“Of course not. Why would a despot provide a record of her people’s hatred toward her? It’s the same reason there are no books on the Others in any library across this great, wide country. She rules in fear and shadows.”
I glance around at his stacks of books. “How did Bram end up with this book?”
Eduart takes a sip of his tea. “Now that is an interesting story. I met the Prince of Wales last fall. It takes a lot to shock me in this never-ending life of mine, but it was a great surprise to find him at my threshold. Bram has a bit of a morbid fascination with those his mother has made immortal.”
“There’s more of you?” I ask, horrified.
“Oh, of course. Where do you think her footmen came from?”
A chill crawls down my spine. I recognize it now, the same sallow look in Eduart that permeates the skin of the queen’s strange, silent, ever-loyal footmen.
“She learned her lesson after me. Everyone else who wishes to live forever must give up their freedom to serve her. She is clever, you’ve got to give her credit.”
“And Bram knows this?” Emmett asks.
“He found out about a year ago. It’s when he came to see me. I didn’t have much information to give the poor boy, but it’s nevereasy to acknowledge that your only parent is a monster. I hadn’t heard from him since, until I received his letter asking if I had a particular book in my collection. The book, it seems, was for you.” He gestures to me. “There’s nothing in there that would lead to her demise—trust me, I’ve looked. Their only weakness is iron, and she had all our weapons melted down after the war.”
Iron.“Bram told me that’s how his father defeated her,” says Emmett. “Can we find more?”
Eduart shakes his head. “I gave up in 1789, but you’re welcome to keep trying.”
“We don’t need iron or tricks or anything else. We’re not like the others,” Emmett interjects. “We plan to undo the bargains themselves.”
“I’m sure you believe that,” Eduart says, not insulting, but world-weary.
“Do you know anything about the bargains?” Emmett presses, undeterred.
Eduart sighs, like he’s humoring him. “Only that they’ve gotten more creative over the years. She likes to play with her food, but I think she’s getting bored with the whole spectacle. To my knowledge, no bargains have ever been undone, though many have regretted theirs and tried. Your own father darkened my door a decade or so ago, begging for information.”
Emmett’s brows knit together in an expression of shock. “My father?”
“I know exactly who you are, Emmett Alexander De Vere. Your father is a good man, and he is sorry.”
It’s as if I can hear Emmett’s heart crack right down the middle. He blinks away his welling tears. “He regrets his bargain?”
Eduart nods. “He does, says he should have run away with you in the night rather than subject you both to a life without each other.”
“Then why’d he do it?” Emmett asks, his voice thick with tears he’s too stubborn to let fall.
Eduart shrugs casually. “The queen ruined your grandfather’s life. He bargained for an exceptional mind for numbers in exchange for never finding anything funny again. It made him hardened and cruel, to the point where he abandoned his family when your father was just a boy. Your father joined a group of like-minded rebels in his adolescence and dedicated his life to the queen’s downfall.”
Emmett stares at his teacup, his grip so tight around it, I’m afraid it might shatter. “Why did he marry her?”
“He thought his best bet was taking her down from the inside. He made himself the perfect suitor, but once they wed, the queen grew suspicious of him. He spent too long in the library, asked too many questions, cavorted with people she didn’t trust. He believes that’s why she separated the two of you. The queen is afraid of her husband and didn’t want to give him the opportunity to raise you as his protégé. Your father overestimated himself, thinking it would only take him a year or two to solve the problem of the bargains and everything would be right in the world. But he was wrong.”
“His abandonment was hubris? I was left alone with nothing but a governess for company because of his misplaced confidence?” Emmett sounds furious now.
“He loved you, and he thought that legitimacy as a prince would protect you in the meantime. His ego was his downfall, as it is for so many.”
“Well, he must have figured it out. He left me clues that spell outMoryen’s original bargain. If we break that, everything else falls to pieces.”
“It works only if you’re right.”
“We’re right,” Emmett says through gritted teeth.
“It is a fool’s errand, and you will die in the pursual of it.”
“I refuse to accept that,” Emmett says.
