Ultimately, it would have made the anguish easier to bear.

“I’ll bet.” Luca released a slow breath. “He must have suffered a lot. Not condoning it, or sympathizing, just trying to work it all out.”

“Father has been cruel and indifferent for as long as I can remember, but it is possible that he grew even more so after her death. I was barely twenty when Teighan was born, a youngling, but I still never understood why my father treated him so poorly. He was never the type to lend pity to creatures lesser than himself, but with Tee it felt more personal. If that was all because of what happened with his mother, it would explain so much.”

Luca nodded.

It didn’t justify his behavior, and there was no forgiving him for all that he’d done to my brother, but it at least gave us a little clarity on why. That was often all we could hope for. Answers.

“This seal,” my mate said after a moment, pointing to the page in his hand. “It’s on a few of these documents. You don’t know who it belongs to?”

“I don’t recognize it. It’s definitely not my father’s. The emblem for the royal banner and seal is a three-headed hydra.”

“I’m going to look through a few more of those ledgers, see if they tell us anything.” Luca wandered over to the shelves, glancing around as if looking for a place to sit.

“Would you like me to go out and get you a chair?”

He smiled sweetly. “Would you mind?”

“Of course not.”

I slipped back through the portal to grab two chairs and a pitcher of water, and by the time I returned, Luca had his nose firmly in a book, a few pages deep already. I left the water on the table and only just managed to slot one of the chairs next to my mate, who thanked me without even looking up, before lowering himself onto the seat and continuing to read. I didn’t dare disturb him, just set the other chair down where it fit and picked up the first diary from the pile.

Judging by the determined set of Luca’s brow, we would be here most of the evening, so I might as well dive right in.

After three hours of unsuccessful searching, I was almost at the end of the second pile of journals, and my eyelids were getting heavy. My mate had gradually migrated from his chair to the floor, a natural progression whenever he was deep in a researching spree. The space was limited, but according to him, being able to spread out his material and study several texts at once made the process easier. I didn’t argue, only urged him to stand up and stretch every so often, giving his back a much-needed rest. He would appease me, though it was with a complaint and a grumble, eyes fixed on the page at his feet as he shook out his limbs before losing himself in his reading once again.