Page 25 of The Call of Crimson (The Crimson & Shadows #2)
I don’t think I can survive without his soul.
“Even if I forgive you.” My voice cracks. “It’s my trust I don’t know how to give you.”
“It wouldn’t have made a difference,” he says, voice rough with regret.
“What wouldn’t?”
“The marriage contract. Your father signed it over a year ago. Telling you wouldn’t have changed that fact.”
“You’ve known for a year ,” I choke. “A whole year?”
“Ayden hadn’t signed it until just before your father’s death,” Aurelius continues, the look in his eyes telling me he wishes he didn’t have to. “But I didn’t know it was official until the night of that damn ball.”
“But you suspected.”
He rakes a hand through his hair. “Yes, I suspected.”
“That’s why you warned me away from him.” My heart twists at the realization. “Why you fought so hard to keep him out of Rimor.”
He grimaces. “It’s part of it.”
I give him a long, stern look.
He finally sighs. “Okay, it was most of it. He wasn’t supposed to have you,” Aurelius says, his voice breaking on the words. “ You were always supposed to be mine. I’m a selfish bastard who wanted you all to myself, Breyla. What do you want me to say? I’m not sorry for it.”
“I had the right to know,” I snap, ignoring the storm of emotions his words stir in me.
“Perhaps,” he allows. “But it wouldn’t have changed anything. You’d still be betrothed to Ayden.”
“I could have taken the situation into my own hands,” I argue.
“How?”
“I could have taken the throne from my mother, annulled the agreement, and chosen my own match.”
“There’s a clause in the contract. If either of you ascended your throne, you would be married within a month.” Aurelius exhales roughly, dropping his head. “Ayden made sure the agreement was ironclad—there is no loophole. Had you married another, you would have ignited a real war with Pruida.”
His words snap something loose in my memory.
As the warm broth fills my belly, I hear my mother speak for the first time this evening. “So, Prince Ayden, when might we expect to hear of a coronation ball for yourself?” Her tone is polite and inquisitive, but I know she’s probing for information.
The spymaster, Lord Craylor, sits several seats down from Charlotte, but I see his gaze snap to my mother at the question.
“Well, seeing as it requires that I take a queen before I can take the throne...” Ayden’s voice trails off, “I imagine it will be about the same time Breyla takes her throne.”
My hands curl into fists. “That snake,” I hiss, anger rolling through me in waves.
“I told you to be wary of him,” Aurelius mutters. “You just didn’t listen.”
“You still could have told me,” I growl.
“And shatter what was between us?” he says softly. “No, I think not. I regret how I went about it, but I don’t regret wanting you.”
“I need time to process this, Aurelius,” I say stiffly, shoving him away.
“Of course,” he acquiesces, stepping back. His face is unreadable as he rounds the table behind me.
Rowina appears a moment later, dropping a heavy tome into my arms. “Here, I found you some light reading material.”
“ The Genealogy of House Mordet ,” I read aloud, brow arching. “Why are you giving me your family tree?”
“Thought you should know the family you’re marrying into,” she replies with a shrug, handing Aurelius a different tome.
“ The History of Crimson, ” he reads, a puzzled look on his face.
“Enjoy,” she sings before disappearing between the towering shelves.
I sink into a chair across from Aurelius, flipping open the heavy book.
“You know,” I mutter, “it’s a little ironic you’re suddenly the most well-adjusted of your siblings.”
Aurelius raises a brow at me. “Does that include your father?”
“I mean, he raised me—have you met me?”
“Touché,” Aurelius chuckles, a rare lightness in his voice.
I leaf through pages, scanning centuries of names, physical descriptions, their Gifts, their deeds.
The Mordet family had ruled Prudia for more than fifteen hundred years. Very few had ever thought to challenge or unseat them. Formidable didn’t begin to describe the family.
I’m not sure whether it’s been minutes or hours that have passed when a name catches my attention.
Elythia.
A frustrated grunt escapes me as I try to recall why it feels familiar.
“Something interesting?” Aurelius asks.
“Just… a name. Elythia. I know it, but I can’t place it.”
“Perhaps you're thinking of Elentia—the capital?”
“Maybe that’s it,” I say, but I’m not convinced. “What have you learned?”
“Other than my sister needs better taste in books?” he deadpans.
We both laugh lightly.
“This reads like a history text,” he explains, “but with sections on lore and the Hemophilia Gifts—well, just one of them, actually.”
“Let me guess,” I say, arching a brow. “Yours?”
He nods. “According to this, the ability to manipulate or control blood is incredibly rare, but it passes through bloodlines.”
“That can’t be.” I frown. “Gifts aren’t inherited.”
“Not according to this. Have you noticed the Mordets all carry Gifts from the Anima and Vizie families?”
“The thought had occurred to me, but I wrote it off as a coincidence.”
“Is it, though? Even I carry an Anima Gift. Does your book list Gifts?”
“It does,” I confirm.
“What does it say King Ayden’s Gift was?”
I flip forward, searching for the most recent history.
“King Ayden of Prudia carried the Anima Gift of Empathy and the Vizie Gift of Illusion,” I state. “So if the book is telling the truth, then your Hemonia Gift was inherited from your mother, whomever she may be.”
“It would seem so.”
“Well, it can’t be that hard to narrow down.” My brow furrows. “Like you said, it’s incredibly rare. We find a female with the same Gift, and that’s her?”
“It’s not that simple, Breyla,” Aurelius sighs. “Have you met anyone else with my Gift?”
“No,” I say automatically. I had never come across another soul with his Gift.
“Exactly,” he says grimly. “I’m the only known blood wielder in all four kingdoms. I’ve checked.”
I swallow hard. “So whoever your mother is…”
“She’s either dead,” he says bluntly, “or not from the four kingdoms.”
Knowing that she had abandoned her son, I’m not sure which option I wish for more.