Page 74 of A Touch of Gold and Madness

My heart slammed to a stop. “Ruled?”

Orion nodded with his eyes closed. “She was the Elemental Queen, Lilliana Willow. And her husband, King Jonas…” he said and looked up at Chrome standing by his side. “King Jonas was Chrome’s father and my older brother.”

Chapter 28

Gray

“Holy shit.” It was the only thought that kept repeating in my mind. The implications of such a monumental claim were unthinkable.

“Wait. Hold on…” I held up my hand, having the most disturbing thought. “Does that make me and Chrome siblings?” I’m sure my expression was horrified.

Orion shook his head. “Oh, no. While theyweremarried, you do not share the same blood.”

I visibly sighed in relief. How horrible would it be if I was turned on by a surprise hidden brother that I never knew existed?

Chrome worked to bite back a smile, and I narrowed my eyes at him for thinking this was funny. It most definitely was not fucking funny after this weird chemistry.

“How is that possible?” I asked, returning my focus back to the main point at hand. “They were killed when they…”

“When they were supposedly attacked by Endarkened?” Orion finished for me and then scoffed. A hard edge entered his voice. “No, they were deceived. Weakened and captured in the middle of the night by Kineticsunder your father’s orders. He reduced them to mere breeding animals for him and Amethyst to torture at their disposal.”

I felt sick. My stomach churned as heavy chains squeezed my chest. “How…how do you know this?”

“Your mother, Lilly, as we called her, wrote me a letter detailing everything that had happened in the two years she’d been held there and everything your father had planned. I’m still not sure how she got the letter out, but I suspect there was someone who sympathized with her and worked closely with Forest. She appointed me the King of the Elementals in their wake until I found the two of you.” Orion looked back at Chrome. “She said you two are the only way to stop Forest and to restore our races to our peaceful ways.”

I heard everything he said. But it’d have to wait until later when I was alone to digest it. So, instead, I said, “What do you mean ‘restore’ to our peaceful ways? Has there ever been a time when we were truly at peace?”

“Yes,” Orion and Chrome both said in unison.

“Tell me how,” I said to Orion. He sat up straighter in his desk chair, bronze undertones in his ash-blond hair catching in the warm light of the room.

“My brother and Lilly worked to attain their vision of establishing true peace between Elementals and Kinetics. They wanted to end all conflict between our races. Forest’s father, King Brick, had been a rather benevolent leader for the Kinetics. He’d encouraged positive relations and worked with Jonas and Lilly to achieve it.

“The main issues at that time were the Endarkened. They were attacking humans and even a few of our kind. Because Endarkened were once Elementals, we used to always get blamed for their attacks. As if we actively wielded them as a fighting force, which is just absurd because they can’t be controlled. Brick was sympathetic to this. So, he allowed the Elementals to handle the Endarkened. He said it wasn’t his place to inject Kinetics intoour internal issues. He agreed to capture any Endarkened that were causing trouble and hand them over, but that was as far as he would go.

“When he died, Forest rose to power. He was young. We’d all met him many times in the past. Each time, he’d grown more cunning, more arrogant. They knew right away he craved power.” Orion sighed. “As a teenager, he’d met and fallen in love with a beautiful Kinetic named Coral. She was common, but it’d never mattered to him. She’d became pregnant when he was just shy of his twentieth birthday. One night, she was out in the city walking back to the palace and was attacked by Endarkened—killing her and their unborn child. Forest only grew worse after that.

“Your mother and Jonas grew more concerned once he took the throne within a year after her death. They hoped they’d be able to work with him, that they’d be able to maintain the growing peace between our people.” Orion’s chin drooped lower to his chest, tightening his hold on the armrests of his chair as he recounted the history that had been hidden from Kinetics. He lifted his gaze to settle on me, reflections of his past rippling on teal seas.

He took a deep breath before he carried on, focusing on an oak log bracing the wall. With an absent-minded wave, a soft breeze swept around the desk before washing over his face and rustling his light blond hair. His element seemed to bring him some comfort as he shook his head.

“Jonas and Lilly hosted some delegates from the King’s Palace. Our kingdoms were close together in the northern region of the state. Ours was remote, in the mountainous landscape where we could be closer to nature and far from the dense human population.

“Several members of Forest’s court arrived, having led Lilly and Jonas to believe they came to work out a treaty that would bring absolute peace between our races once and for all. They remained for several days, playing the role of respectful guests. Little did we know, they were poisoning our food and drink with small amounts of crushed black crystal, weakening our power. It wasn’t until that final night…”

“Who was it?” I asked, cutting him off. “Who were the delegate members?”

Orion closed his mouth and cleared his throat. “There were many,” he said with hesitance. “But Amethyst and Grim, for starters. Smokey, Onyx’s father, was there as the Supreme Leader of the Guard…”

“Smokeywas there?” I asked, dumbfounded. I glanced at Chrome, whose jaw was clenched tight. “But he’s the reason I made it out of the palace alive. I don’t understand…”

Orion cocked his head and looked up to meet Chrome’s calculating gaze. A silent conversation passed as they pieced together the snippet I’d offered. “That’s…an interesting development. I believe Onyx will be pleased to learn about.”

My mind worked over the facts, trying to make sense of everything. I grounded myself as I pressed my nails into my palms.

Orion leaned forward on his desk, his forearms perched on the lacquered wood to finish the story that’d been withheld from me. “We knew something was terribly wrong that final night. Jonas and Lilly were pale, weak, and shaking. I, too, was in no better shape. The poisoning had taken its root and was at its peak by the time we’d realized. It was too late.” Shadows of regret shrouded his handsome features.

Orion reached for a crystal glass of amber liquid that smelled of strong bourbon. “They killed our guards and many soldiers in the middle of the night. Some were brutally tortured before they were slain, while others were silently killed with Kinetic magic.” He swirled the dark bourbon in his glass. “I was meant to die that night, but they underestimated the amount of poison required to kill me.” He took a large swig of his drink, not flinching from the taste or burn.

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