Page 68 of The Crimson Princess
I can barely breathe with this information. “You think he killed her?”
“She was one spot closer to the crown, the one person who could reclaim the throne if I was gone.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“It was a long time ago now. I’ve made my peace with her death as best as any of us make peace with such things, but I will never make peace with Ruhn. Ever.”
“I’m shocked Ruhn followed you as long as he did.”
“I’ve wanted to exile him for centuries, but I decided keeping an eye on him was better than keeping him at a distance though as he floats between realms, he hasn’t been quiet about his desire to overthrow me.”
“And he thinks he found it with the sorceress?”
“I think he found it in the druids and then convinced them to help him summon the sorceress.”
“You think or you know?”
“I know that’s the intent. The rumor is that Crya hides out in Third World, and tortures those locked in exile. For all we know she controls the portal, not Osiris. Maybe she is him.”
“That means she chooses who comes down for the Challenge.”
“The Challenge is the book’s creation which means her, so it’s like her game she torments the gales with every ten years. I think they tried to get to her before the Challenge and failed. Why else do you have werewolves in your forest with a sealed portal? Macklemore summoned the sorceress when he was mortally wounded to beg for salvation. That’s what caused the cracks in the portal.”
“The portal in Ravengale is not cracked, but when I was in the human realm, there were disruptions, especially the night my mother died. As if someone has been trying to open it and succeeded for moments in time.”
“In the Codex it says,when hell is one with all the worlds, there will be a new king.It’s written at least three times. I’d previously believed that referenced the war, and the fall of Lares. Now I’m not sure anymore, especially since my intel says my brother intends to rule Third World.”
“Then he has to believe he can control her.” I hold my hand out in question. “How?”
“Macklemore believes he could do it with the book. That has to be it. They want the book.”
I shake my head. “No. It doesn’t make sense. Then why not just come at my father?”
“Something has happened that we don’t know for him to offer his daughter as a sacrifice.”
I hesitate, aware that trusting in Toren is perhaps betraying my father. “Toren, if you betray me—”
His hands slide to my face and he leans in, his mouth closing over mine in a kiss that is as passionate as it is hard and fast. “I will never betray you, Satima.Never.”
My heart is racing and as I press my hand to his chest, I feel his echoing my own. I ease back from him, and flatten my hands on the table, telling myself I can feel Toren’s character. I can feel his intent. He will not burn me.
“Princess? What do you want to say to me?”
“It’s not anything you don’t know, not really.” I twist around to face him. “I can feel what others feel at times. It’s a new magic, I don’t fully understand at this point, but I know what I read in my father before my attack. The book told him a king will overthrow him. It really is a creator of chaos.”
“And of course, he believes that king is me.”
“Yes,” I confirm. “Everything he is doing is about stopping that from happening. If he joins the druids, the druids stand with him to end any and all vampire rule.”
“I don’t know why it stressed you out so badly to tell me that. He tried to kill me. Of course, he believes it’s me.”
“It just feels like a betrayal to tell you what he has not actually told me. I just ripped it from his mind.”
“You didn’t betray him by telling me the obvious.”
“My point is that when I tell you he really believes that if we join the druids, we will stand together against you, your brother, and the sorceress will become a non-issue.”
“Your father is no fool and your magic may not be developed enough for you to understand what you read from him. He’s a strategic player. Maybe he knows my brother is involved with the druids, and he offered you to them to shut Ruhn out. Or maybe he simply wanted to buy time, to figure a way out of this, so he offered them you. He didn’t press a marriage agreement.”
