Page 74 of A Kingdom of Destruction

“He found the Darkroot, and he carved off the bark, knowing about its power. Whether he heard the tales regarding the tree as the source of all magic or not, he took what did not belong to him. And he used our own power to devise your weapons. Somehow he found a way to turn the magic from life to death, empowering your ammunition to strike us down.”

“He stole,” Roran reiterated. “That’s why it’s a massive deal when mortals trespass. More so when theysteal tree bark.”

Such a small thing, in her mind, and yet—it wasn’t true. Her own father, King Fergus?

“He’d have no way of knowing how to do those things.” The statement left her raw.

“Hefounda way,” Cillian insisted. “The same mages who used to tattoo those runes on you? They were the ones who must have helped him. The healers, the mages, the medicine men and women. He stole our bark, our magic. He stole our symbols. He turned them all against us and killed enough of our people to have our land revolt against us. The death and decay did not start until he stripped the tree. And we have never recovered.”

“Until now,” Roran interrupted. “Until you.”

“Me.” The pain began in her chest and traveled down her limbs, to her legs and her ankles.

Her father… had started it all? Maybe not the war, but the vehemence with which the enemy struck back at them. That had been his doing.

He’d turned the tide in their favor, but what had it cost them? Both sides?

He’d lied to her.

A large part of her automatically wanted to come to her father’s aid again and again, to defend the man who used to read to her when she was little. Who made up jokes and funny nicknames for the royals in the court so his children would have something to keep them focused during those long hours.

How could he possibly be the same man who did the things Cillian accused him of doing? It made no sense.

And yet, it did.

She felt the truth from Cillian, from Roran and his stubbornness, even while her mind strove to put the pieces together. The stories she’d heard enough from the healers, from her men, from General Hunter.

How her father used to be kind and generous and after the death of her mother, had turned ruthless. Determined to stop at nothing to end this war and come out as the victor. He’d been uninterested in peace treaties. Uninterested in compromising.

Destruction. Annihilation.

But did the timeline match? From the introduction of their weapons to the time he would have gone to Mourningvale?

She had a terrible gut feeling it did.

It all made sense. The other kingdoms distancing themselves from Grimrose, the cold glances from their royals, the rejected engagement proposals.

They all knew.

King Fergus had wanted to wipe the fae off the face of the earth. He’d hated the magic of their weapons and yet insisted on countless occasions that it was the only way to defeat them. When Aven had asked him why, he’d blown her off, refused to explain himself or made excuses to get rid of her.

“I’m sorry you had to find out this way.” Cillian reached for her finally. “I know how much you love your father, Aven.”

“Don’t touch me.” She croaked out the words, opening her mouth to insist again that he did not know her father, that they’d twisted everything around to blame the horrors on him.

Nothing came out.

Anxiety replaced the horror she’d felt at the punishment in the throne room. Cillian tried to grab her again, to comfort her, and she waved her hands in front of her face to keep the space between them. A paltry shield but the only one at her disposal.

“Better to hear it from us than anyone else,” Roran insisted. Her hands began to sweat from the way he watched her. “Although I truly had higher hopes for you. I thought you’d be able to figure it out without having us tell you the truth.”

“How would I?” She gasped for breath.

How could she have known, really?

And now that she knew, what did she do, to make amends?

This was her family legacy. Nothing but pain and death and vengeance. “Why did he do it?” she asked through numb lips. “Why would he do something so terrible?”

---