Page 37 of Crownless King

“Does yourcockhave something to do with the heat we’ve had lately?” I teased, with my arms wrapped around his neck.

He placed a quick kiss on my lips. “You have no one to blame but yourself for the heat both outside and in my pants, sexy little minx that you are.”

A spark of heat flashed in his eyes, but only briefly this time. With another peck on my mouth, he got up, gently shifting me from his lap onto the chair. Then he stood by the table, staring at the book with the title letters still glowing above the front page.

“Elaros,”he read out loud. “This isn’t the Vensari records after all. The book belongs to the Sky Palace.”

“Then why is it here?”

“Because the royal family didn’t want anyone to know the whole truth about King Tiane’s birth. They found a way to extract the portion about me. No one can destroy the records, but they warded and buried it here, so no one would ever learn the truth.”

“How could your own family do that to you?”

He frowned, running a hand through his hair.

“Frankly, I can’t really blame them. What choice did they have? Either a wingless boy, who by all logic and tradition should’ve died if it weren’t for one overly eager lady-in-waiting, or his brother born with perfect snow-white wings and a magnificent pair of antlers. ‘Born wearing a crown,’ they say about Tiane. ‘He wasbornto rule.’” Voron spread his arms aside. “Which one would you choose to be the next Sky King, Sparrow?” He didn’t wait for me to reply. “The answer would be clear to anyone. My parents took Tiane to the Sky Palace and raised him as the prince and future king. And I was sent to Vensari with Mulena.”

He stepped back from the table and paced the patio.

“All my life, I believed I was the son of a queen’s lady-in-waiting, adisgracedlady-in-waiting. It was a rather humble origin for someone making it all the way to Elaros.”

“For all intents and purposes, Mulena was your mother,” I pointed out.

“She was the only mother I knew. And I love her for that. Always will.”

“Did you ever wonder who your father was?”

He stopped at the table again, propping his fists on it.

“As a child, I asked Mulena about him. But she told me never to speak of him again. She said he was not a part of my life and never would be. As I got older…” He inhaled deeply and released the air slowly. “I wondered if my mother might’ve been King Herane’s lover at some point and I was his illegitimate son. It would’ve explained why my mother didn’t want to talk about him or why he ordered me gone. Bastard children are often accepted and raised by the families, especially if there are no legitimate children. However, with Tiane already there, I suspected, King Herane saw me as a potential threat to the succession of his legitimate son.”

“Do you think King Tiane and Queen Pavline know you are of the royal blood? Could that be one of the reasons why they didn’t want you to reproduce?”

“Not likely.” He shook his head. “If they knew who I am, they would’ve never bestowed the rank of the High General on me, allowed me to move to Elaros, or even to return to Sky Kingdom. If they knew, I’d be dead.”

I sucked in a breath. “Do you think the king would’ve killed his own brother?”

“He wouldn’t have flinched,” he replied confidently. “That’s why I’ve kept quiet about my own suspicions on where I came from and hid anything that might give Tiane a hint. For example, my magic is stronger than most, and I made sure to suppress it as much as I could. There are some things that only the king and I can do.”

“Like taking people’s memories?”

His gaze warmed as he slid it over my face. “Yes, little bird.”

I remembered he’d said he’d never done it before taking mine.

“Have you ever noticed your connection with the weather?” I asked.

He tilted his head. “Don’tyouever feel like you’re connected with it?”

“Me?” I smiled incredulously.

“Yes. Don’t you feel down on gloomy, cloudy days? Don’t you find sunshine uplifting and light drizzle melancholy inducing?”

“I do. But that’s not the same. The weather just impacts the way I feel sometimes.”

“But that was exactly what I thought, too. I noticed the connection, but I believed the weather affected my moods, not the other way around.”

“That’d be a more logical assumption,” I agreed. “No one would think themselves a king just because they felt happy on a sunny day. So,” I touched his fisted hand on the table. “What are we going to do now?”

---