Page 36 of Crownless King

It separated from the queen, the umbilical cord miraculously snapping on its own.

The baby plummeted down, but only for a short distance. The woman Voron called his mother dove after the newborn and caught it into the cloth.

The music died instantly, as did the chatter and the laughter. The priest stopped shouting the words from the scroll.

The king’s face darkened, as did the thick, heavy clouds gathering on the horizon.

Mulena pressed the baby to her chest, with a terrified expression on her face that turned as white as the cloth in her arms.

Then, among the utter shock and silence, the queen’s weakened voice sounded. “It’s not done yet.”

She bent over once more, gripping her stomach with an ear-piercing scream.

The image paled and faded away. And when I quickly flipped the page, eager to see what happened next, the view of Vensari appeared instead.

A toddler with unruly black curls ran along the garden path in a bout of delighted giggles. Mulena, the same woman who’d caught the baby, opened her arms wide, catching the toddler as he ran to her.

“Look at you run, Voron!” She kissed his face. “Who needs wings when you can run free like a wind, my prince.”

The moment the image faded, I flipped the page again, moving through the scenes of Voron growing up, of him playing, reading, laughing. There was a scene with him feeding turtles in the pond. Another one with him learning to ride a pony. And another, where a servant taught him how to use a sword.

In every scene, Mulena was there, watching over him, raising, and nurturing him.

Not once was Voron visited by his biological parents. But he was hugged, kissed, and cherished. He was loved, and he treated Mulena as his mother.

I flipped to the very first page, where the words of the title lit up again.

“Recorded History of Elaros, the Sky Palace.”

Voron leaned back in his chair, staring past me into the sky.

“Do you think the queen had twins?” I asked tentatively, afraid to poke whatever wounds the book might have just opened inside him.

“Now I know she did,” he said. “The records of what happened next that day are kept in Elaros, accessible to everyone. The queen gave birth to Tiane, crowned as the next Sky King.”

I drew in a long breath, the enormity of this discovery crashing down on me full force.

“You are the king’s twin brother.”

He shook his head, settling his stare on me.

“No, my dear Sparrow. I was born first. I am the king.”

ChapterTen

SPARROW

Ilooked into Voron’s eyes. During the time I’d known him, they’d been every shade between the darkest gray and the brightest blue. But they’d always been the color of the sky, changing with it but never straying from it.

“You’re the true Sky King, Voron. You are the one who controls the weather. How did I not see it sooner?”

King Tiane had laughed and raged. He’d acted sweet and cruel. But the weather in this shadowless kingdom had stayed mostly somber and gloomy. It was because King Tiane had never possessed the power to control it. His moods had no bearings on the weather. Only Voron’s did.

“The only time I saw sun in Elaros,” I said, “was on the day you came back after making sure Magnus survived being shot by the king. Everyone thought the sun came out that morning because King Tiane finally got what he wanted with me. But it was all you. You were happy because Magnus got well.”

He kissed my shoulder, holding me in his lap.

“I was also happy to seeyouagain. For the first time in my life, I returned to the palace in a better mood than I’d left it. I was looking forward to our lesson, even as I knew I’d be spending the entire hour trying to tame my lust for you. My cock just wouldn’t stay down whenever you came to my rooms.”

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