyalshad an inheritance from their parents. It was what Caius transferred to Rory in Erdikoa.
“Is there anything else you need, Your Grace?” Brynne asked politely.
He looked at the woman, who was so unlike Rory, and smiled to himself. His mate would have liked Brynne and demanded he apologize for making the poor girl cry.
Fuck, he missed her.
“I apologize, Miss Taylyr. The Crown failed you.” He stood andpushed his chair under the table. “Tomorrow morning, find the legion commander and give him your brother’s name. We will look in on him and see that he is taken care of.”
Her hand flew to her chest. “You would do that?”
“The happiness of my subjects is important to me.” With a small wave, he turned to leave. “Have a good afternoon, Miss Taylyr.”
Caius strolleddown the streets of Vincula, watching the inmates go about their day-to-day. He couldn’t stop thinking about his conversation with Brynne. Gedeon’s greed now affected the people of Erdikoa. This was no longer about revenge for his and Rory’s sisters or saving Rory’s life. It was about protecting the people, too.
Everyone thought Gedeon was a decent ruler for the last five-hundred years, but was it possible things were worse than they appeared? If not for Brynne, Caius wouldn’t know about the funding cuts to Erdikoa’s assistance programs. What else didn’t he know about?
“Caius,” Sam’s deep voice called across the street.
Caius smiled and crossed the road they had no use for. There were no carriages or horses in Vincula, but theSeraphimwanted it to be as familiar to the inmates as possible. As time passed, renovations were done to keep up with the changing times.
“Good to see you,” he said to Sam, slapping him on the shoulder. “Lauren told you why I needed you back, I presume?”
“Briefly.” Sam eyed him with scrutiny. “You want to learn tocreateusing the shadows?”
Caius waved at a passing inmate before answering. “Yes. I need something to get through the barrier or break it altogether.”
“I am unsure if your plan is sound,” theAngelremarked as they walked side by side.
An anger Caius rarely experienced toward the commander reared its ugly head. “What other solution have you come up with? From where I’m standing, this is our only lead.” He ran a frustrated handalong the side of his styled hair. “If you aren’t capable of helping, I need to know now.”
“I will try to help. Where did this idea come from?”
Caius gave him the rundown of the information Cat found in the old storybook, and when he finished, Sam looked impressed.
“That was an excellent observation,” Sam replied. “While that story is false, it is rooted in truth. ASeraphdid create the realms for his wife. She’d always wanted children but thought she couldn’t have any, and it was his way of giving them to her.” Sam’s voice grew sad. “The darkness of the universe is a powerful thing.”
