He knew his mother was fighting back words.

She tilted her head to the side. ‘There’s a job for you, and before you even suggest it, the twins have already proved their worth countless times. You have done nothing of the sort. You have shown no indication of proving yourself for the throne. And if I were to give you a position in this court, our people will have to see that you are worthy of it.’

‘I don’t need to do anything.’ He scoffed. ‘I don’t want it.’

‘Everybody wants it.’

She leant back into her gilded throne. ‘Kellan, you have potential to be great. The potential to be a leader. You’re wasting your sharpness on being a drunk.’

‘No—’ She’s not entirely wrong. ‘Sabien is your favourite; ask him.’

His mother huffed. ‘Your brother already turned down the task because he thought you are better suited for it.’

Kellan clicked his tongue. He furrowed his brows, shaking his head in denial.

‘He is plotting something,’ he spat. ‘He would never willingly give up a chance to please you.’

Sabien never strayed too far from their mother, especially then, because it was so close for her to name her successor. It was a useless notion to stick by her, Kellan thought. For all they knew, the Moirai could have read the twins their prophecy, and one of them could be prophesied to take the throne, not Sabien.

‘Possibly,’ his mother said. She tapped her long nails on the throne’s armrest, in measured rhythm.

He could tell she was seething. He widened his eyes, waiting for the ball to drop.

‘Krete has asked for aid’ was all she said.

He relaxed, letting his shoulders loosen.

Krete was a country that had nearly every creature except fae, but he called it the Land of Witches because they seemed to rule it. It was the strongest nation in this realm. Besides the neighbouring Fae Court, Gaea.

‘Vampires are going missing,’ she said, with a sort of franticness in her tone.

‘What does that to do with us?’ He slid his hands in his pockets.

‘It has everything to do with us.’ The queen’s voice rose, and Kellan stepped back to avoid her oncoming rage. ‘They think it could be another Blood Plague.’

That sounded bad, but he wasn’t going to tell her that.

‘We didn’t involve ourselves with the Blood Plague last time. Why now?’

‘The war—’

Kellan already knew what road she was going down—the war they lost miserably in. He wasn’t alive then, neither was his mother. Yet, they still carry that burden every day. Zakros came out as the villain of that story, shunned from the rest of the realm.