Page 110

I wouldn’t find her until I died.

“If Véa is on any of the worlds, we would’ve found her by now,” Rafael said. “Pa and I keep an eye out for familiar souls, and—”

“Remind me how the spell goes for disguising one’s energy signature?” Michael squinted at Rafael, smiling still. “I needed them busy for a while, and I managed it. Even here, now, I slowed you down, didn’t I, Uncle?”

“Why?” I was almost embarrassed by the crackle in my throat. “What did I do to you? Why didn’t you just fucking kill me?”

“Because this was a better punishment.”

“Punishment forwhat?!” I jarred forward, yanking Rafael with me. “Because I took Matriaza from your father?! Because—”

“Yes!” He screamed just as loud as I had, sitting forward. “It wasmyright.Iwas meant to be king. Then you took the throne, and then Pa fucking destroyed it all anyway. I still could’ve become king until then. One of those days, you would’ve passed the title, maybe to your son, but he wouldn’t have wanted it. The mortal world was his world.Thatwas what he would’ve wanted to rule. You would’ve given Matriaza to me eventually, but Pa destroyed it, and there went my chance. These worlds were my only opportunity.”

I stared at him for a moment, somewhere between dumbfounded, heartbroken, and appalled.

All this. All this just because he didn’t get to be king.

I would’ve.

Back then, a thousand years ago, before he’d killed the par animarum, before Matriaza and Morduaine were destroyed, yes. I would’ve given him the title of king. I would’ve let him rule Matriaza so long as he’d been the man I thought he was then.

It wasn’t until he killed Hana and Venark that day that I saw him for who he was.

No matter how hard I searched, I didn’t see the little boy I’d taught to wield a sword before me. I didn’t see the child I’d held moments after he was born.

I saw a threat to all mankind.

“Show me,” Rafael said, extending his hand. “Prove it.”

“Nix said no touching.”

Glowering, I took a step forward with Rafael, tapping into his thoughts as his brother showed him the truth.

I saw it all.

I saw him and Gabriel discussing it over drinks as teenagers. I saw Michael meeting with his brothers the night Lux returned with all those souls within him. I saw them planning.

I saw him casting the spells on those blades, blades capable of killing an eternal. I saw him perfecting the spell he titledThe Curse of Twenty-Four. I saw him approaching a pregnant woman in the street, speaking with her softly, and depositing Véa’s golden and purple soul into her belly. I saw him walking past that woman in the street months later. I saw that baby with my wife’s soul inside it.

She was alive.

But she hadn’t been Véa in lifetimes.

And even if I managed to find her, I had to die to break the curse. I saw it in the scroll he’d written.

I had to die, and I had to hope that I’d find her again one day.

CHAPTERTHIRTY

NIX

Medica had both hands cupped over his mouth as Rafael reiterated what we’d gathered in that cell. He’d been sitting there with his hands over his face for the last hour, utterly silent.

I hadn’t spoken either. Since Queen Iliantha led us into her throne room, I hadn’t looked at anything aside from the anklet from my wedding night wrapped around the bottom of my leg.

The love of my life was out there somewhere already, and there was no use in finding her until I died and broke the curse.

“I don’t believe it,” Dem said. “I think this is all a ruse to get ye to kill yerself and let him out.”