Page 54 of King

My mind is reeling. I’ve never heard of her having an heir. Folas isn’t treated like royalty. He seems more like a servant, a mere errand runner for the queen. And he’s weak. There’s no power radiating off of him, no hint of the strength one would expect from the queen’s lineage.

And if she needed a spawn to sacrifice, why the fuck would she spare this fool?

“You’re lying,” I say, shaking my head. “You’ve found a way to lie.”

“No, I’m telling the truth,” he sighs, dragging his boot across the fur rug. “I inherited her timeless magic but not her battle magic. I’ve been here for hundreds of years, waiting to be blessed with something more. Anything. But nothing else ever came.”

“Why didn’t she sacrifice you?” I ask, more to myself than the ratty fae in front of me.

The darkness had continually demanded her spawn, yet she insisted she was “trying.” Why go to such lengths to produce an heir when she already had a perfectly sacrificial one at her disposal?

“Sacrificeme?” Folas recoils with a horrified look on his face. “What are you talking about?”

“You say you’re her blood, but you know nothing about the sacrifices?” I ask sharply. “The offerings she’s laid at some dark spirit’s feet for more power? She promised it her spawn in exchange for even greater power. You claim to be her spawn, yet here you are.”

“I had no idea about any of that,” he says grimacing. “But it doesn’t surprise me. Her timeless magic seems to be drying up. She’s been after my own for years. I’ve tried giving it to her, but it seems timelessness isn’t a magic that can be shared.”

I take a menacing step closer, smiling to myself when he flinches. “Why doesn’t anyone know about you?”

The Alphas look between us, completely in the dark. I don’t have time to fill them in. I need the precious minutes to drag something useful out of Folas.

“Answer me,” I press, letting my fingers glow as a subtle threat. “Why are you treated like a pest instead of a prince?”

“Okay, okay!” he says, raising his hands defensively in front of his face. “Short version… My mother wasn’t always so cruel. My father made her that way.”

“Your father?”

He nods vigorously and continues. “He was her consort. Theonly one she ever truly loved. But she loved him a little too much.”

“Too much?” Vaegon grunts. “How do you love someone too much?”

Folas looks from Vaegon to me a few times before finding his focus again. “He was a typical fae, drawn to many. He was passionate about the other species. Especially one elf in particular.”

“Shit…” I say, my head whirling with new realizations.

“Yes,” Folas says softly, so meek now compared to the brash asshole I’ve grown to know and despise.

“When she found out she was pregnant with me, she became fiercely possessive of my father. She forbade him from taking any other lovers, which is where the strict rule for her consorts began.”

“I’m guessing he didn’t comply,” Lucas says.

“No, he didn’t.” Folas grabs the little pillow from the bassinet and squeezes it in his fists. “He just couldn’t let go of that damned elf!”

“Perhaps they were fated mates,” Anders suggests. “The connection has a way of taking control of your actions, whether you want it to or not.”

“I doubt it,” Folas scoffs bitterly. “His actions lead to a spectacle of the elf’s tragic death. Then, my mother locked him in her chambers and refused to let him leave. When I was born, she convinced herself that my father was content with only her. Perhaps he pretended to be happy, I don’t know. But eventually, she allowed him some freedom. He used it to escape her.”

“How do you know all of this?” I ask, still skeptical. “No one seems to know who you are.”

“I had a guardian named Seraphine,” he says with a small smile. “She raised me right here in this room. Obviously, the decor changed as I grew, but Seraphine told me everything.” Hisslight smile is impossible to miss as he speaks of his caretaker. He must have cared for her very much. I don’t even want to ask what happened to her when he was old enough to care for himself.

“My mother glamoured herself when she was carrying me. She worried the fae might see her as weak and try to overthrow her. No one ever knew I existed. Seraphine said that after my father left, my mother became even more paranoid. She feared someone would use her love for me against her or take me away, leaving her with nothing of my father.”

He sighs and tosses the crumpled pillow back onto the mattress. “Honestly, I think it’s the only reason she keeps me around. She doesn’t hide her disappointment in my magic, but she sees my father in me. It’s enough to keep her from getting rid of me.”

“She never found him?” Vaegon asks, voicing my own curiosity.

He shakes his head somberly. The way his curls bounce around his face gives him a youthful, almost innocent appearance. A big part of me wants to feel sorry for him, but he treated me like dirt. He also did nothing to persuade his mother to change her ways. Now I’m stuck putting hundreds of lives at risk to end her cruelty.

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