It’s my turn to scoff. “Nick doesn’t care what his father thinks. He did that to avoid Arthur.”

He chuckles. “I’m sure that’s what he believes, but I’ve known him since we were in diapers. He resents his father and hated his upbringing. After his wife departed, Davis doted on his son in every way possible. Gave in to his tantrums and fantasies. Allowed our future king to turn his back on the rest of us.”

“But—”

“Take it from me, Bree.” Sel sighs. “No matter what a partially abandoned child says, in the end, there is one truth: one parent left, and the other stayed.”

“His mother didn’t leave him. She was taken.”

“His mother made a choice. She knew the risks.” A pause. “And she made her choice anyway.”

I pause. My mother is gone, but she’d never have chosen to leave me, or run the risk of us being parted. That’s my own truth, and one I hadn’t considered.

I put back the folder in my hand and move on to another. “Well, if the two of you are so similar, why does he hate you so much? I know how he feels about Merlins in general, but you were a child when his mother was mesmered. You had nothing to do with it.”

Sel grabs a thick folder and drops down to the floor with it, speaking without looking up. “When I was young, my mother was killed by an uchel while on a mission. After that, my human father fell into a liquor bottle and never came out.”

I blink, stunned at both the matter-of-fact tone of his story and how familiar that tone sounds. Sometimes, you say the awful thing quickly and without taking a breath because lingering is too painful.

If an uchel killed Sel’s mother, then no wonder he’d threatened to murder me. Frankly, I’m surprised at his restraint.

“The Regents moved me to a school for Merlins in the mountains, but when I was Oathed to Nicholas, his father took me in. While my own parents were absent, Davis was kind and generous. Not long after I showed up, Nicholas began to see his father’s praise and attention as a zero-sum game. And since I was obedient, I was getting those things.” He shrugs. “Over time, jealousy became anger, anger became resentment.”

I mull this over for a moment. “For both of you?”

Sel exhales and looks at me, thinking. “Perhaps.”

We sit silently for a moment before he continues, his voice heavy with memory. “I thought Nicholas was amazing. He was everything I wasn’t: bright, open, popular. Heroic. He made it all look so easy. Still does. I wanted to be close to that.” He sighs softly. “Probably why I fell in love with him.”

Oh.

“I didn’t realize. You—does he—”