Page 8 of Luca

“I know. I wanted to make sure it was secure.”

He brushed off his trousers, though there was not a speck on them—a nervous gesture. “Wow, this is…tight.”

Being a smaller creature, Luca had an easier time pacing the room, scanning every square inch. It didn’t take long. He trailed his fingertips over the books on the middle shelf, even picked one up to flick through. “This looks like a ledger of some kind…” He tapped his way down the page. “It’s a similar format to the ones Rathe got his hands on. Names, occupations, and info on all the creatures who’ve ever passed through the Veil…” He replaced the book in his hands with another. “Yeah, this one is the same. They have dates, too. A few only had an outward journey. The rest of them returned.”

I hummed. “I wonder what sets these records apart from the ones on the other side of the door. They were obviously hidden for a reason. Creatures of interest, perhaps?”

“Criminals, you mean?”

I nodded. “I mean no offense with these words, pet, but it might be worth checking for any crossings around your birth date. Anything that sticks out from the pattern for you. It may be the only clue we have to finding your father.”

Luca let out a slow breath. “It’s gonna take weeks to look through all these.”

“You’re excited about that, aren’t you?”

He sent me an embarrassed smile. “Kinda, yeah.” I laughed, and he set down the book he’d been holding and began rolling up the sleeves of his linen shirt. “Thankfully, whoever was in charge of the ledgers seemed to appreciate some type of order, so the ones on the upper shelvesshouldbe more recent. Any other structure is frankly wrong.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” I said. No response came. Luca was already focused on his task, so I stepped back over to the table to finish skimming the document from earlier.

A quill lay beside it, separated from the inkwell as if this had been the last page written before the author left and never returned. It was a letter addressed to my father—nothing of interest to me, but that seal made me curious. I felt like I’d seen it before, but I couldn’t place it.

I glanced over the six stacks of leather-bound journals. All of them appeared unassuming and had no labels or titles. There were rolled-up scrolls littering every available space, and two piles of used parchment—more letters—but what held my attention was the note sticking out from one of the books at the back. I slid it free from the pile and parted the pages of the loose parchment, realizing with a quick scan that it was a contract.

It stated that the agreement itself, along with the contents of the accompanying journal were to be magically protected, never to be modified, forged, or destroyed. My gaze dropped to the seal at the bottom, the same one that seemed to appear on many of the documents here, but it was the name beside it that had my eyes widening.

Eleri Malyn.

Teighan’s mother.

“Luca…” I murmured, too distracted by my findings to look up.

“Yeah?”

I switched over to the journal—diary would have been more accurate—to read through the page already open. It was a raw and emotional documentation of the tail end of her pregnancy with Teighan. It described how dejected she felt, how scared she was for her unborn youngling, and how my father had left her with little choice, so she…

“They were bonded,” I muttered aloud.

Luca had already drifted to my side, so I knew he’d heard. “What? Who?”

“My father and Teighan’s mother,” I said before reading further. “She knew she would die, so to keep her unborn babe safe, she agreed to bond with our father. This is…” I looked up, a sense of relief welling in my chest. “This changes everything.”

“How so?”

“He is the son of a king and hismate. That holds more weight than noble blood.”

Luca’s brow furrowed. “So, is Teighan in line for the throne?”

“No. His mother was not crowned, and there is nothing here to suggest Father recognized him as such, but it gives him the same protection.”

“The ward… His bargain…” My clever mate caught on, his eyes growing wide. “The king cannot kill or banish those of the royal blood, right?”

“Precisely.” If these records were legitimate, my brother was free to travel between the realms as he saw fit. My father had lied. He’d made Tee believe he held that power over him, but he never had.

Teighan had a choice, he just didn’t know it.

“So, Tee knew his parents were soulmates?”

“Yes,” I said. “He was told that she had rejected him, but made a bargain to prevent the king from hurting the child or ordering the deed done. It was Tee’s governess who gave him the information. She’d watched him being punished for asking Father about her, and felt pity for him. He wouldn’t even know her name if she hadn’t.”

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