That is what my ego needed to hear.
I came to the library, as much to distract myself over my silly and inexplicable pining over a mortal as to find vital answers about the possible fate of my realm.
A knowing look fills Kazimir’s face. “So go to the Goat’s Knoll to satisfy your other needs.”
I snort. “After our last exchange, I’m not entirely certain Bexley wouldn’t bite my cock off.” I hesitate. “And I have no interest in her.” Or anyone else.
His eyebrows arch. “I have known you for how long? Fought beside you how many times? Seen you fuck your way through how many tributaries?”
“Too many to count,” I admit.
“You change them more often than I sharpen my blades. So, what is it about this one that has you so enamored?”
“I don’t know. Honestly.” I smirk. “Maybe she has me under a spell, like Romeria has trapped Zander.” That was the only reasonable explanation anyone could find for my brother’s relentless weakness.
Kazimir goes quiet, and I know what he’s thinking. You were under that same spell, Atticus. He watched me slip out of her tent just before daybreak. He knew what we’d done. “Or maybe you are subconsciously looking for a suitable queen to sit next to you, someone to share the burden of the throne. It is applaudable. Shocking, given it’s you … but applaudable.”
I roll my eyes. “Maybe I am.”
“Good. But Gracen has no aspirations for that role, nor is she suited to it.”
I know this, and yet my thoughts and my wants keep gravitating toward her.
Kazimir smooths a hand over his beard. “What do you plan to do with her? Make her immortal?”
“No.” The answer comes without thought.
He folds his arms over his chest in challenge. “You could. You are the king. You could break Islor’s most sacred of laws.”
“She wouldn’t want that,” I murmur, more to myself. Would she?
“No,” he agrees. “She is a simple baker from Freywich.”
“Baymeadow, actually. In the plains. She had a keeper named Cordin. He was kind to her. Taught her how to read.”
Kazimir blinks. “And tell me, where did Sabrina grow up?”
I falter on the answer, seeing his point. Have I ever known this much about any of my other tributaries?
The look on my captain’s face answers that for me.
“Gracen is a mortal mother with three young children, whom she will want to grow old with. And you are an immortal king who is taking children from their parents and executing her kind every day.”
My anger flares. “As if I have a choice!”
He raises his hands in surrender. “My read on her, Atticus, since you asked … is that she may be smitten with you, but she is not a fool, and she will do anything to keep herself and her children alive. As for why she did not come last night, perhaps she’s heard rumors of the children Boaz is prying from mothers’ arms and storing for you and isn’t so smitten anymore.”
“I’m only trying to protect them.”
“You see that, and I see that, but mortals may see it differently, and they are the ones out there ingesting poison and rebelling against the elven rule.”
I sigh. I’ve been so focused on what the lords and ladies and Boaz think of my decisions, I haven’t given any thought to what the mortals think. Another of my brother’s strengths, which is clearly a flaw for me.
I released Sabrina by Gracen’s request. It was the right thing to do, anyway, and the decision eased my weighted conscience, but it was because she asked that I did it at all.
What would she want me to do with these mortals?
And what can I do that will not make me look as ill-fitted to rule as my brother did by the end?
“I think it’s time I paid a visit to the arena.”
“For what, may I ask?”
“To ensure Boaz isn’t handling this situation in a way I may one day regret.” I haven’t told Kazimir about Romeria’s wild claims yet and I’m not sure why.
I move toward the iron staircase down to the main floor. A colorful section slows my feet, and the title on the nearest shelf catches my eye. “Hold a moment.”
The group of mortals huddle together in the center of the square, eyeing the dangling ropes with trepidation.
“Fates. This many, already?” I count thirty-four mortals with glowing emblems on their hands, standing before me. In wagons behind them, bodies are piled. Too many to count. Wendeline has been busy.