A Queen of Ruin (Deliciously Dark Fairytales 4)

Arleth wiped her cheek with the back of her hand. “Yes. His treasonous deeds were all related to me. As the king would say in later years, I was the reason Taerhael had to be killed. My wicked ways beguiled the most powerful and loyal dragon in the kingdom. I was his ruin—the kingdom’s ruin. He said it again and again until I started to believe it. The king could be incredibly manipulative. He’d tell you something in such a way that you questioned your own mind. I still believe it, mostly. It is true, after all. Taerhael was killed because of his deeds with me.”

Before I could push back on that assessment, because she obviously wasn’t the one to blame, Nyfain cut in.

“Whenever he punished me for some misdoing or imagined slight, he’d say I would never amount to anything. That I’d turn out just like that traitor Taerhael. The name meant little to me then, but his tune changed in later years. He started saying I’d never amount to Taerhael. I was constantly compared to him and found wanting. In my mind, that meant I wasn’t even as good as a traitor. I was worthless. I grew to loathe that name.”

“No.” The queen shook her head and leaned forward, resting her hand on the table between them. “That didn’t have anything to do with you. That had to do with the past. Taerhael would’ve been so proud of you, Nyfain. He was so good with you when you were little, playing with you outside, teaching you to ride a horse, letting you crawl all over him and pull his hair. He had infinite patience with you, even when he didn’t know you were his son. He would’ve protected you to the last, had he known. He tried, in the end. He killed a lot of people before they were able to take him down. But he was no match for a king and his army.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Nyfain’s voice was ragged, his composure cracking. “Why did you let me believe, all this time, that I was the spawn of that man? That…miserable man. He showed me no love. No…compassion. Ever. Even when he tried, it often resulted in a cuff to the ear, or a bark to get out of his sight. Then the beatings, the punishments, being locked in the tower…”

Arleth shook her head. “I couldn’t tell anyone. I was told by the king, in no uncertain terms, that if the truth got out, even a rumor, he’d kill you. He maintained that there was no point to you if people didn’t believe you were his son. Your only value to him was in the perception that you were his heir. Still, he came to see you as a mockery of his manhood because he couldn’t get me with a child of his own. I told you to leave to protect you. You were never safe here, not while he was alive. I was never safe here. I told you to leave, and as soon as you were safely away, I left too. I had damned this kingdom with my indiscretions. I didn’t want you to suffer in the fallout.”

The strength went out of Nyfain, and he leaned back, gripping the top of my chair.

“When I asked where my size and strength came from, since I was so much larger than D—” Nyfain gritted his teeth. “Than the king, you told me it was from your family line.”

“You would’ve been a hair taller than Taerhael now, with wider shoulders. It might’ve been from my line…” Her voice trailed away.

He stared at her, obviously reeling. I didn’t know how to make it better. I didn’t know how to comfort him through this other than to keep my hands on him and offer my soft support through the bond.

I certainly didn’t want to point out that the only way she’d fucked up was by not writing to Nyfain sooner. By not warning him as soon as she could. She’d known enough about the king to guess he’d do something crazy. Then again, she’d barely gotten out of her nightmare life alive. She had been clawing her way back from the dead. She was a survivor. Her story wasn’t pretty, but surviving never was.

Still, I wasn’t the one who had been lied to all my life. Nyfain would need to come to grips with that fact before logic could rule.

Besides, sad story aside, there were still questions on the table.

When the truth broke—which was inevitable, since two staff members had heard her claim the king wasn’t Nyfain’s father—what would happen?

What would happen when only one official royal was left in the kingdom—the favorite royal—and she had ownership of the gold?

TWELVE

Finley

Time to do my part and get this dinner back on track.