Page 103 of Enchanted Kingdom
I wiped at my tears. “Warrick deserves so much more than that.” I shook my head at Prince Krewan. “Fine. I get the fact that you had to kill this man in the forest. I didn’t have all the information, fine.” A shaky breath threatened to rip my soul in two. “But the fact that you hid your son in an orphanage, making him live a life feeling unwanted and unloved. That pure and amazing little soul...” I shook my head again. “That is what makes me hate you most. He isyour son.”
Prince Krewan closed his eyes. “Yes. He is. And were it not for your Iron Will protecting you from my father’s magic, you would more than likely already be dead for knowing that.”
I wiped at another tear. “Why. Tell me, dammit.Whywould you leave him there?”
Owen looked at Prince Krewan. “Do you want me to explain?”
He took a deep breath and shook his head. “No. I will.” He paused. “Warrick, as far as my father knows, was never born.” He paused again and I noticed his magic was back, begging to come out and play. “I loved his mother. She was even from Savaryn and might have one day been given a letter much like the one you received. But at nineteen, I had messed up. According to my father, I had found a woman and gotten her with child before the Assemblages, tearing apart the Wylan tradition.”
I was quiet, chest still heaving, but listening.
“So my father had my pregnant lover murdered,” Prince Krewan said, his voice laced in loathing.
I gasped.
“I got there as quickly as I could. We’d kept it a secret for as long as we could. And then I finally just tried to reason with my father. He was not pleased, but one day toward the end of the pregnancy he just snapped. As soon as I found out he meant to do her harm, I went straight to Cessa to get her out of the country.” He paused. “But she was already dead. I sent for healers and used my magic to keep her heart pumping and to push air into her lungs, but she was already dead.”
I put a hand up to my mouth, more tears streaming down my face, now feeling for Warrick’s mother. A mother that surely would’ve loved that boy with everything she had.
“They were able to get Warrick out,” Prince Krewan said. “But Cessa had lost too much blood. She was gone.”
I closed my eyes. “I’m sorry.”
“Me too.” Prince Krewan paused. “So in answer to your question, of how could I possibly leave my son in that orphanage, the answer is simple. I do notwantfor him to be there. He is there to protect him from his grandfather. His grandfather who does not know he even exists.”
“Keir knows?” I whispered.
Owen nodded. “Only the princes, and three of the six of us that work with them most closely know. Hattie of course too. And now you.”
So I was lucky number seven? Only seven people in the entire kingdom knew this?
“Why not just allow him to be adopted then?” I asked. “He is so very charming and adorable. There has to have been a family by now that wanted to adopt him.”
Prince Krewan’s gaze went cold as he swung his eyes to mine. “Warrick ismyson. We will take care of my father and then he will be with me.”
“Okay.” I stole a glance at Owen. “So you are hiding him within the very people you hate?”
Prince Krewan again glared at me. “You again misplace my distaste. I do not hate the people of Nerede. Quite the opposite, actually. They’ve protected Warrick all these years. I just understand my father better than most.” As he looked out the window he added, “The first time we tried to take him down didn’t work so well. We will bide our time as long as we have to because we willnotfail again.”
That just gave me more questions. “The first time?”
Prince Krewan just kept looking out the window, like he didn’t want to elaborate.
“The first time,” Owen pitched in, “was after Cessa died. Krew got rid of all his personal items, one of which you are quite fond of, and then he and Keir poisoned the king. Not to kill him because he has a tester, of course, but just to make him sick and weaken him. He tried to take on the king alone.”
“And?” I asked.
“And he was stronger,” Prince Krewan said simply. “Our king has told all the Enchanted for years to use our magic sparingly, meanwhile he uses his constantly when alone. Our magic is not a well that can run dry, rather it is a muscle that needs to be used. The more frequently you use it, the stronger you become. But we didn’t know that back then.”
I thought of all the late nights Keir spent with this brother. Of Keir telling me he was stronger than he’d ever been before. “Oh.”
“Krew almost died,” Owen explained. “I have no idea how he survived that botched assassination attempt other than sheer stubbornness.”
“And yet he will still allow you to become king? After trying to kill you?” I asked surprised.
Prince Krewan sighed. “It is yet another one of his games. Killing me would’ve been the easy way out. He wanted me to live with the pain and knowledge of what he’d done. And with the knowledge that he was stronger.”
“Plus Prince Krewan turned cold after that,” Owen stated. “Appearing to hate everyone and everything, which was a weapon the king cheerfully wielded.”
