Page 67 of The Robin on the Oak Throne

the oak throne

Chapter Twenty-One

“Are you hurt?” Graves asked. His voice dripped with concern as he reached across the bed, still holding his magic tight. “Wren?”

“You helped them,” was what came out.

Graves pulled back, expression torn between bemusement and amusement. “That doesn’t sound like me.”

Kierse laughed at his incredulity. “You helped my parents.”

“Did I?” He raised an eyebrow.

She sat up in the bed and kicked her feet over the side. “They came to you, asking for your help to hide me. I was young. It was before I was on the streets.”

He frowned. “Many people did. Before all the monsters were out, there was always someone trying to hide their existence. The constant string of people begging for a solution that within a few decades worked itself out.”

“But not for the wisps,” Kierse said.

“No,” he agreed slowly. “No, they were hunted and killed.”

“They were coming for me and my parents. My mom…” She choked on the word. “My mom was alive. She didn’t die in childbirth. It must have been a trick of the spell. She said that the Fae Killer was after them.”

At that, Graves entire face shuttered. “She used thosewords?”

“Yes? Do you know who that is?”

Lines of frustration crinkled his forehead. “I was searching for them. My people kept coming up empty-handed, and as I got closer, the last wisps were killed and they disappeared. I had suspicions, but I never got close enough.”

“You think they killed my parents?”

“Yes,” he said flatly.

“But because of you, I survived.” It was still hard to even believe that was the case. “You sent them to a rogue Druid, Cillian Ryan.”

Graves’s frown only deepened. “Did you get names? Your parents’ names?”

“Shannon and Adair.”

“Fuck,” he said, coming to his feet and stepping away from her. He fisted his hair before quickly dropping his hand. He was still facing away from her when he said, “They died.Youdied.”

“I clearly did not.”

“Yes, but…I had Edgar follow up. I wanted to see if your parents made it to the Druid and if you’d been hidden. And he came back and said you were dead. All of you.”

Kierse tilted her head. “Do you think he lied?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted harshly. She could see him wondering if that was false, what else might have been a lie. The working of his empire unwinding before his eyes. “I’ll have to ask him.”

“Which is why you never went looking for me,” she said. “Why you would put the entire interaction out of your mind.”

“Yes,” he said slowly.

“And why you didn’t connect me with what happened,” Kierse said, putting the pieces together.

“No, your stories were so different. Your mother died in childbirth. You’d been left to the streets. It never clicked that you could have survived. That my contact would betray me…or had been betrayed.” His eyes found hers as he sank back into the chair. “I knew you were a wisp when I found out about your absorption abilities. I thought that you’d been hidden by your lack of magic.”

“Mylackof magic?” Kierse asked.

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