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CHAPTER SEVENTY-EIGHT

Ryker

Ellery’s bloodshot, swollen eyes narrowed. She’d barely slept last night and whimpered whenever she did. Despite her crushing grief, she was determined to forge ahead with her life, and I would do whatever she required for me to help her succeed.

“She looked like a dark fae to me,” she said.

“She’s half dark fae and half amsirah.”

“ Amsirah ?”

“She’s Leo’s daughter.”

“ WHAT ?”

The amsirah below looked up as the word echoed over the clearing. Ellery’s hand flew to her mouth, and her face turned red. I waved and smiled at the amsirah staring at us; they returned to work before I shifted my attention back to her.

Ellery slowly lowered her hand. “ What ?”

“My father’s fiancée is Leo’s daughter.”

She blinked at me a few times; her mouth opened and closed before she finally found words again. “Did you know about her?”

“No. Leo kept her a secret from me and, from what I can tell, almost everyone.”

“Almost everyone?”

“Yes. Apparently, he told my father.”

“What? Why would he tell him and not you ?”

I ran my hand through my hair and pulled at the ends of it, causing it to stand up more. The shock in her words mirrored what I experienced when my father first revealed her identity to me.

“I’m not sure,” I told her, “but I have my suspicions about why he kept it from me.”

I told her everything my father had revealed and my belief Leo had kept her, and his intentions for me to marry her, a secret to protect us both. Her mouth gradually lowered throughout until it hung ajar at the end.

“Leo wanted you to marry her?” she whispered when I finished.

I heard the uncertainty in her voice. Drawing her closer, I held her against my chest as I kissed the top of her head.

“I wouldn’t have married her,” I told her.

“But he was your friend.”

“Leo was my friend and king, but I didn’t always do what he told me to. That was our relationship.”

“Immortals marry for love.”

“Maybe not all of them. Maybe some marry for power, money, and position. Not many, but some.”

“And Leo wanted you to be one of them.”

“Yes, but he had to know I’d say no.”

“Would you have, though?”

I opened my mouth to say yes but realized that answer was coming from my perspective of now . Of what it was like to have Ellery and to actually love another.

Back then, I’d never considered the possibility of loving and being loved by another. I’d never believed I could fall in love or entertained the notion someone could love me .

It simply wasn’t something I’d considered. Most of my life had revolved around suffering and death. I didn’t know anything else until Ellery.

Now I knew what love truly was, and I’d die before ever turning to another, but back then, the most love I’d known was my mother until I was six and Leo’s friendship. He’d been more like a father to me than my own.

The idea of being married to a woman I didn’t love for an eternity wouldn’t have made me happy, but would I have said no?