The queen stares at him and blinks slowly. “Mikail, you are supposed to run the games, not be taken in by them. No wonder you were replaced.” She shakes her head, then meets his eye. “I thoughteveryoneclose to the throne knew that Joon and Omin were the only legitimate children of King Theum. He stopped sharing the great queen’s bed not long after my monstrous second brother was born. The Lesser Queen had a great many bedmates, but…the king wasn’t one of them. A hunting accident rendered him unable to have more heirs before Euyn was even born.”
The room falls absolutely silent, and Quilimar plays with her ring.
“Neither Euyn nor I possess Baejkin blood,” she adds.
My breath catches in my throat. The realization ripples through the table. Euyn is not Baejkin. Which means he never could’ve worn the crown of Yusan.
No, that can’t be right.
I stare at Euyn, and he pales. Mikail seems like he wants to leap out of his seat and slaughter the clouds of the frescos above. I study the queen, waiting for a tell, but there is none. She’s speaking the truth. Euyn is not Baejkin.
He never could have been king. And if his pallor is any indication, he’s always known but kept it a secret from us this whole time.
A cold fury washes over me, and my stomach twists. I reach for the dagger that I gave up earlier. All I touch is my sleeve. We all risked our lives for him, risked everything for him, time and time again. We bled for promises he made to us, to Ty. Ones he never intended to honor.
“Oh, Euyn.” Queen Quilimar tsks. “You keep secrets even from your lover and your closest friends? Where is your honor?”
She sips her tea as the secrets tear us to shreds. She doesn’t revel in our turmoil the way Joon did. Queen Quilimar has hardened herself to feeling anything, as many women do to endure this world.
That’s when I realize that everything we heard, the good and the bad about her, is correct.
Chapter Sixty-Five
Euyn
The Palace of the Sky King, Khitan
I’m getting a little weary of my family reunions.
I had no idea Quilimar was also illegitimate. She was our father’s favorite—at least that is what I always heard and what I vaguely remember. But I was so young when he died that perhaps I just believed the rumor. Her illegitimacy explains so much, including her molten anger toward me. We are both bastards, and yet I was pampered and crowned and she was sold off to the highest bidder. She had to allow the king of Khitan to bed her until she had a son. Such is being female royalty.
“Tell her the truth,” Mikail says.
For the first time since the throne room, he actually looks shocked. He scans me, his eyes moving rapidly. He wants me to deny it. I can feel the waves of emotion coming off him, how badly he needs me to say it isn’t true, to deny what my mother told me on her deathbed.
The truth eats at me as the lump builds in my throat. I want to say out loud that I’ve known for years that the old king wasn’t my father, but I can’t. I’ve gone entirely too long living this lie. I’ve built our love on it, and I can’t pull out the foundation now, or the house will crumble. Mikail will never view me the same, and his love has already waned. I can feel it. I’d decided long ago to take the secret of my blood to my ashes. There is no reason to change course now.
With a breath, I try to gather myself. I’d like to sip water, but I won’t eat or drink anything in this room. Quilimar isn’t above poisoning us all, and even Sora isn’t touching anything.
“I-I am the king’s son,” I say.
The room is silent, aside from rain trickling into the fountain. The audience outside the banquet hall is also quiet, desperately straining to listen in. But they can’t hear us from so far away. A golden thread constantly marks a hundred feet from Quilimar, and everyone needs to remain farther than that.
Except for us.
The four others stare at me, their gazes burning into my skin.
“Right,” Quilimar says, raising her eyebrows. “Well, we are nearly out of time. Obviously, I won’t give Joon the Ring of Khitan but do send him my best. My apologies that you came all this way for nothing.”
“He is starting a war of the realms,” Mikail says quietly.
That gets my sister’s attention. She’s halfway out of her seat when she pauses.
“Here?” she asks.
Mikail nods. “Either he killed all the Yoksa or you did. Either way, the edict was broken here. The amarth said a war of the realms is coming, and my sources tell me the same. I’m not sure if we were merely a decoy or if Joon thinks he can actually take the ring, but the other three realms will be here within a matter of days.”
Quilimar retakes her seat and curls her fingers, mindlessly tapping the ring on the arm of her throne.
