Chapter Forty-Eight
Valeris
“Your father wishesto see you.”
The messenger’s words hit me like an arrow.
Having the judge order my execution would have been easier to hear.I didn’t have my uncle to help me battle him.I had to face my father alone.I knew exactly why he wanted to see me, what had required such a drastic action as summoning me, but it was what he would do with what had caused this meeting that sent a chill to the deepest parts of my bones.
Ezrielle was entering her room when I emerged from mine, and she watched me with an appraising eye, a smirk hovering at the edge of her lips.
She knew.
The walk to his office felt like a walk to the gallows, each step bringing me closer to a certain condemnation.I could face anything in the world, but I could not face my father.
The guards parted the doors to his study, and I stepped inside, my footsteps echoing in the room.He stood by the window, hands clasped behind his back, spine rigid.I waited for him to acknowledge me.Afraid to sit.Afraid to stand.
“You disappoint me,” he said.“But that is no surprise.”
I swallowed, unsure of what direction this conversation would take and where it would end.
He turned to me with fury etched across his face.“Have you nothing to say for yourself?”
I opened my mouth but no words came out.
He shook his head in irritation.“Useless.I had faith in you, Valeris, I really did, but your actions have told me you are not taking this seriously and you are not fit to wear the crown.”
Panic surged in me.“I am taking this seriously—”
“I am not finished speaking, boy.You lost your alliance with Ingon!Maybe if you had been paying attention, you would have noticed the diplomat from Bolera was encroaching upon the deal, but you were too busy traipsing around with anassassin, and aKallistarno less, too stupid to realize who was before your very eyes!You know better than that.This is not how a prince of Paravellia is raised!How could you be so stupid to not see through her deception?Are you only of value to me as breeding stock?No brain to make yourself useful?”
I remained silent.Trying to explain to him that an enchantment had concealed her identity would only send him into an even greater rage.
“You were so blinded by one girl—a wanted criminal.Paravellian royalty does not lie with dogs!You lose the puzzle ball and allow your siblings to outshine you.You should have been at the top!And if all that is not enough, you let the assassin slip through your fingers, letting her run around the city doing who knows what.”
“We captured two of her accomplices,” I interjected.
“Confining sixty-six percent of the problem still leaves over thirty-four percent of the problem to be dealt with.”He paused for breath, anger rolling off him in waves.“You’ve failed, and for that failure, I must withdraw you from the competition for the throne.”
A knot formed in the pit of my stomach.
No.
