Yelina stills. She doesn’t deny it. She can’t. She keeps her eyes on Luc, pleading with him to listen. “When I married your father, they told me he’d be Praeceptor one day and I’d be the wife of the most powerful man in the Republic. That never happened. I never got what I was promised, but my son will have everything.”
“That wasn’t my fault,” I say.
But of course she’ll never see it that way. Neveah Sixmen was Yelina’s closest friend. Yelina wanted revenge on Selva for killing his wife, and revenge on me for existing. I’m the reason Mathson never became Praeceptor, as well as evidence that the husband she married as a trade agreement was unfaithful. She figured she’d take care of both her problems at once.
“You and Neveah were friends,” I say. “You must’ve been furious when you realized she was murdered.”
“Murdered?” Mathson glances between me and Yelina. “You’re talking about Neveah Sixmen?”
“Yes.” Yelina’s back is rigid. “She was my best friend. Selva was an awful man and a cruel husband who made her miserable. Years ago, she had an affair with another Honorate.”
I know who it is before she says it. “Arliss Vale.”
“Yes. That was over twenty years ago. She always knew Flynn was his, but she never told anyone. Aside from me. She planned to protect that secret forever, but when Arliss got sick, she felt guilty for keeping his son from him. She was going to tell him.” Yelina shudders. “But then she went missing. Selva learned the truth and killed her.”
“When did you tell Flynn what happened?”
“I didn’t. He figured it out on his own. He said he talked to some servant and put it together.”
I draw in a sharp breath. Flynn must’ve spoken to Eduma. But why didn’t she tell me?
She did. The realization is a smack in the face.
I use “Honorate Sixmen” and “Mister Sixmen” interchangeably—she didn’t.
“Mister Sixmen came to see me last year. I thought I was finally getting out of here.”
It wasn’t Selva who came to see her. It was Flynn, his son,who was slowly piecing it together. Like me, he questioned her about the day his mother disappeared and came to the same conclusion I did—that his father murdered his mother. Then he got to work getting even.
“Mom, you conspired to kill an Honorate?” says Luc.
Yelina shakes her head. “No.”
I shove the magic toward her as soon as I feel it, scalding her. Yelina flinches and snaps a hand over her arm.
Luc’s eyes fly to the red, raised skin. “You’re lying.”
She winces. “I didn’t kill anyone. Flynn poisoned Arliss and forced Selva to resign from the Honorate. He planned to kill Selva too, but he wanted to destroy him first by taking him out of the Honorate.”
“Why did he kill Arliss?”
Yelina’s eyes narrow on Kaidren. “Because of him.”
“Me?” Kaidren has been silently following the exchange with increasingly raised brows. “What does this have to do with me?”
“You’re Opheran. After you announced yourself as Arliss’s son, Flynn was worried Arliss would go hunting for another and figure out that he already had a Virdeian heir. If he had, he would have tried to claim Flynn instead of you.”
“What does it matter? He’s older than me. He’s an Honorate either way.”
“If everyone knew he was Arliss’s son, he would be a bastard, he’d start his career on the back of a scandal, and he’d be the son of a lecherous adulterer. Where is the honor in that?”
I can’t believe what I’m hearing. “All this to avoid a scandal?”
Yelina waves it off. “Arliss was already dying anyway.”
I like Flynn. At least, I did. It’s hard to think of him as someone so conniving and vain. But that’s because I’m thinking ofhim as the brave soldier with the heart of gold. Like everyone else, I bought into the illusion. The truth is, he’s an Honorate. As obsessed with honor and legacy as the rest of them.
Their plot might have worked. Except Yelina didn’t count on me and Kaidren. If Kaidren hadn’t found the shopkeep who proved Flynn guilty, her plan to frame me would’ve been successful. If I hadn’t been plotting to steal a throne she wanted as a permanent fixture for Luc, Virdei would’ve easily countered Petruvia’s attack.
