Page 99 of The War of Wings
“Please! Keep your voice down!”
“How dare you tell me to keep my voice down after you set Malosym free!”
Ludovicus’ grip on me loosened slightly as his face went slack. “What did you just say?”
“You set Malosym free!” I spat in his face, my hands growing hot as the flames began to spark to life.
“I–I didn’t,” he stammered, his grip releasing as he jumped back, staring down at his reddening palms. His neck was still marked with the blurred outline of my hand, the only thing that remained from the moment my rage had boiled over when I found him in Blindbarrow.
“You were in his cell with him, and after you left, he was gone,” I snarled. “That little show of innocence you gave me back in Astran was nothing but a slimy fucking act and it will not fool me again.”
“Your Majesty, I didn’t set him free.” The words came so fast, they almost seemed to blur together as he turned to look back at the street again. “I swear it. I didn’t free him.”
“Then where the fuck did he go?”
His mouth opened and my flames banked involuntarily, almost as if my power felt something I didn’t. “I don’t know, your Majesty. You must believe me.”
I eyed him suspiciously, the way his palms were raised, the tilt of his brows. “What are you doing here?” I demanded.
“I-I wanted to see him, I–”
“No, I’m not asking what you were doing in Malosym’s cell. What are you doing in Nesan? Why are you in Araqina?”
“I left the moment we returned to Taitha after the battle in Eserene.”
“Butwhy?”
“You can’t tell anyone I’m here, your Majesty,please–”
“Why. Are. You.Here?!” I roared.
Another glance over his shoulder, as if he were afraid someone would look down the alleyway and find us. “I was thinking maybe there was something in the library…” He trailed off. “It’s so extensive, and I know it so well, so–”
“The library in the castle?” I asked, cutting him off, confusion rocking me.
He pursed his lips, his eyes nervously flitting back and forth between me and the street before he nodded.
“How do you have access to the castle’s library?”
His movements were jumpy, nothing like the worn, haggard man we’d met in Blindbarrow. “You can’t tell anyone I’m here,” he repeated, reaching for my arms once again but pulling back at the last moment. “My father will have me executed if he finds out I’m in the city.”
“But why? Why would he–”
I cut myself off with my own realization. Back on the road between Blindbarrow and Eserene, Ludovicus had told me he’d been from a family of high standing in Araqina — a city where he didn’t want to be seen and whose royal library he was familiar with. He told me his father had cut him off from the family after he found out his son was involved with blood magic. Queen Irli told me Laion had cut off their son for being involved in blood magic.
“Malosym called you Vic,” I breathed, my head shaking. No. It didn’t make any sense.
“Yes.”
Ludovicus. “A shortened version of your true name.”
“Yes.”
I stared at him, heart pounding in my ears. “You’re the Lost Heir, aren’t you?”
His eyes moved to the dirt as shame cast a shadow over his face. FuckingSaints. The sigh he let out was strangled. “Yes.”
I took a step back, tearing my hands through my hair. Malosym had taken his crown. Malosym was the reason Ludovicus’ father disowned him and scorned his memory. Malosym was the reason Nesan had lost their beloved heir. My brain was reeling, the pieces of his story lining themselves up in order. Of course it was fucking Malosym.
