‘They were supposed to be the last heirs, and the Moirai decided that their father would become the king Consort. He forbade them from ever speaking to me; they mostly keep to themselves anyway. It must be nice having a twin, someone always there for you.’

‘You’re so depressing,’ she muttered.

He scoffed but secretly enjoyed this side of her. ‘Have you looked at yourself?’ he shot back.

‘Stop trying to change the subject; I still have questions.’

He sighed at her words.

‘Your father?’

He winced.

‘Sore subject?’

He nodded. ‘Did you know in the span of four minutes you managed to ask me twelve questions? Enough!’ he pleaded.

‘I wouldn’t be a historian if I wasn’t curious.’ She giggled.

‘That’s true, I suppose.’ His eyes darkened, and his heart lurched; it was not often he got to talk about his father, not that he ever met him. ‘My father is in exile; I’m pretty sure he managed to charm my mother to bed, but he was not part of the Moirai’s prophecy for her. It was either exile or death . . .’

‘It’s illegal to go against the Moirai?’

As much as he found her questions annoying, it warmed his heart someone was interested in what he had to say. He would continue to make her think that she was annoying him so she would keep asking.

‘Thirteen,’ he counted. ‘It is when you do something that threatens the Crown and the Family.’

She nodded and opened her mouth to likely ask more questions but seemed to not have any left; he felt his heart drop.

She looked away from him. He missed her brown eyes peering at him. She played with the hem of her skirt, biting her lip like she was holding back words. He waited for her, letting the silence between fill the space. She whispered something under her breath that even his fae hearing couldn’t detect. It sounded like she swore.

She looked back at him and finally spoke.

‘I understand what you meant about wanting to be better. I used to be jealous of Dana; she’s used to be this huge party girl. She would have put Elnora to shame. But I was always the more academic one. I was never jealous of her being the more outgoing one until suddenly, she decided to pursue archaeology, overshadowing me once again. That jealously consumed me for a while; I shouldn’t have let it get that far, especially now that she’s gone. I wasted those moments ignoring her. I should’ve been better then.’

The breath she let out after told him she needed to say that more than he needed to hear it.

‘There’s no point living in what could’ve been.’ He watched her mouth gently curve into a smile. Her stomach growled and gurgled, telling him that he had to get her to food as soon as possible.

‘Do you want to go to Betty’s?’

‘I always want to go to Betty’s.’ She laughed. ‘Can Circe come?’