The queen stopped short, thin eyebrows furrowing ever so slightly. “There will be time to discuss your brother. Right now, I wish to get to know my son.”

“Stop calling me that. I don’t know you. You don’t know me. I am here only at the request of my father, King Artemus Vedran, for the sole purpose of helping you locate Crown Prince Edward Vedran-Echevaria, to ensure the realm isn’t destabilized by the loss of its one and only heir. This isn’t because I give two wits about Kinkalla or its future. This is to protect Finfalla, my kingdom, from any spillover caused by unrest in a neighboring kingdom.”

The queen had watched him intently as he’d been speaking, her scarlet lips cracking open just enough to see her teeth. “You’re so different to your brother,” she said.

“He’s not my brother.”

“Then why does he share your face? You shared the same space in my womb, once.”

“And yet we shared nothing else, because of your decisions.”

“I did what I thought was best for Edward, the only living son I had at the time.”

“That’s rich. Glad to know you gave up on me so quickly just because I didn’t scream my bloody head off the second I spilled into the world. Like Edward did, apparently.”

“You weren’t breathing. Your heart wasn’t beating.” The queen’s voice had risen, and Tomas could feel more than see the tears being drawn to the surface of her eyes.

He didn’t care. “Father didn’t give up on me. And he didn’t give up on you either. He always said you’d come to your senses and return one day. Except you never did.” He was purposely avoiding the topic of how he’d survived the day of his birth. According to his father, his mother knew nothing of his condition, or the medicine he was required to take daily just to live. He planned to keep it that way.

“Is that what he said?” Any moisture that had coalesced in her eyes dried in an instant. “Your father would tell you the earth is flat if he needed you to travel to its edge. He spins lies like a spider’s web until you can’t tell which strand is truth and which is falsehood. You’re obviously a clever young man, surely you know this.”

“Of course I know this!” Tomas said, raising his voice. He remembered how his father had fooled him at his own game, baiting him into thinking he was becoming a senile old codger when in reality it had been Tomas flying stupidly into his web. He closed his eyes, breathing deeply to get control of his temper. He refused to be baited into a conversation he didn’t even want to have.

“You left. We stayed. That is the only truth I know.”