While he’d been discarded and left to die on another continent, I had been marrying the new king responsible for the ruination of his life.

As if sensing exactly what I was thinking, the shame and sickness crawling through my chest cavity, Scythe kissed my jaw. “The fates are unforgiving, wildflower, but also strangely merciful. I wouldn’t want any of this cursed land, even if it hadn’t robbed me of all I loved. It’s no longer my home. It never will be.”

I blinked away tears. “Home.” I pondered that, Helvectus having another home, and found it did not surprise me. He’d spent such little time at the towers from what I could remember. “And your mother?” Scythe’s lack of response both hardened and sliced at my heart. “No,” I whispered. “Tell me he didn’t.”

The list of Rorn’s atrocities, such unforgivable actions, just continued to grow. Soon, I wondered if I’d be able to see past it all to the male I’d once known.

Scythe looked beyond me to the trees and licked his teeth. “I’m not certain it was him, but I do know he would’ve ordered it. He would’ve been there. And I’ll never forget that he took my eye on that beach, for his henchmen couldn’t bring themselves to.”

My stomach roiled, but he went on, “He had us both locked in the dungeon when my mother came to ask for help some months after my father had died.” He released a huffed breath. “We were there for all of one night before he decided there was no more time to waste.”

My mind skipped backward to that brighter time—to the darkness Rorn had carried with him after Helvectus’ death. “It slowly changed him. Festered,” I murmured, mostly to myself, for I knew he wouldn’t care to hear it. “I’d thought it was his brother’s death, but now I see it was his own misdeeds.”

I rose with help from his shoulders and did my best to walk off the tears that didn’t seem to want to abate for longer than a few hours.

A monster.

All this time, I’d been married to a monster, and I’d had no idea.

“So much horror and heartbreak…” I laughed low. “Just so he could keep the throne.”

“He’d just taken it,” Scythe said. “The shame of stepping down and handing it to some youngling he’d known nothing about would have undone him worse than what he did to keep it.”

“No.” I stopped pacing when Scythe grabbed me from behind, his large arms enfolding me. “No, he can’t get away with this.”

“You just said you do not wish him dead.”