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CHAPTER SIX

Ryker

My mind flashed back to the night after Leo and I were injured, when he’d made me promise to look after Tempest if something were to happen to him. Had he gone to my father after that night? Or had he suspected his time was running out and gone to my father before then?

I didn’t ask my father those questions. He had no right to any further information about me or Leo.

“What makes you say that?” I asked.

“He didn’t expect to survive the Ghoul War, Ryker. Some men sense when their time is running out, and Leo knew it. He was trying to secure the realm’s safety before his life ended.”

Those words made me think Leo had come to him after that night. I’d sensed a change in my friend, but I hadn’t realized how big a shift it was.

“Since Leo’s only living heir was a half blood, he knew he had to pair her with someone the other aristocrats would approve of, and who better than you?” my father inquired. “For some reason, Leo believed you were strong enough to rule this realm.

“When I told him he was wrong, we argued over it, but in the end, I refused to give my support for the marriage, and Leo knew if I told the aristocrats I disapproved of the match and didn’t think you were a capable ruler, they wouldn’t support the two of you ruling Tempest. She may be his daughter, but they’ll distrust a half-breed far more than Ivan.”

Without my father’s support of the marriage, there would be no one to back me if it came to a fight between Ivan and me. Which meant the marriage would have only succeeded in putting his daughter and me in jeopardy.

“Of course, I was right about you, but I’ve always known what a disappointment you are. It’s a good thing Leo didn’t live to see you prove me right; he’d be disgusted by what you’ve become since his death. His great unifier has turned into nothing more than a whore mongering failure. You can’t even catch a simple thief,” my father taunted.

A couple of months ago, his words would have struck deep as I’d struggled to overcome my grief and sense of failure after Leo’s death, but things had changed since then. Now, I gave him a tight-lipped smile.

“I’m having a fantastic time keeping the whores happy. It’s a job I enjoy,” I told him.

He couldn’t know that this was far from true, but he had to believe it. If he had some of his followers ask around, he’d learn that I wasn’t sleeping with any of the women in the bordellos, but there was one who would tell him I was.

I’d started paying her well to tell anyone who asked that we were fucking, and I tried to visit her bordello at least once a week to keep up appearances. If he learned of her, my father might think I’d become focused on Dahlia, and want to her hurt her because of it, but she wasn’t afraid of him.

We’d fought on the same battlefields during the Ghoul War; she was strong, capable, and had little left to lose. She took my money, and I trusted her to tell anyone who asked, that I was often in her bed. It worked well for both of us and helped keep Ellery safe.

“Leo should have known you’d say no,” I said. “If you’d agreed to the union, I would have more power than you, and there’s no way you’d allow that.”

“I think he believed he could give me enough carisle to agree.”

“There’s not enough money in all of Tempest for that.”

My father smiled at me. “You know me so well, son.”

Too well. “So, why is the woman here?”