I froze.He doesn’t believe that I was their daughter.
“Because someone close to them was going to kill them, Caleb. You were all high on my list.”
“It’s King Caleb to you.”
“By default!” She folded her arms and pushed her leg over the other one.
A couple of sniggers followed.
“Quiet.” Pounds came from the bench.
“We fought the same bloody war, don’t come with your mighty title.”
“Tanya,” Dad hissed.
“We are royal dragons, Jako. We sacrifice a lot for this.”
“When was she with child?” The first one took the lead, asking most of the questions.
“Oh, funny that you asked, Duclin. Remember when Catherine wanted to go on a quest to enhance her hearing. Kate didn’t have to enhance anything. She had my essence. Her hearing was fine. She needed a cover in order to give birth to the princess.”
His eyes twitched. “Where is the proof?”
“It was only me, Catherine, and Albert that knew. We didn’t trust anyone else with this knowledge as the king’s dragon was on that list—”
“He would never,” Dad growled at her.
She looked at Dad with thin lips. “We didn’t know that then. They didn’t share a dent.”
Dad was getting upset. His jaw was tight, and the muscles pumped.
“Okay then, what happened, as we all know that humans can’t get past the wall?”
“We found a way.”
“The coward’s potion?” The first judge Tanya called Duclin asked. “You need the Rubicon’s blood for that and there is no entry anywhere that they had given his blood.”
Tanya scoffed. “There was no entry made as the princess is his rider and nobody needed your consent. It was Malone’s business. The mission couldn’t have any witnesses. Our plan was to bring her back when you eliminate the threat, and none of you could do that either. We had no choice but to keep her on the other side.”
“No choice!” Duclin yelled.
“I couldn’t keep my vow. Is that what you want to hear? That I was weak, I wasn’t strong enough in this form.” She tapped on her body.
That was why she’d left.
“I regret that every single day, but I am what I am. I made peace with that and one day I will have to stand before her and justify why I left the most important thing in her life without a mother.”
“Tanya, calm down,” Dad begged.
“You want to kill me for that? Well go ahead, as I lost everything already the night Kate got burned.”
Burned. “Kill?” I scolded Helmut.
“Shh,” he begged me.
“Tanya!” Dad yelled.
She closed her eyes and opened it again. “I did what she asked me. Catherine begged me. It was the only reason we lost our queen the last year of her life. It had nothing to do with me leaving her side.”
