Page 9 of Luca

“But she lied too.”

“No, sweet boy, she told him what she could.” I smiled sadly down at him. “The very day his mother passed, apparently the king fell into a rage, burning everything mentioning her name and forbidding anyone from speaking of her. She risked her life to tell Teighan vague truths, and probably hoped he’d figure it out himself in time.”

My mate made an acknowledging sound. “She was brave, then.” I nodded, and after a moment’s pause, his mouth twisted with contemplation and he carried on. “She said your father burned everything, but I guess that diary is the exception?”

“This contract says thatit, and the journal, cannot be destroyed. It’s warded, and when Father realized, he must have hidden it in here so no one would ever find it.”

“He’s a bastard,” Luca bit out, and I did not disagree. “I’m glad Tee’s mom got one final ‘fuck you’ in before she died. It would have killed your father knowing she hadn’t actually given in. That she was besting him.”

“After everything he put her through, I commend her strength. Despite the pain she suffered, she resisted him until the very last moment, and that would have taken incredible courage.”

I gently closed the book and returned it to the top of the stack. Luca was scouring the loose pages on the table. “Is that why he’s so bitter, then?”he mused aloud.

“Hm?”

“The king, I mean.” He picked up the same letter I’d read earlier. “You guys go through the wringer when you lose your mates, right?”

“If a Fae doesn’t die from heartache, they’re never the same again. It changes you, losing one half of your soul.” Father would have gone through the bonding sickness as most Fae did with the passing of their mates, but I doubted, even though they’d been fated, that he’d felt pure love for Eleri. Not the kind I felt for Luca, or Teighan for Alex—that intense, unconditional love that consumed every inch of our entire being. No, Father would have twisted its purity somehow. He would have snatched the gift from fate’s hands and warped it for his own selfish gain. He was heartless, and the thread between their souls wouldn’t have endured long enough for it to quell the hate inside him. He wouldn’t have allowed it. It was about ownership for him, conquering what he was denied, and by the time he finally had it, it would have been too late for even a glimmer of fondness to present itself. Or for him to realize what he’d lost.

Ultimately, it would have made the anguish easier to bear.

“I’ll bet.” Luca released a slow breath. “He must have suffered a lot. Not condoning it, or sympathizing, just trying to work it all out.”

“Father has been cruel and indifferent for as long as I can remember, but it is possible that he grew even more so after her death. I was barely twenty when Teighan was born, a youngling, but I still never understood why my father treated him so poorly. He was never the type to lend pity to creatures lesser than himself, but with Tee it felt more personal. If that was all because of what happened with his mother, it would explain so much.”

Luca nodded.

It didn’t justify his behavior, and there was no forgiving him for all that he’d done to my brother, but it at least gave us a little clarity onwhy.That was often all we could hope for. Answers.

“This seal,” my mate said after a moment, pointing to the page in his hand. “It’s on a few of these documents. You don’t know who it belongs to?”

“I don’t recognize it. It’s definitely not my father’s. The emblem for the royal banner and seal is a three-headed hydra.”

“I’m going to look through a few more of those ledgers, see if they tell us anything.” Luca wandered over to the shelves, glancing around as if looking for a place to sit.

“Would you like me to go out and get you a chair?”

He smiled sweetly. “Would you mind?”

“Of course not.”

I slipped back through the portal to grab two chairs and a pitcher of water, and by the time I returned, Luca had his nose firmly in a book, a few pages deep already. I left the water on the table and onlyjustmanaged to slot one of the chairs next to my mate, who thanked me without even looking up, before lowering himself onto the seat and continuing to read. I didn’t dare disturb him, just set the other chair down where it fit and picked up the first diary from the pile.

Judging by the determined set of Luca’s brow, we would be here most of the evening, so I might as well dive right in.

After three hours of unsuccessful searching, I was almost at the end of the second pile of journals, and my eyelids were getting heavy. My mate had gradually migrated from his chair to the floor, a natural progression whenever he was deep in a researching spree. The space was limited, but according to him, being able to spread out his material and study several texts at once made the process easier. I didn’t argue, only urged him to stand up and stretch every so often, giving his back a much-needed rest. He would appease me, though it was with a complaint and a grumble, eyes fixed on the page at his feet as he shook out his limbs before losing himself in his reading once again.

It occurred to me then how long he’d gone without water, and I felt guilt settle in my stomach at my carelessness. His cup sat untouched at his side, in danger of spilling due to his lack of spatial awareness. I was opening my mouth to remind him of its presence when he shifted from his place on the floor, twisting toward me.

He had a pensive look on his face, which suggested something was baffling him.

“There’s a guy who crops up in every ledger I’ve looked at,” he said, glancing over the four books strewn across the floor in front of him and the one in his hand. “It might be a coincidence, but I’ve never heard of him in the palace, and he’s the only one who doesn’t have his occupation or any other information listed. From what I’ve seen, he’s made over fifty trips back and forth through the Veil, and that’s in just the last hundred years or so.”

I placed the journal I’d been reading face down on the table before sinking to the floor to join my mate, easing gently into the narrow space behind him. My chest was plastered to his back and my arms were around his waist. I planted a soft kiss on the side of his head.

“That sounds like something we definitely shouldn’t ignore,” I said.

“Maybe.” He subconsciously melted against me. “The pattern just seems irregular. Typically, anyone who goes through the Veil either doesn’t return at all, or they come back after a while and stay in the Otherworld. They don’t really keep making the journey, so…” He leaned forward to snatch up the farthest open book before nestling back against me. “I checked the most recent ledger on the shelf, just to see how far the pattern continues, andheis the very last entry. The script is different, as if written by someone else, but it’s dated eight months before I was born.”

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