Page 164 of Fearless

Paedyn Gray.

An Ordinary, sitting at his table and pretending that she is not. His Ordinary, sitting here as though she is not meant to be dead.

“So,thisis the girl who saved you in the alley?”

The king says this to his Enforcer, disguising every bit of bite in his voice with feigned intrigue. But when the Ordinary looks up at her father, he finds a loathing there to rival his own.

“I must say, I’ve never met a Psychic before. Your powers are… intriguing.”

A sham. A lie. A disgrace to his name.

These are all things Edric could have said in that moment, but he knows how to play his cards. He will not show his hand any more than she will. Instead, the king will watch her squirm until the moment he finally puts an end to her pathetic, Ordinary life.

A rehearsed explanation leaves Paedyn’s lips at a calculated pace. Not too fast—this would make it seem like the lie it is—but not entirely slow, because why would she need such time to think on her own ability? It’sadmirable, really, her commitment to passing as an Elite. Even becoming the lowliest of them is a challenge.

Every word, every reasoning, is so deliberate that the king might have believed her if those eyes weren’t so incriminating. Kai seems unworried by his inability to sense her power, or perhaps, the Enforcer is simply too distracted to question her reasonings further. But Edric says nothing of the truth he knows, because this Ordinary will die in his Trials, and he need not raise a finger to do it.

This time, he will not make the same mistake. This time, he will watch her die.

What a shame, to have survived this whole time for nothing.

Nothing. Just like the daughter before him. Like the powerless child who killed his wife, the waste of Elite power.

Paedyn mentions the man who raised her, forcing the king to further fortify his unbothered expression. Edric believed the surname Gray died with the man whose growing uprise became a pawn to satiate the king’s appetite for power. Adam Gray was meant to help eradicate the remaining Ordinaries, albeit unknowingly. But the Healer’s life was swiftly ended after he stumbled upon a secret meant solely for kings.

Only, the forgotten princess having been raised by the former Resistance leader was not a detail Edric was informed of.

Still, it feels good to blame another man for the weakness she is. For that reason, Edric happily confirms what she already believes to be true.

“Ah, yes, your father. Adam Gray was a great Healer. A very educated man.”

To her credit, the girl feigns surprise at the king’s memory.

“You… you knew my father?”

The king answers her question, though the both of them already know the answer.

“Yes, I did. He would come to the palace during fever season to helpour own court physicians when there were too many patients to attend to.”

That is how Edric became aware of Adam’s plan to raise up a Resistance. His Mind Reader gathered the information while briefly passing in the halls. It was hardly shocking to discover the Healer’s agenda, considering his continual refusal of the bribe offered him. The king could not buy Adam’s silence about the legitimacy of this Ordinary disease, but as a resident of the slums, he seemingly posed little threat.

Only, he raised the king’s daughter into something that mockingly resembled an Elite.

Edric rises from the table, his eyes on those that once belonged to his wife.

I will watch her die, just as I have my wife. I will mar her heart, just as she has mine.

Calum does not need the king to vocalize the rage that roars within his head. He can read it easily enough, like a scribbled scroll rolled out before him. Edric’s anger is an all-consuming ailment, one the Mind Reader has grown to understand better than most. And he knows now the reasoning behind this wrath.

“She was a baby. I could not bring myself to kill her.”

The king’s eyes flash. “And now an Ordinary sleeps in my castle. Competes in my Trials as if she is worthy.”

“Forgive me, Majesty.” Calum hangs his head solemnly, folding sweaty palms behind his back. “I should have disposed of her like you asked. But I’ve kept an eye on her for years, ever since working with Adam and the Resistance. She was never meant to find her way back to the castle—”

“But she saved my son,” Edric spits, angered still by the Enforcer’s inability to defend himself against a Silencer. “And now Paedyn Gray is here to taunt me with her mother’s eyes.”

The Mind Reader’s throat bobs. “I know.”

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