Page 15 of Alpha's Magic

“He was Crown Prince Ludwig, of Sudfarma. The true heir to the throne instead of her father.”

Lex half rose to his feet and Asher fell back in surprise, both of them looking at me with shocked expressions.

“Why do you say such a thing?” Lex asked me, leaning forward urgently. “That’s not true. None of it. Prince Ludwig killed himself over ten years ago. After first murdering his wife and children.”

“No. That’s a terrible lie. We were living in the northern territory of Morovia temporarily after my grandfather King Hendrick died. I was ten years old. We lived not too far from the Igellan border. My father got us a house there to be safe, and the army that was still loyal to him was fighting for him. The generals told him to stay safely out of the way until they destroyed Alfrid’s army, and then we could all go back home to Sudfarma and he would become king. My father was the only legitimate heir, after all. Surely you know this. And he would never have hurt my mother or me or the baby my mother was going to have. He was a good person.”

“But King Alfrid…”

“Alfrid was my grandfather too, only on my mother’s side. Look, I know this is complicated. But Hendrick had many children, most of them were illegitimate. My father and Alfrid were half-brothers, though Alfrid was much older. He was my mother’s father, from his first wife. Alfrid arranged the marriage with Hendrick for my parents—before I was born, obviously. My father didn’t want to marry my mother, because he thought it was incestuous, as she was his half-niece, but his father, Hendrick, insisted. Alfrid was a general who had the backing of some of the army and he had the full backing of most of the king’s council, so my father was persuaded that it would be good idea to marry his daughter and consolidate the two factions.”

Asher interrupted me then. “But how do you know all this?”

“I was my father’s only son and he told me everything. I would inherit from him one day, he said. He let me sit in on meetings with him and his advisors, even though I was an omega. If he didn’t get an Alpha son with the child my mother was expecting, he had plans to betroth me to one of the princes of Morovia, who were rumored to both be Alphas. Barring that, he could find a military leader. One who could act as my Regent. He wrote it all down in his private papers. There may still be copies somewhere if the witch Rozamond didn’t destroy them.”

The two of them stared at each other, looking surprised. “Princes of Morovia. That’s you and Harrison,” Asher said softly, and Lex nodded, looking dazed.

“But explain to me how Rozamond got involved in all this.”

“She was my mother’s sister. Half-sister, anyway. They were raised together, and she came to visit my mother sometimes. She tried to talk my father into giving up his claim to the throne, and she was visiting us on the night everything went so wrong.”

“Before your father killed himself.”

I shook my head violently. “I told you, my father never killed himself. That witch staged it all. She tried to poison him with the potion and when I took it instead—well, there was a lot of excitement. My father was…distraught and upset. I’d never seen him like that. He fought with them, and they-they killed him.”

“They? You said, they killed him?”

“No, she killed him. Rozamond! My father was good, and he would never have hurt anyone. That’s insane. That awful, evil daughter of Alfrid’s—the one named Rozamond—she murdered my father and laid her evil curse on me!”

I covered my face with my hands, feeling the tears about to start and not wanting them to see. “I’m happy she’s dead,” I said through my tears. “She was a cold, cruel and hateful bitch, and I’d like to dance on her grave.”

Chapter Six

Asher

I was stunned by what Leo had just told us, and I had questions too. The most important one being, was he telling us the truth? He seemed confused about the details of this terrible story. He said over and over that his father was good, and yet he said he had fought with his mother and Rozamond and tried to kill them. Leo had only been a child at the time, so it was understandable that he could be mixed up. I glanced over at Lex at the same time he looked at me and he nodded to show me he was wondering about the same things. He raised his hand in the air to find out.

“Veritas,” Lex said, and his voice rang out hard and cold as he made a pass in the air over Leo’s head. It was a spell to see if Leo was lying, and it was a powerful one. It would compel him to tell the truth if he tried to lie. That is, if he knew the truth.

Leo simply stared back at us both in defiance and seemed unchanged.

“Leo,” Lex said, leaning toward him. “Tell us honestly. Did you send a curse to kill Queen Rozamond?”

“What? No,” he answered right away. “My magic didn’t return until after she was dead. If it had, I might have. I won’t lie. And I’m not sorry she’s dead.”

I glanced over at Lex, and he gave me a tiny shrug. Not only was Leo apparently being honest, but Lex had similar feeling for Rozamond, and I thought he secretly agreed. After what Rozamond had tried with Rory, I’d been surprised he hadn’t killed the queen himself. Only his deep regard for his brother had stopped him. And if Leo had taken his revenge on the person who had killed his entire family and turned him into a monster, then I thought it would have been understandable, even though it was treasonous. It was much safer for Leo that he hadn’t been involved in any way in her death.

“Are you telling us the truth, as you know it, about your father and who he was,” I asked him.

“Yes. I swear it.”

“The test I used would have shown it if he were lying,” Lex said.

I turned to look at Lex. “Then we have no choice but to take him back to Sudfarma to meet with the council. I think we should take him to Harrison first, though.”

Lex narrowed his eyes as he stared at me. “Why is that?”

“Rozamond was Harrison’s queen and his consort. He has the right to know before anyone else. And he has the right to challenge what Leo has to say. Leo was a child. He could be wrong.”

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