“The ward… His bargain…” My clever mate caught on, his eyes growing wide. “The king cannot kill or banish those of the royal blood, right?”

“Precisely.” If these records were legitimate, my brother was free to travel between the realms as he saw fit. My father had lied. He’d made Tee believe he held that power over him, but he never had.

Teighan had a choice, he just didn’t know it.

“So, Tee knew his parents were soulmates?”

“Yes,” I said. “He was told that she had rejected him, but made a bargain to prevent the king from hurting the child or ordering the deed done. It was Tee’s governess who gave him the information. She’d watched him being punished for asking Father about her, and felt pity for him. He wouldn’t even know her name if she hadn’t.”

“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 that it, 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.