“Darcke is loyal to the king,” Ivren’s mother said. “There are no exceptions in war. Your father must have taught you that sometimes blood we wished wasn’t spilled would be anyway.”
I slipped a step backward, until Darcke’s rigid body pressed against my back.
The Solsken chief meant that that unfortunate blood today would be mine.
“Mother.” Ivren moved until he came to my side. “If you kill Darcke, she dies too.”
“And it shall be very sad, but this little crush of yours would have gone nowhere anyway.”
My former guard froze beside Vero, the fear in his face opening an eye within me.
“There is no crush.” Ivren’s face darkened, and I couldn’t look at him as he took a half step in front of me. “I am doing this for Lika.” He spun to my mother. “Lika would never forgive you if you harmed her, much lesskilledher. It would be the ultimate dishonor to his memory.”
“For gods’ sake! This was Lika’s idea!” my mother shouted.
A deathly silence spread across the path, and my blood stilled in my veins.
My mother’s low voice echoed across the water where morewarriors—some of whom I recognized from home, although none were my father’s close men—spilled onto the white. Their axes and blades were already in their hands, as if they were facing a much larger army than a dozen king’s men. “All of this could have been so much easier if your fucking father hadn’t found out what we were planning.”
Ivren and Viljan and the rest of the heirs and their seconds stood as frozen as I was when my mother continued.
“Stabbing himself to stop his only son.” She shook her head. “I knew Fritiof was loyal to the king, but I thought even he had some honor left.”
“What?” I asked, my mind unwilling to comprehend what she was saying.
“The spy your father’s men suspected?” My mother scoffed. “It was the very one they reported to.”
“No,” I said. “That can’t be, because…”
Darcke’s fingers brushed my back again, and I knew it was true before my mother spoke.
“Your father killed your brother.” The smile on my mother’s face was frenzied. “He killedmyson but left his bastard girl alive. Fritiof found out what we’d been planning Lika’s entire life, and he killed him to stop it.” A furious sob rushed from my mother’s lips. “At least Lika was able to take him down with him. I take comfort in that.”
She was insane. My mother or stepmother or whatever she was had lost her mind.
There was no way. My father would never have laid a hand on any of us. Lika was his legacy—his heir.
My bottom lip trembled. “I don’t believe you.”
“Lika was coming to kill the king,” my mother said, something smug washing over her features. “And your father decided to end his own name—his own bloodline—because of his misplaced loyalties. When Lika fought back, your father stabbed himself to death—to ensure Lika couldn’t use his rune.”
“No,” I said.
“Ask your dear second,” my mother taunted. “Ask him! He knows all of it. He was in on it.”
I didn’t dare fully turn, but I moved my face enough that I could see over my shoulder. Why, I didn’t know, because I could already feel the truth vibrating from Darcke, the cold, brutal truth that burned behind my eyes.
“You knew?” I whispered. “This whole time, you knew?”
The way he’d looked at me in the beginning. Like he hated me. Like he wanted to kill me. Now it made more sense that he’d hated me more than any other heir.
I pulled a breath.
His response when I admitted to not having magic.I know. I just needed you to say it.
“You thought I was coming to kill you? You thought I’d… what? Taken over after Lika?”
He didn’t respond, and I knew it was because the shaman had his tongue locked.
