“He’s your uncle!” my mother spat. “Half uncle, to be exact. Like your father, the old king couldn’t keep his dick in his pants. Your father was a bastard only allowed into the Hird because the old king indulged him. No one thought he’d actually becomean heir.”
“Fritiof told you?” Gustief asked, and there was a sorrow inhis tone I wasn’t sure anyone here had ever heard filling his voice before. “I wondered how you figured it out.”
“Once on a drunken night when he was feeling nostalgic. He regretted it ever since.” My mother crossed her arms over her chest, her own blade dangling from one hand. “He didn’t trust me.” She shook her head. “I was ajarl! He should have been on his knees before me.”
“He became an heir, Seindra,” the king said.
She tossed her hair backward. “So? He was still beneath me. I can’t believe I was forced to marry him. My parents should have known better. But alas… one makes the best of shitty situations.”
“What is all this, Seindra?” Ivren’s mother called. “Why have you not killed him yet?”
My mother clicked her tongue. “Because I needed you to hear this first.”
“Hear what?” Adrion’s father asked.
“That since our beloved king doesn’t have any,my childrenare the heirs to the throne. Twin queens,” she mused. “I think that should make for a powerful kingdom.”
My heart skipped a beat.
Darcke tried to pull me to him, but I shook off his arm, moving away from him and the king. Thoughts swirled in my mind—betrayal and grief and disbelief a tangled mess.
“Told you—” my mother started.
“Shut up,” I snarled. “Shut up!”
“You knew, didn’t you?” I asked Darcke and Gustief. “You knew what she was planning, so you needed me alive. You needed Lika dead and me alive so you could bend me to your will. The king figured out hissolutionto the problem with his enemies.”
More understanding than I wanted invaded my thoughts, each thought like a punch straight to the throat.
“You wanted me to make it through the Hird by myself,” I said, grinding out each syllable. “So that when you revealed to our people who I was to you, I’d have earned their respect. And since I am not Seindra Sweengard’s daughter but born to one of yourenemies, you could show that Skagerik has changed, allowing someone with foreign blood in her veins onto the throne.”
Ivren’s mouth hung ajar from where he stood beside Torden, but the latter winced when I pursed my lips. He’d known too. I could fucking see it in his face. Vero and Geord and Rakkel and Viljan were as clueless as the chiefs staring back at us.
“And you.” I spun to Darcke. “That’s why you hated me so much. Because you couldn’t stand knowing aspoiled heirwould not only be the queen of Skagerik but lead your nation as well. Because that was the plan as well, wasn’t it? That’s why you sent me all those memories. So that I would rebuild your nation. Rule them both.”
“There are more survivors out there,” Darcke said quietly. “I had to do what I had to do for them. I tied myself to Gustief so my loyalties to him wouldn’t seem so strange after his people killed mine.” He took a step toward me, but I recoiled so quickly I lost my balance. “But then I got to know you! And I would be proud?—”
“Don’t,” I snarled. “Don’t.”
Was that why he’d kissed me too? Why he’d been so hot and cold?
So that I wouldrepopulatehis beloved nation? I nearly gagged.
“We needed you, Elvara.” Gustief took a step toward me. “Darcke’s people are different from ours. If one of them has magic, they all do.”
I could almost hear my heart splinter.
“Great,” I said. “And what is your plan if the gods don’t give me a rune?”
Gustief and Darcke’s shared look was enough.
“You would have killed my whole family. My sisters are seven!” I screamed. “Seven!”
“They would have died anyway,” the king said. “Without your magic.”
My face went cold. “Did… did my father… Was he in on it?”
“He wanted you to live,” Darcke said. “He believed in you.He was coming back for you. But he knew Viljan would protect you if he couldn’t. That’s why he selected him all those years ago.”
