Page 7 of A War of Three Kings

Those footsteps grow louder, and then they are upon us. “My gosh! Keira? Diarmuid? Please tell me the two of you haven’t been searching the dungeons again.”

I turn toward my mother’s voice. Her features are in their usual strained expression, her arching eyebrows raised high and her dark eyes wide. Not a single strand of blond hair is out of place in her updo. It never is.

“The two of you look like street criminals, not a lord and lady.” She reaches us and her fingers fly to my hair, swiftly tidying it. “Were you looking for him again?”

I straighten my back. “Mother, I am going insane. Why won’t anyone let me see him?”

“Is that what youreallywant? Are you sure you don’t want your father to handle this? He is trying to protect you from heartache.” She keeps fussing over me, not holding my gaze while she talks.

“I am not a child in need of protection!” I swat her hands away. “Has everyone in this family forgotten that I have made the crossing? I have proven time and again that I can take care of myself.”

She sighs. “I’ll have to remember that.” She glances at my brother. “You really shouldn’t indulge her, Diarmuid. Keira is having enough of a difficult time without having to comb through dungeons and witness whatever horrors were left down there.” She visibly shudders at the idea, but my brother shrugs.

My mother is strong in her own way. Court intrigues and the deadly game of houses don’t make her bat an eyelid, but the mere mention of violence is more than she can handle.

She witnessed the massacre of her entire house when she was younger than I am now and has traumas beyond what I canimagine. She has never told me exactly what happened, but even the smallest drop of blood sends her back to those moments.

“Where is Aldrin?” I force her to hold my eye.

“He is in the keep, in a place far nicer than those dungeons.” She forces a rigid smile, then places her arm around my shoulders and leads me down the corridor. “Come. Speak of it with your father. And please, for the love of the gods and those around you, try not to get into another yelling match with him.”

My father sits at the large mahogany desk in his study, quill in hand and sheets of parchment all around him. His large form is framed by the leather covers of tomes placed haphazardly in piles on either side of him, and on a tall bookshelf at his back.

My eyes skirt over the gold letters on the spines, noting that he reads of old fae history, but the texts are too recent to be accurate.

As I sit in one of the dark leather couches opposite him, Father’s emerald eyes flick from my drawn face to the grime on my clothes that indicates where I have been and who I have been looking for.

Then they flash with an unreadable emotion.

“Here to cause more trouble for me, Keira?” He folds his arms before him. “Shouldn’t you have moved to the Sanctuary of Magic by now?”

“Edmund!” my mother chastises him, placing her hands on my shoulders.

“It’s just an observation, Maeve. Finan needs to believe she is devoting herself to the temple. It is the only way to absolve this protectorate of any blame for her leaving him.” His gaze flicks to my brother as Diarmuid flops into the other armchair beside me. “Are all my children ganging up on me now? Caitlin was at my throat just minutes ago.”

Diarmuid opens his mouth, but I don’t let him speak. “Where is he, Father? What have you done with Aldrin?”

His teeth clench and his frown deepens. The intensity of the moment builds and builds until I can’t handle it anymore.

“I need to know if he is okay,” I spit out.

“Why? Why does it matter if a convicted criminal is okay?” His hands scrunch the parchment beneath them, seemingly without him noticing.

“Because whatever he has done, I can’t change the way I feel about him. I need to hear him out and understand this from his perspective.” As the words pour from me, they rip a hole in my heart.

“Why do you think I haven’t executed him already?” My father leans forward over his desk, the muscles of his arms bulging. “Why do you think I question him instead? Do you know what I risk in doing that? I take this burden gladly for you, Keira. I need to determine for myself if this man’s lies will break my daughter’s heart a second time.”

“You will NOT execute him! And I do not need you to safeguard me!” I toss my head. “You keep me in ignorance like a child, but it doesn’t benefit me!”

He pinches the bridge of his nose and closes his eyes for a long moment. “Why him? Why a fae? I would have supported you falling in love with anyone else. A commoner, even. But afae? What am I supposed to do with that, Keira? Allow you to be dragged away by that monster into the Otherworld? It is a father’s worst nightmare.”

I grind my teeth as wave after wave of anger rolls through me. “Aldrin said we could stay here, in this realm, if I wished it. We won’t have to return to the Otherworld if I don’t want to. It ismychoice.”

“That’s no life, Keira. Lords and peasants alike would hunt you down in every kingdom.” He deflates back into his chair.

A silence drags out as we glare at each other. I refuse to break it, to back down from this. Aldrin may have shattered my heartand destroyed whatever trust there was between us, but I am the only person here who will fight for him.

My mother gives my shoulders a quick squeeze before releasing them. “Perhaps Keira can join you the next time you question Aldrin?”

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