“I think my sister would explain things better than I ever could,” he answered simply.
Sister.
Do not fail us now, sister.
Ever since the dream where he’d been stabbed, he’d been trying to place that voice. Kailia had been so distraught by that nightmare, the details had fallen by the wayside as he’d worked to soothe her. He’d never seen the face of the male who’d shoved a sword through his back, so he’d never been able to discern if he’d seen him in her dreams before. It had made it harder to place the voice, and now it was far too late.
Stepping to the side so he could keep both Kailia and Corveth in his line of vision, he slowly backed away.
“Now would be the time to explain yourself, wife,” he said sharply with all the authority of his title and the crown that had fallen to her feet.
Her smile was a mirror of Corveth’s as she watched him put distance between them. Her head canted to the side a little, long dark strands sliding over her shoulder. “A king has his secrets, and so does a queen,” she said simply.
“Kailia, I don’t know what’s going on here, but?—”
“That’s the thing,husband,” she interjected, casually twirling one of her arrows between her fingers. “You should know. You should know so much after all those late nights in your study. I don’t need to know where it is to know what you do down there.”
“For someone who prefers direct and blunt communication, you’re certainly speaking in riddles right now, tiny fiend.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Then allow me to be blunt,king.You say you coerced me into this bargain because you needed my arrows to save your people, yet you could never make the connection the thing they needed saving from wasyou.”
“Don’t speak to me about what I’ve sacrificed for my people, Kailia,” he snarled. “You have no idea the things I’ve done to ensure they can live peaceful and comfortable lives.”
“But I do know,” she purred. “I know all the things you’ve done and the curses you’ve brought upon yourself, starting with the blood magic to bring ships across your Wards.”
Words escaped him. She couldn’t possibly— No one knew what he did in that study in the darkest hours of the night.
Corveth was still standing near Draven’s body, hands in his pockets. He rocked back on his heels as though watching a form of entertainment play out in front of him.
“You know there is a cost for magic, but blood magic?” Kailia asked, faux pity in her voice. “Princes should not play with things they do not understand.”
“I understand just fine the cost of power and blood magic,” he spat, taking a step toward her, but she raised her bow, that arrow back on the string. He sent her a derisive smirk. “We both know that arrow won’t do anything, wife. You’ve tried that weapon already.”
“Then I suppose I’ll have to try this one,” she answered.
Tossing her arrow aside, a swirl of ashes left another in her hand. It was nearly identical to hers save for the gold arrowhead.
Fuck.
He didn’t know if that arrow would affect him. He doubted it, but this wasn’t the ideal time to find out.
She casually nocked the arrow while she continued speaking. “If you understood the cost of your magic, you’d realize that every time you successfully let something past the Wards, Fae are found dead the next morning.”
“No,” he said. “Only a handful of ships have made it past the Wards and only in the last year. None in recent months, and there have been dozens of Fae found dead.”
“I didn’t say it was always ships,” she replied calmly. “I said every time you successfully let something past the Wards. More than ships and those from across the sea answer your calls.”
No.
That couldn’t be true.
He shook his head, denial coursing through him. There had been a time, when he was young and his parents hadn’t realized what he could do, that he’d let unwanted beings into the kingdom, but not now. His mother had put a stop to that the moment she’d figured it out.
She had to be wrong. None of that could be true, because if it was?—
“No,” he ground out, shaking his head as he desperately tried to explain any of this.
But Kailia’s smile was knowing, a sinister thing he hadn’t thought she was capable of. “Yes, Cethin. A cursed king who sacrifices his own people.”
