Page 9 of Veil of Shadows

For a brief moment, I thought of the night in Fosterton in which Jax had told me evasively of his past, of the abuse he survived. Surely, he hadn’t been referring to his own family...

Stomach tumbling, I forced that thought away. “I didn’t realize he had any siblings, and a half-breed nonetheless.”

“That’s because nobody knows, apart from a select few.”

I frowned heavily, because as far as I was aware, it was common knowledge that Prince Adarian was an only child. It didn’t make any sense that he had a brother who was a half-breed. But Saramel had revealed the information so quickly. So easily. And the gods hadn’t exacted instant revenge or struck her dead, which meant she wasn’t lying.

She clasped her hands, and a moment of doubt crossed her features. “Jax will be so angry when he finds out I just told you that, but you deserve to know, and since you can’t tell anyoneunless you want to suffer from severe punishment from the gods, I don’t regret it.”

“And you’re not afraid of Jax punishing you?”

She shrugged. “Not really, and if you want to tell him that I told you, that’s fine. I’m not going to hide it.” A soft laugh parted her lips. “I’ll probably get an earful and be put on extra kitchen duty for a week, but I can handle that.”

“Kitchen duty? Do you work in the palace?”

“I do. My husband and I are both in serving positions. I work in the kitchen, helping to prepare feasts, and I also clean. That’s what I was finishing up before I came here.” She waved her hand. “But back to our bargain, the least you deserve is the reasoning behind your abduction. But more than that, I want you to understand the truth of what’s going on here. The prince wouldn’t have taken you unless he felt he had no other way to find his brother.”

I sat back, the wood in the fireplace entirely forgotten. “But...howis his brother a half-breed?”

“Bastian is the king’s illegitimate son. He was born five summers after Jax. And Bastian’s mother is afirelingwildling.”

“Can Bastian create fire?”

“He can. He’s actually quite magical.”

Frowning more, I let that information digest, then asked, “But if the king has a child around Jax’s age...that means the king was unfaithful. The king’s been married to the queen for centuries, hasn’t he?”

“Yes, the entire royal family knows of the king’s indiscretion. And because of the king’s torrid affair, Bastian’s existence is a closely guarded secret—a secret that Jax, my husband, and their friends strive to protect in order to keep Bastian safe. And it’s a secret the king and queen keep to protect themselves.”

I once again tried to fully comprehend what she was telling me. A king had bred with a wildling. And the child they’d createdlived, and said child’s royal heritage had managed to be kept a secret.

While I didn’t knowhowa secret of that magnitude could be kept, I understood why they’d done so. Procreation between siltenites and wildlings was against the law. And when it occurred, their half-breed children were scorned and the parents were punished.

Because when siltenites and wildlings bred, occasionally they would produce a half-breed child who had just as much magic as a full-blooded siltenite—sometimes even more—yet also had the breeding capabilities of a wildling, making many siltenites fear a potential power shift if half-breeds grew more plentiful.

And because of that, an even stricter law had been put in place as well. It forbade all half-breeds from breeding amongst themselves.

Long ago, there’d been fear that if half-breeds were left unchecked, they would outnumber siltenites and take over the kingdoms. It was why siltenites had created the law forbidding half-breeds to bear children.

And if it was discovered a siltenite was coupling with a wildling, they were arrested, sometimes even imprisoned. On top of that, all half-breeds that were born were forced to consume sterile-inducing potions at a young age so they could never breed, and then, they were scorned by society—a further deterrent for anyone contemplating breaking the law.

But if two half-breeds had somehow managed to avoid the sterilization process and they had a child, the child and both parents were immediately executed. All four kingdoms had that law. It was one of the few unified kingdom laws, not unlike the law that allowed lorafins to be enslaved. Because if half-breeds reproduced, their children could potentially be magically superior while also being able to far outbreed any other race.

So for akingto have coupled with a wildling and then to have brought a half-breed child into the realm, knowing how egregious such an action was considered... That was entirely taboo.

Shaking my head, I finally said, “How in the realm did they manage to keep this all a secret?”

“The king and queen have enacted many bargains within their inner circle to keep the king’s indiscretion from reaching the public. Many fae are sealed by those bargains, too afraid of the gods’ wrath to speak of it.”

“Then how are you able to tell me?”

“I haven’t made a bargain about Bastian. The king and queen don’t know that I’m aware.”

My eyebrows shot up. “Jax told you freely?”

“He did. He’s not bound by his parents’ bargains. He refused to do one, and his parents couldn’t very well execute or banish their only heir for refusing, so he’s remained free to speak of Bastian, but Jax is also aware that if a fairy knows, that fairy is at risk, so Jax has only told a select few. Only me, his band, and very few others know of Bastian, and none of us would ever tell a soul.”

“Yet you told me.”

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