Page 64 of Magic of Sins

As Caden begins to speak, I’m not sure if I should shake him to get the words out quicker or cover my ears.

“Your father—the king—didn’t know who he was getting involved with. He was still a young, unmarried man when he met your mother. He got carried away. Perhaps your mother… encouraged him with her powers. In any case, he spent a single night with her, and you’re the result of that union.”

“But my mother didn’t want me.” I pick up the thread of logic, because that’s still the part that pains me the most.

To my surprise, Caden shakes his head.

“That’s not completely true. She wanted you, but she feared for your life. The king could never know about his daughter and her powers. He would have made short work of you. And if someone in the East End had found out who your father was—well, you saw what happened tonight.”

“So my mother gave me up to protect me,” I conclude, and Caden nods.

“Your mother couldn’t hide her pregnancy. Rumors began to circulate in the East End that she had had a liaison with the king and that the child was his. But it was later said that the child had been stillborn.”

The first time I met Jared in the Crime and Punishment,I showed him the picture of my mother. In that moment, he must have guessed that the story of the death of her daughter had been a lie. I am alive, a child of two worlds.

The daughter of a king with the powers of a sin mage.

“You knew, didn’t you? You knew long before I showed you that picture of my mother.”

I never asked Caden why he demanded for me, of all people, to be brought to the palace. But now it’s obvious.

Caden at least has the decency to look remorseful. As we’ve talked, he’s slumped further and further down; now he’s trying to straighten up again. The movement seems to cause him a great deal of pain, but right now I don’t care. I want answers, even if I’m sure I won’t like them.

“Well?” I ask, when Caden doesn’t answer immediately.

“You’re right. I knew,” he admits.

He closes his eyes, leans his head back and swallows dryly.

“Why?” I want to know. “What did you expect to gain from meeting me? And how did you know who I was?”

My many questions torment him. With difficulty, he lifts his hand and wipes his face, flinching when he touches the bruise on his cheek. For a moment, I feel pity for him. Caden came here to rescue me. And now we’re both stuck in this prison, and he’s badly hurt.

But then again, this is all his fault. If he hadn’t taken me to the East End, Jared never would have noticed me. Caden had known what was at stake, and he risked it anyway.

“Someone close to the king knew of your existence,” Caden says and then pauses to cough. Blood trickles from his split lip, but he forces himself to continue. “He was the one who took your mother to a midwife and paid the woman for her silence. He was also the one who found someone to take you in. The old man was a frequent guest at my gentleman’s club. We got to talking and became friends. On his deathbed, he told me his secret. He wanted to be sure that someone would watch over you when he was gone.”

“Well, you handled that beautifully.”

My voice drips with sarcasm. It’s the only thing I have left, and I take refuge in it because right now it feels like I’m falling.

Caden raises his eyebrows. Despite the pain he must be in, helifts a hand to my chin and looks at me beseechingly.

“That man believed he had to protect you. But all he did was weaken you. He made you deny your nature.”

I push his hand away.

“He didn’t make me do anything.”

That’s ridiculous. I was fine until Caden came into my life.

“Your powers are a part of you, Kaya.”

A part I could well do without.

A thought takes shape.

“You knew who my mother was—whatshe was—all along,” I say, my voice low and rough. “Does that mean you deliberately tricked me into sinning so my powers would manifest?”

---