Page 88 of Chosen By the Fae King

I was already in danger. Clasping my hands together, I settled them in my lap. “Go on.”

Nox sat up straighter. “My father's death was obviously no accident. There's been much speculation about it. We decided not to clarify. The traitors responsible know exactly how he died. After his life was taken, they went for me next. Only, it wasn't poison they used.”

The maids had been right.

“Once we knew what killed him, we adjusted security for our food sources.”

“What did they try to do to you?”

“They blew up a coach I was supposed to be inside of. I started disguising myself as a guard after that, whenever I needed to travel without shadow-walking. Unsuccessful, they began attacking trade shipments, messing with crops on the most fertile lands, and intercepting correspondences to and from Thornewood.”

My knuckles whitened.

“Years ago,” he continued, “I'd decided I would end the bride trials once in a position to do so. I wasn't interested in a wife and if I ever was, it wouldn't be because she won some contests an ancestor of mine deemed necessary for the crown.”

A creeping sensation scaled my back. “What do the trials have to do with anything?”

“There have been over twenty attempts against my life since my father died.”

“Bloody hell, Nox.”

King Orson hadn't been dead very long. The culprits wanted his successor gone, quite vehemently.

“Someone wants the kingdom, obviously. I have family to protect and scores to settle. I couldn't just sit and wait for the next attempt or, worse, lose one of my siblings. So I decided to enact the bride trials.”

I dug through my skull to connect the dots. The tension in my mouth was acidic as an idea took shape.

“Lorne and I thought the traitors would jump at the chance to put one of their own on the throne through marriage. We had confirmation when we let the most powerful families know the trials were coming.”

“What confirmation?”

“It all stopped. The assassination attempts. The attacks on our trading routes. Everything all at once, that very day. And then I suddenly had a dozen families throwing their female offspring at me, several offering me a taste before the competition began.”

My nose wrinkled.

“Disgusting, I know, but not surprising. It's part of being a royal, the attention and worship. Females have been throwing themselves at me since I was a teen.”

“You poor thing,” came out of my mouth oozing with sarcasm.

Nox's lips curled. “Jealous?”

I hated that I was. I hated even more that he knew it. I needed to steer this elsewhere. “But there's no guarantee on who wins.”

“No, there's not. Everyone who completes every trial has a chance of being picked at the end. It's why things get so cutthroat and some don't make it all the way through. It's also why someone has interfered a couple of times.”

A chill ran through me, remembering the wraith. Or, according to Nox, multiple wraiths.

“Those who arrived well-trained for this, who tried to eliminate competition and thin the herd, are my primary suspects.”

Several names came to mind, but I wouldn't accuse anyone because of my own dislike of them.

“And you want me to help how?”

Nox gripped my shoulders, gaze boring into mine. “I'm asking you to help me root them out, Aeryn. Your gift could be the key to uncovering the truth.”

There was a flash of worry that shot across his face, a brief but potent emotion before he masked it.

I stared up at him, torn between suspicion of his motives and a strange desire to ease the shadows lurking in his eyes.

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