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Sorin was quiet for a long moment, and Scarlett didn’t feel right saying anything, so she remained silent, slowly eating the bread she still held. Finally, he spoke again. “There is a reason I cannot say the Fae Queen’s name here. The Fae Royals’ names can not be spoken in a way that makes their identity known in order to keep their identities a secret. While the Fae Royals were slaughtered, their children were hidden. The Queen of the Eastern Courts had hidden them away, refusing to reveal their location to Deimas and Esmeray when they came to exact vengeance. The thing was, she hid them in plain sight. They were among the crowds, disguised as regular Court folk. Esmeray originally spared her sisters, but when she later learned that the Court Royals’ children were being raised and trained to rule the Courts once more,she came back.”

“But weren’t the wards in place by then?” Scarlett asked, finishing off the bread.

“Yes, but remember that Esmeray was, in fact, Fae. She could cross the wards. She crossed into the Wind Court and Queen Henna met her. She died defending all the Royal Children, refusing to even say their names, but what Esmeray did not know was that Queen Henna had an infant daughter. That is why she fought and not the Western Fae Queen. Queen Henna had an heir.”

“The Fae Queen,” Scarlett whispered.

“Yes,” Sorin answered. “No one here knows the names of the sitting Court Royals. No one knows the name of the Water Prince or the Earth Prince or the Wind Princess—”

“Or the Fire Prince,” Scarlett finished.

“Exactly,” he said, passing her a handful of nuts. “Are these fine, or do you want dried meat?”

“These are fine,” she said quickly. After she had eaten a few, she ventured, “You said you weren’t going to give me to the Fae Queen.”

“I’m not,” he answered, his tone tight. “She will want to use you to exact vengeance for the death of our people, of her mother, and eventually her father and others.”

“Can she not force you to? As your queen?”

She felt him shake his head. “No, she cannot force me to do anything. Not any more. There are charters and accords in place to keep her power in check.”

“What of the Queen of the Western Courts? You said Queen Esmeray left her alive,” Scarlett said.

“She did, and she ruled all the Courts beautifully for decades, helping to raise her niece and teaching her how to rule until she was ready to take up her place as queen,” Sorin explained.

“You speak as if you knew her personally,” Scarlett said, finishing the nuts and dropping her hand to his that still splayed across her hip. He intertwined their fingers.

“I did, Scarlett,” he answered, his tone somewhat melancholy. “I was her Second-in-Command.She was a dear friend. Do you remember how I told you of Fae and twin flames?”

Scarlett stilled. “Was she your twin flame?”

“No,” Sorin said quickly. “Nothing like that, but she was my soulmate.”

“That sounds like a lover,” Scarlett said skeptically.

“It is actually the farthest thing from it. Soulmates are people who understand each other on a deeper level, but there is no romantic attraction. The intimacy is deeper than friendship. It is soul deep. They connect with each other almost on a…spiritual level for lack of a better explanation.

“Anyway,” he continued, “as you know, the Fire Court and the Water Court were loyal to the Western Fae Queen, so when she… died, it strained relations with the Fae Queen of the Eastern Courts. Our queen did not have a known heir, and we later learned she had made it so that should such a thing happen, her death would trigger a transfer of her subjects to fall under her niece.”

“I can see why you would dislike the Fae Queen so much, but why do you have to deal with her? If there is no longer a Western Fae Queen, wouldn’t your role be obsolete?” Scarlett winced at the insensitivity. “Wouldn’t she now deal mainly with the Fire Prince and Water Prince?”

“Yes,” he answered quietly.

“That didn’t really answer my question…”

Then something else struck her.

“Wait, you said the Western Fae Queen did not have aknownheir. That makes it sound like she does have an heir.”

Sorin’s grip on her hip tightened. “She does. She has been hidden and unknown to us. The Fae Queen still does not know she exists because she has been kept a secret.” Before Scarlett could question how he learned of her, Sorin said words that made Scarlett’s blood freeze in her veins. “She was kept hidden and raised by an Assassin Lord. She was kept a secret and trained to kill her own kind. She was honed into a weapon.”

“Stop,” she whispered. “If you are telling me you have kept something else so major from me, I need you to stop right now.”

But he didn’t.

“Queen Eliné was the Fae Queen of the Western Courts, Princess.”

The roaring in her head that had been absent since last night came back with a vengeance, and her shadows thickened around her. There was no way what he was suggesting was possible.