Page 118 of When Night Falls

I pride myself on putting my family above all else. Despite my troubles with Travois and his incessant need to always be right and to prove he's better than me, despite him pushing me away when we were kids and completely going unhinged in his adult life, I still want to clear his name.

No one fucks with my family and lives to see another day. No one.

Which is why the future will become blurred and finicky for the three of us. Four if we're including my wife. So while I have the chance, I'm going to plant the seed. My only hope is that I can get them all on my side to soften the blow.

"I don't know Troy, but if I'm being honest, I think it has to do with Ameliana."

"My mother?"

"I can't tell you how or why just yet, but I have a feeling that she is connected to this."

Troy doesn't know the info that I know. That Ameliana may be connected to this but in more ways than one. It isn't lost on me that the man she had been supposedly married to all this time ended up dead. That can't be a coincidence. The former queen I know is cruel and selfish and she has to fucking pay, whether she is connected to the set up designed by Viktrum's Society or not.

"She has been alive this whole time, Troian. Not reaching out to you once. And God knows why she allowed Trav the privilege of her presence and asked him not to tell you. But we know she was in a relationship with Dominek and Dominek ended up dead. A lot of people have come up dead and she has to know something."

"Dominek, Viktrum's brother." Troy states an obvious fact, I can tell she's not sure how to process this information.

"Yes, and I don't know what that means to any of them or to us. But she ran from our father to Valor for some reason. She ran and had her royal Hollows' blood drained just to accept Valor blood. Why would she go through all of that? And why hide even after Renard's death?" Our father gave up the search for his wife when he realized her royal blood's trace ran cold. She could have easily stepped out of the shadows shortly after, especially with another Society's blood running through her veins. There would have been nothing he could do.

"I'm still not catching on, Riv." Confusion twists on her face and I know that what I'm saying might not make any sense to her. Troy didn't take business in watching the castle bustle the way I did. I analyzed everyone and everything because I knew that one day, I would need all the information I could get if I wanted a chance to make sure I could get justice for my mother.

I only hope that my sister will forgive me for what I have to do.

"Maybe it's nothing. But I need you to do me a favor." I turn around to see darkness build around the treetops.

The sky is so tragically beautiful. Almost like a graveyard of stars lighting up the deepest darkest parts of our shadowed pasts lined with sinful secrets. Fitting, if I may say so myself.

"What's that?" She takes another step forward, the sound of glass under her feet and her heart beating against its cage intensifies given the circumstance.

"I need you to bring me your mother." I watch her for argument, or anything to resemble more confusion but she doesn't even ask why.

"Rivian, you know what happened last time. They refused to let us in."

"I am not telling you to ask for permission." Realization dawns on her and she simply drops her head, looks at the ground for not more than a second and then gives me a malcontent look.

"I don't think I'll be able to get through," she says.

"Try again."

October 21th

"What do you mean I can't see her, Kacian? She's my wife."

I remember the rage I felt yesterday when Birdania tried to get under Lucynda’s skin and she let her. I didn't expect for her to stay hidden away for this long, and I was planning on staying just as stubborn. But I can feel the time is near and I have to prepare her for the disaster that might ensue.

"She asked for privacy. You are not allowed in." Kacian blocks her door and I pin him with a murderous look. He doesn't even budge.

Good. I like that she has someone who won’t even bend for the word of the king, protecting her at all costs.

"Has she even come out of her room at all for food or water? For blood? Her transition is complete, she's going to be hungry." I don’t take my wife’s needs lightly, though I hate to add that I allowed her to act childish in her fit of jealousy. I also remained at a distance.

"I assure you; I told her to let me know if she needed anything and she has not-"

"Lucynda! This is fucking ridiculous. Let me in!" I shout over Kacian, pounding on the door.

"Your highness," he warns me, but something tells me my little sin is in trouble.

I am not allowed to infiltrate the walls of her room so long as her door is locked, but her guard has the means to knock it down.

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