But there had been unrest with the royal family at the time—probably stoked by the elders—and Sagan’s ancestor had caved to the pressure to protect the family. And that was honestly how I saw this whole mess playing out. A series of small mistakes trying to manage the big picture and protect the family honorably when no one else played by those rules.
“Why is your family paying for so much?” I demanded of her when I was finally done with my review. “You pay for—it’s ridiculous what your family personally pays for. The royal familyof Protesia doesn’t pay for any of this. They get like a billion dollars a year in taxes for all of this, Sagan.”
She swallowed loudly. “I had no idea it was that much. I knew it was—really, that much?”
I was about to lay into her about how stupid this all was, but I swallowed down my upset when I saw the signs of extreme stress. I wasn’t upset with her anyways. This was a situation she’d inherited.
“You need to call your council of princesses, Sagan,” I said gently. “Talk to Treena and the others. They’ll tell you the truth. You don’t even get a fucking salary and you run the country. They set this all up and I would bet with the intention of toppling the monarchy. Curse your parents for kicking this can down the road, but getevenwith the people who did it.”
I handed her what Raquel had given to me along with folders of documents from the elders’ investigations basically laughing that they knew they were bleeding the royal family dry… And enjoyed it.
Fuckers. I now had a new goal besides pulling Sagan out of debt and this mess.
Revenge. I was going to get revenge for her and her family and that would cover the life debt I owed her. We would be square then in my mind for the way she saved me from a fate worse than death before I had been killed.
I thought it was a damn good payment and I hoped she did too.
