I was never allowed to know much about money, but a discrepancy of ten thousand marks would only go unnoticed in the wealthy House of Elvar…or maybe the Houseof Hyton.
A flash caught my eye and I peered above the ledger. The House of Ravenwood pin glinted in the sunlight from the window as Father examined it with ahard brow.
His voice was distant. “I was a Baron exactly the way my father was—duty over all else—and stillnothingI did was enough. I could have just…given Nikkolas this pin and everyone would have been saved. But then he had to die before he could makeeverything right!”
Father disdainfully dropped the pin on the desk. The pin clattered, but wasnot damaged.
I swallowed, remembering how Father repeated “duty over all else,” to Erik and Endre before they rode away from Ravenwood Manor into thefailed battle.
I forced the thought away and held out the ledger. “The numbers do not even out. Unless Nikkolas was getting ten thousand marks a year from somewhere else, his ledger isall wrong.”
Father took the black book and scanned down a page before his mouth formed a tight line. “Hush money.” He quickly flipped through the pages and his voice turned hard as a whetstone. “Twenty-two years of Hytonhush money.”
My throat went dry as I stepped around the desk to stand next to him. “What are you talking about? Nikkolas hated the Hytons, he would never keepa secret—”
“For ten thousand a year, any man would,” Father said with disgust as he tossed the ledger onto the desk. “Even though it was abigsecret.”
Outrage flared into my throat. “And you know what it was? You cannot keep it from me,I am—”
I almost finished with “I am your daughter,” but a new answer formed on the tip of my tongue. I straightened my back and looked into my father’s tired dark eyes. “I am the Baroness of Bloodstone. Tell me why the Hytons paidNikkolas off.”
Father’s eyes shone as he looked at me, but then he scrubbed his face with his hand and stared at a nearby bookshelf. “That husband of yours is not reallya half-giant.”
I crossed my arms and scoffed. “Even Riyan knew that. Are you telling me the Hytons bribed Nikkolas into silence because they did not want anyone to know he was just a child of magic?”
“No, Serafina,” Father said darkly. He pressed his palm on the desk and leaned in close to me. “What I am telling you is that Duke Hyton wanted everyone to believe he was a half-giant so no one would ask questions about who hisfather was.”
Riyan…hada father?
Father must have read my thoughts through my knitted brow. His voice was sharp and cold as steel as he leaned in closer. “Riyan’s father is GeneralRagnar Hyton.”
I could have heard a feather drop in the silence that followed. I could not even hear my thoughts, or my heartbeat, or anything that could have connected what I had just heard with what I thought was the truthabout Riyan.
As I compared the two men, I saw it—the blonde hair, the square jaw, the broad shoulders. I felt so foolish for never seeing the resemblance before, or for never questioning Riyan’s story that he was merely formed from magic and hadno father.
Riyan would have never lied to me, but then who lied to him?And why?
My lip trembled as my mouth hung slightly open. A question formed on my lips in one breath, but was replaced by another in the next breath. Finally, I pushed out the question that burned the tip of mytongue. “How?”
Father shook his head and kept his eyes on the top of the desk. “Those details did not tumble out onto Duke Hyton’s pillowcase like the rest ofthe information.”
I clenched my fists so hard my bones ached. “You mean Mother knowsbecause she—”
“She isprivyto certain information,” Father snapped. He pushed himself off the desk and walked to the window. He placed his hands behind his back and looked through the diamond glass panes at the peak of the mountain that loomedabove us.
I took a step toward Father and ugly, bitter anger rose up in my throat like bile. “How can you allow her to be with him? After everything he did to us? Afterhe ordered…”
My voice broke and I snapped my jaw shut. My eyes stung with tears, but I stacked up my walls and closed the gate. Irefusedto cry.
I would not shed a single tear in front of the man who stood silently as my brothers took up arms to defend the province, who meekly sold off our family treasures to try to stop the bleeding, and whose wife made a fool of us all atHyton Palace.
Father had been the Baron of Ravenwood, one of the great leaders of the Northern provinces, but his only plan for Ravenwood’s salvation was the allure of a fourteen-year-old girl. I would have never worn the House of Ravenwood pin and led the province myself, but he and Mother had fully expected me to shoulder the burden as the Duchessof Lycaster.
Father let out a deep breath that fogged the glass in front of him and obscured his reflection. Although I could not see his face, I heard the tears in his voice. “Right after I married your mother, I watched my father die—trampled to death by his favorite horse. My mother fell to her knees right after, grappling at her face like she also had hooves stomping her skull in. I swore right then that I would do nothing to put my family in harm’s way. So that is what I did for the rest ofmy life…nothing.”
I loosened my fists. Father’s shoulders shook, but he did not turn around. “When that horrible man ordered that Erik and Endre had to fight the giants, I did nothing, hoping they would come back…because I knew if I did something, Anders would make sure they never did. When he took your mother, I still did nothing, hoping I would not make the situation worse. But when he took you…I could not stand it anymore. I finallydidsomething.”
I swallowed and the anger in my chest softened, but did not completely disappear. Father’s voice cracked as he fought sobs. “But as I sat in that cell in the Western tower of Hyton Palace, I realized that none of it mattered. Whether I did nothing or something, the result was still the same—I lost everyoneI loved.”
