…Alastar the WiselovedFreya. It was not romantic, but it was pure and powerful.
Was it powerful enough to kill the centuries-old monster in his head?
Anders’s eyes darkened. “Youpressed me for an heir, Father. All you ever told me growing up was the importance of our line—”
“Then let that be my greatest regret of my reign.” Alastar the Wise turned his ire to Ragnar. “Second only to this—I let your mother raise you. You ruined a young girl’s life, but now you will finally reap the consequences of your actions. You will not marryanyone.”
Ilsa gasped. “Derrick, no! You cannot do that!”
Alastar the Wise cut a glance to his eldest son. Anders bit down his thinly-veiled frustration and ushered a wide-eyed Ragnar out of the study.
I crossed to the closed door, the very edge of the memory, where Ilsa heard her eldest son whisper, “I will not put my daughters through this hell. I stand with you, brother. If I have no son, yourswillhave the throne.”
AnderswantedRiyan to inherit the crown?
Alastar the Wise rose from his desk and took both of Ilsa’s hands. She clutched his fingers and her brows knitted in a plea. “Derrick, we agreed that he was my son. Let him have his love! You know Fraleigh would still—”
“I do not trust his intentions,” Alastar the Wise replied gently yet firmly. “What was he doing going after a girl who was not in his selection year?”
He had a point. Why had Ragnar pursued Astrid knowing they would never marry?
“Maybe because he wanted a real choice in who he married!” Ilsa cried. “Do you really think people fall in love with whomever they pick out of that pen of women?”
Alastar the Wise swallowed, his eyes filling with the heartbreak that Ilsa would never see. “He will answer for his irresponsibility. That is my final word on the matter.”
Ilsa threw down her husband’s hands and walked with a scowl out of the study. I followed her into the darkness right before the door slammed shut.
I had reached the edge of the memory, so I pulled myself out of that fractal of the crystal. I took a breath as the smell of the Duke’s bedchamber filled my nose.
Suddenly my chest was tight and the air felt like syrup. The memories of decades of tears shed in that bedroom had flooded into my body all at once.
Different magical signals screamed in the back of my mind. My white flame flared at the many cries for help, filling my arms and legs with righteous heat.
Then one cry dominated over the others—it was rough, demanding, and desperate. The fabric between worlds stretched as the cry from somewhere beyond got louder and harsher.
My eyes snapped to that empty spot on the floor and I could not even blink. I gave in, letting the tears in the air push on my back, beckoning me to leave the bed. I put one plodding foot in front of the other as my body tingled with energy.
I fell to my knees on the floor and my hands splayed over the rug. The tears below me were bitter and cold. Regret. Lies. Disdain.
Then I closed my eyes and my magic let the memory take me away.
A sharp gasp clawed through the darkness. Thin strips of moonlight entered the memory, illuminating Ilsa folding out of her bed as she clutched her throat.
My stomach turned. This was it. This was the night she died.
Her Nordingaard crystal swung from her neck as Ilsa choked on nothing. She stumbled through her room and out the door. I had no choice but to follow her as she raced down the hall to the door with the carved bulls. She found the handle immediately and shoved open the door.
“Derrick!” she cried through her hoarse voice. “Derrick, help!”
I followed Ilsa as she ran into the bedroom. The curtains around the Duke’s bed flew back and Ragnar emerged from the mattress. His chest heaved as he unwound two crimson ribbons from his wrists.
Alastar the Wise’s body was lying on top of the mattress. His eyes were bulging, his face was purple, and a thin red line marked his neck.
Ragnarhad killed his father—strangled him with the hair ribbons Astrid left outside Bloodstone Fortress.
Ragnar ran for his mother. “Mama!”
Ilsa’s eyes widened. She could not see her husband’s body in the bed, but her fading blood bond revealedexactlywhat her Little Diamond had done.
