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His words stab me. Does he know of my failures? No, that’s impossible.

Of course, the key is magic. I suspect it will open any door I need it to.

Still, I hesitate. The king locked Ruarok away for all these years for a reason. Ruarok wanted both me and my mother dead. Now, he has at least one of those wishes. My mother is no longer with us. I blink back tears at the thought. What if he decides to finish the job that landed him behind these bars in the first place?

“I should go and talk to my people—” I say.

He cuts me off. “Who? Cirrus Planetree? Assuming he’s still alive. Is that who rules the kingdom now?”

“No, of course not, but I’m allowed to take counsel. A king or queen who listens to no one else is a dangerous person.” I flash with anger.

“Of course, Princess Taelyn. I didn’t mean anything by it. Please, forgive me.”

I soften slightly. I already know what Cirrus will say. He’ll tell me to walk away, to forget I ever saw Ruarok. He’ll say that Ruarok is getting what he deserves, and tofree him now would be to go against the dead king’s wishes. Is that what I want to hear? I don’t think it is. I want someone by my side right now. Ruarok would be my equal. He would understand the pressure on my shoulders, perhaps even help to alleviate it.

But I know those thoughts are dangerous. He was locked down here because my stepfather had believed him capable of murdering me and my mother. Surely, the king wouldn’t have made a decision like that without believing it to be one hundred percent true.

This was his son. A bastard, yes, but still his flesh and blood.

Ruarok faces me again, pressed against the silver bars of the cage. “Will you free me, Princess? Or will you leave me here to suffer?”

I take a step back. “I-I’m not sure.”

“Don’t you think ten years is enough punishment for something I never even did?”

“You were imprisoned because you planned to have me and my mother killed,” I say.

He shakes his head. “No. I had no such plan. Did I entertain the thought? Yes, in passing, but then I saw you, and I saw your mother. I’d rather have had you for myself than for you to be killed.”

“Had me?” It takes me a moment to understand exactly what he means by that. When it dawns on me, my cheeks warm with embarrassment.

“What do you know of me, Princess?” he asks.

I recover myself. “That you are a bad person. That you wanted the throne, no matter who you had to kill to get it.”

“Do you believe I am that person?”

I blink. “I don’t know what to believe. I’m still not sure I can believe you’ve spent ten years in a cage beneath the castle with nothing to eat or drink, and without seeing another living soul.”

“But I have, and it was my own father who put me here.”

The king had never been fond of Ruarok. Everyone knew Ruarok wasn’t full Fae. Rumor was that Ruarok’s mother had been a Succubus, and not only that, but a whore. That was why Ruarok had never been accepted by his father. That seemed wholly unfair to me, though. After all, the king had been the one to sleep with Ruarok’s mother. It wasn’t as though she’d created him alone.

Wasn’t it possible that the king had created this situation in order to rid himself of his son? With a new wife, in the form of my mother, and even a new daughter, in the form of me, his line was secure.

Perhaps he had no need for his bastard son anymore.

A claim that Ruarok was planning the murder of the new queen and her daughter was a convenient way of ridding himself of the inconvenience of his half Incubus son.

I don’t want to believe it. I’ve come to love the king as a father over the years. But it’s enough to plant a seed of doubt in my mind. It’s enough doubt for me to not want to leave this man trapped inside a magic cage for the rest of eternity.

I can’t imagine having lived this way for so long and still having my sanity intact. Surely, he’d have been better off dead.

“If you leave me down here,” Ruarok continues, “do you really believe you’ll be able to just carry on with yourlife? You’re a good person. I can see that. Knowing I’m down here, suffering, will torture you. You’ll dream of me at night, and I’ll haunt your thoughts in the day.”

I lift my head, and my eyes lock with his dark gaze. The truth is, he’s right. Hasn’t he already been haunting my dreams? Hasn’t he already been on my mind? This man, with whom I spent only one dance, has been in my thoughts since the first moment I met him.

“Very well.” I nod. “I will release you.”