“I was not your protector immediately, but… when assassins came for your parents?—?”
“Assassins?” I cut in. “Human assassins?”
“No, Your Maj— Isolde… Izzy.” Safir stumbled over the words. I didn’t quite understand why it was so hard for him to say my name. “Assassins fromthisrealm, sent by Valnea most likely, though I’ve never been able to confirm that fact.”
Valnea was the current queen regent and Saldrea’s mother. Viciousness ran in their family, it seemed.
“Why?” I burst out. “They were already exiled! Why send assassins?”
“Because even as exiles they were a threat to Valnea’s power. She couldn’t leave any true royal alive. If your mother had chosen to renounce her husband and reclaim the throne…” Safir shrugged.
I simmered with rage, but I didn’t know who I was most angry at: Safir, Valnea, this whole damned world! With no outlet, I let my fury boil, which made it hard to concentrate on Safir’s story.
I tried more deep breaths.
Didn’t help.
Safir went on, “When the assassins came, your parents tried to fight them off. Your mother was incredibly strong with earth magic and tore through dozens of them… but more came. So, your parents gave you over into my custody. I was charged with getting you to safety. And I did.”
Safir sighed heavily. “And that’s when… I chose… poorly. I felt duty bound to return and protect my master, your father, and your mother as well.” His head fell, ashamed. “Once I’d found a safe place to hide you… I returned to your parents to help them, but by the time I got back, they… had… perished. I immediately returned to where I’d left you… but you… were gone.”
Wait… “How old was I?”
I’d been first adopted when I was two. Though no one had been sure of my exact age since I’d had no records.
“A few weeks past your second birthday.”
“You left a two-year-oldalone?” I scolded him, in shock. I’d known enough two-year-olds to know you can’t just leave them. They walked well enough and rarely had enough sense to stay in one place: too curious and absent-minded for their own good.
“It was… a mistake.” And the instant he said it he knew those words had also been… a mistake.
“A mistake!” I erupted, standing. “Your littlemistake… ruined my whole life!” I shouted. I shouldn’t raise my voice. We were supposed to be hiding, but I couldn’t help it. “Don’t you have some shifter sense which could have found me?” Everyone here seemed to be able to smell the weirdest things. As a tiger… couldn’t he have tracked me down somehow? “What happened?”
“I don’t know, Your Majest— Izzy.” Safir was clearly flustered.
At any other time the word majestizzy would have made me laugh, but not today.
“I followed your scent, but whoever found you must have put you in a car or something, since your trail just… stopped. After that, I searched for years… but I could never find you. I suspect your mother did more than bind you into human form but also made it difficult for people to track you.”
My mother had putthat binding on me? The one Saldrea had undone? The one which had kept me looking human for most of my life? When in truth… I’d been something else entirely.
God! There was so much I didn’t know… and this man did.
And he could have explained it all to me years ago, if he hadn’t left a two-year-old alone!
I couldn’t even look at him. One glance and I’d see red and explode. I focused on my hands, balled into fists, as I sat back down, still fuming, furious. My body vibrated with a righteous rage.
Myel knelt next to me, holding my hand. And it said something about the extent of my anger that the contact barely soothed me.
“And how much didyouknow?” I accused my bonded.
“Not the details, but I’ve known you were royalty for some time. I argued that we should tell you, but Safir overruled me.”
“And you can’t think for yourself? Make your own choices?”
My words hit home. Myel flinched. A part of me cheered in victory that I’d won that little fight, but another part felt his shame and self-loathing and impotence.
He averted his gaze, looking down.
