Page 154 of Queen of Nothing

“Mila was grieving, as expected. The newborn was not supposed to die, she was only intended to be drained of the magic in her. Mila stayed—and she, I suppose, believed there might be a fragment of her child in you. She is krum, she does not understand the ritual. But your mother was equally as volatile. To your mother, we almost lost you in the first ritual and could have lost you in the second.” His jaw clenches, stirred anger from older days. “Then Mila stole you.”

I blink. “What?”

“Mila snuck into your room, crept by the nursemaid as she slept, and took you right out of your crib. There was a search party that morning, and your mother discovered Mila in the greenhouse—breastfeeding you.”

My lashes flutter.

A sickly feeling coils in my stomach.

Father’s face turns bitter. “Again, the next day, Mila was caught by Mr Younge trying to take you and a well-packed bag down the backroads in the direction of the village.”

I hug the pillow a bit tighter.

“The decision was made to give Mila a special brew.” The apathy in him is all over his face. How little he cares about Mila and her suffering. “A particularly effective amnesiac.”

For some ridiculous, insane reason, I think back to Bluestone—to the brew that Dray and I worked on together. Serum of Forgetfulness. It targets a memory. Just one. A layer in the mind.

But one used on Mila would have been much stronger and more delicate than that.

“The memory of her child is gone, but the attachment she has to you never quite seemed to fade the way it should have done.” Father sinks back into his chair and, for a beat, runs his hands down his face. The weariness sags him. “Your mother hoarded you for so long after that,” he says, dropping his hands to his lap. “She would not leave you alone—not even with me. I suppose she wasn’t entirely irrational to think I would try another ritual, no matter how often I reassured her.” He tuts, and it’s sharp. “For so long, your mother wouldn’t even allow your nannies to take you out of the house without her.

“Then another concern emerged. Your interest in the krum world. Your… rebellion against the rules of our world and our expectations of you.

“That concern led to your restriction. I worried that if you had access to the krum-flooded internet, you would resonate more with them than you did your peers. I worried that if you read into what you were—what we told you you were—then you would start to investigate yourself. Rebel. And learn the truth.

“It was difficult to carve out a place in our world for you to feel truly at home. But it was what we tried to do. And attending Bluestone was a large part of that.”

I cut him off, “I told you what that place was like for me.”

“Yes. And I heard you.” He sighs something deflated and rubs his fingers over his forehead. “But I had hopes for—”

“Proposals. Offers on my contract.”

He drops his hand and shakes his head. “I had hopes that Dray would come around, that he would face his feelings for you—and that your constant presence at Bluestone would bring about his offer on your contract.” He meets my gaze. “I never meant for any other suitor to get near you.”

“What about Eric?” I sit forward. “And Landon. Landon said he—”

“My consideration of their offers was not kept a secret.” His smile is tight. “It was merely bait.”

“For Dray.”

“I am not obtuse, Olivia. Dray has always orbited you. He only needed encouragement.”

So all the efforts I ever put into Eric’s offer and convincing my father to consider him, all those phone calls I suffered where Father talked my ear off about offers and gentries and opening my contracts—it was all a show.

I was an ignorant puppet.

Landon, too. And Eric.

All puppets in a show that my father put on for Dray Sinclair.

After a thick pause, I scoff. “Well, that’s not going to happen now.”

Dray won’t be coming near me. Not anymore. Not ever again.

He left here tonight thinking I’m a krum. But when Oliver goes to him, and explains everything that happens, Dray’s prejudices will remain.

A witch drained of magic, born and emptied, is just a krum. If he had such issue with me being a deadblood, it’ll be tenfold with no magic in my blood.