Page 65 of The Call of Crimson
“The marriage contract. Your father signed it over a year ago. Telling you wouldn’t have changed that fact.”
“You’ve known fora year,” I choke. “A whole year?”
“Ayden hadn’t signed it until just before your father’s death,” Aurelius continues, the look in his eyes telling me he wishes he didn’t have to. “But I didn’t know it was official until the night of that damn ball.”
“But you suspected.”
He rakes a hand through his hair. “Yes, I suspected.”
“That’s why you warned me away from him.” My heart twists at the realization. “Why you fought so hard to keep him out of Rimor.”
He grimaces. “It’s part of it.”
I give him a long, stern look.
He finally sighs. “Okay, it was most of it. He wasn’t supposed to have you,” Aurelius says, his voice breaking on the words. “You were always supposed to be mine.I’m a selfish bastard who wanted you all to myself, Breyla. What do you want me to say? I’m not sorry for it.”
“I had the right to know,” I snap, ignoring the storm of emotions his words stir in me.
“Perhaps,” he allows. “But it wouldn’t have changed anything. You’d still be betrothed to Ayden.”
“I could have taken the situation into my own hands,” I argue.
“How?”
“I could have taken the throne from my mother, annulled the agreement, and chosen my own match.”
“There’s a clause in the contract. If either of you ascended your throne, you would be married within a month.” Aurelius exhales roughly, dropping his head. “Ayden made sure the agreement was ironclad—there is no loophole. Had you married another, you would have ignited a real war with Pruida.”
His words snap something loose in my memory.
As the warm broth fills my belly, I hear my mother speak for the first time this evening. “So, Prince Ayden, when might we expect to hear of a coronation ball for yourself?” Her tone is polite and inquisitive, but I know she’s probing for information.
The spymaster, Lord Craylor, sits several seats down from Charlotte, but I see his gaze snap to my mother at the question.
“Well, seeing as it requires that I take a queen before I can take the throne...” Ayden’s voice trails off, “I imagine it will be about the same time Breyla takes her throne.”
My hands curl into fists. “That snake,” I hiss, anger rolling through me in waves.
“I told you to be wary of him,” Aurelius mutters. “You just didn’t listen.”
“You still could have told me,” I growl.
“And shatter what was between us?” he says softly. “No, I think not. I regret how I went about it, but I don’t regret wanting you.”
“I need time to process this, Aurelius,” I say stiffly, shoving him away.
“Of course,” he acquiesces, stepping back. His face is unreadable as he rounds the table behind me.
Rowina appears a moment later, dropping a heavy tome into my arms. “Here, I found you some light reading material.”
“The Genealogy of House Mordet,” I read aloud, brow arching. “Why are you giving me your family tree?”
“Thought you should know the family you’re marrying into,” she replies with a shrug, handing Aurelius a different tome.
“The History of Crimson,” he reads, a puzzled look on his face.
“Enjoy,” she sings before disappearing between the towering shelves.
