Page 18 of A Sun Scorched Bloom

It had been a sacrifice, one that had potentially risked the safety and success of the rebellion, but it hadn't even been a choice. He would no sooner have forced his mate into marriage than he would have joined his father and brother in their quest for power.

Lea squeezed Gray's hands, a silent acknowledgement that she understood. "I don't even know what to ask. But I want to know everything."

Gray had been waiting for this moment. To be able to tell her what he’d really been doing as he’d traveled the kingdom, the betrayal to his family that he had been planning for nearly a hundred years. He hadn’t been able to risk it in the castle. Not with wards and spells to alert his father of anyone speaking treacherous words. For all he knew, they’d only been rumors, but there was too much at stake to allow even a single syllable of his treachery to be spoken within those walls.

Too many people were counting on him—an entire kingdom rested in his tired and blood-soaked hands. So he had suffered silently as the love of his life thought the worst of him—his own mate hating him with enough intensity to reveal a deeply hidden magic inside her that they hadn’t even known existed. As she'd hurt and cried and suffered from his betrayal. He thought it might break him, seeing her in pain and being unable to express that he was on her side. That he wasn’t the evil monster she believed him to be.

And now, he could finally tell her the reason: Callitia. Gray took a deep breath, fighting against the fury that was slowly building in his veins. He didn’t like to speak about her, but his mate had asked to know everything, and he owed it to her to share everything he hadn’t been able to before.

"You asked me once… About my reason." Gray pushed the hair from Lea’s forehead. "About her."

Lea froze, her muscles tensing and heart skipping a beat, the pounding rhythm vibrating Gray’s fingertips as he lazily ran them around her back. "Was there someone—"

He chuckled darkly, interrupting her. "No, Little Flower. Nothing like that. Though, I have to admit, it pleases me to feel your jealousy."

"I wasn’t jealous," Lea bristled. But it had been there, dark and acidic.

"You asked me about the Princess of Desia." Gray paused. "My sister, Callitia. Callie."

Lea stilled and a wave of shock flooded through the bond, a splash of the coldest water on the warmest day.

"You said there was no princess."

"There isn’t." Gray couldn’t help the venom that seeped into his voice. "And as far as the kingdom knows, there wasn’t. But she was real. My little sister…" he trailed off, his words heavy and choked with emotion.

A tear trailed down Lea’s cheek and she wrapped her arms tighter around his neck as if she could hold him together. It almost made Gray break, his heart clenching painfully. He hadn’t even told her his tragic story, but the love and solidarity in her embrace reminded him that he would never be alone again.

Gray kissed her hair, shifting Lea so that he could look into her eyes." She was born long after me, nearly a hundred years. I loved her in a way that, until then, I didn’t know was possible. My parents weren’t warm. My father trained Alaric and me daily, punished us when we didn’t perform to his standards. Rewarded us for our ruthlessness. My mother allowed it. She had no other choice."

"Every mother has a choice, Gray." Lea pressed a kiss to his chest, pulling him out of his cruel memories.

"Her only other choice was death. Defiance was not tolerated. It was beaten out of us little by little as my father molded us into the future leaders of Desia. He was never a father, but a king educating his heirs through violence. But my sister, she was too young for any of that. Too innocent. He had two sons—two heirs, and so he ignored her completely. She was useless to him."

An image of Callie filled his mind, her sweet gap-toothed smile that somehow made her green eyes appear so much bigger and brighter. She’d been only nine the last time he’d seen her happy, her long brown hair flying in the wind as she’d run from him in a game of tag.

"Alaric and I would spend hours with her playing in the woods, indulging her in her games. Her laugh…" The sound still frequented his dreams, the melodic trill of giggles that brightened the somber castle grounds as he’d chased her through the trees, pretending to be a monster. He didn’t realize it then, but it had been good practice for all the pretending he would have to do for another hundred years after her death.

Lea curled herself deeper into Gray’s side, as if trying to give him some of her strength to get through his memories.

"She was theonlyjoy in the castle. Loved by everyone. A little ball of light bouncing through those dark hallways. Until my father extinguished it." Intense anger bubbled along their bond, fueling his own.

"You said the same to me. That you wouldn’t let him put out my light." Lea’s hand drifted to her chest where her magic slept.

"I’m stronger now." Gray struggled to keep his shadows contained. "I’d sooner let him cut out my beating heart than allow him to hurt you. But back then, I was weak. naïve. I didn’t know he was planning on…" Gray couldn’t bring himself to say the words out loud.

"But.. why? Why would he kill his own daughter?" Lea asked softly.

"Her magic developed at an early age. Far earlier than is typical. Day magic, and powerful magic at that. She started lighting candles at bedtime when she was only two, trying to avoid sleep in favor of playing." Gray smiled at the memory.

"So he wanted her power?" Lea’s voice was filled with disgust.

"It wasn’t just that he wanted her power, though that was likely the reason he ultimately decided to take her life. He also feared her."

Lea was silent for a moment. "The Black King feared a child?"

"There was a prophecy, foretold when my father overthrew Queen Emmaline. "With the blessing of the goddess, evil will fall at her feet, and death will follow where she commands." Gray paused, the night around them so silent he swore the gods were listening to his words. "Years later, another prophecy was spoken.A daughter of the sun and stars will destroy the King of Night and Darkness.He feared that daughter was his own."

"But she was just a child." Lea’s voice broke.

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