Her chewing slowed as she stared at her plate. She wiped her mouth, avoiding my gaze. “Oh, it’s just…”
“Thana, what is it?”
“I—” She sighed, facing me. “He has us keep him updated… on you. On your well-being. What you do throughout the day. It’s pretty well known throughout the castle that you ordered him to stay away, and he has been,” she explained and my eyes widened. “But it’s obvious he cares for you, even if he would never admit it, and this is the only way he can make sure you are… alright, without seeing you himself.”
My lips flattened as my hands gripped the arm of the chair, turning my knuckles white.
I should’ve known. This is his castle, his people, and he is his father’s son. He’d kept Edana locked away, constantly under his thumb, and guarded. Why would I assume Rogue wouldn’t do the same?
Thana’s eyes caught onto the tension in my jaw and stopped talking. She paused as if to say something else before turning back to her food and eating in silence. My face snapped to the window as the clouds swirled and darkened. This time, I hoped the thunderstorm found him, wherever he was, and soaked him to the bone.
Let him know who sent it, I silently urged the sky.Let there be no doubt it was me.
“I’ve lost my appetite,” I said without turning away from the window. “I think I would like some alone time.”
“Oh… Are you sure? I brought—”
“Yes, please.”
She nodded curtly and guilt sank in my stomach at the tightness in her features. She started towards the door, leaving the tray behind.
“Thana, I’m sorry. I don’t blame you. I know you didn’t have a choice. My anger isn’t at you. It’s at him.”
She nodded and continued, but just before she reached the steps, she spoke with her back to me.
“You shouldn’t be angry with him, not really. Rogue… He’s had a hard life that you knownothingabout. Yes, he invaded your privacy and that was wrong. But he-he didn’t have the best example of how to approach things growing up. I would know. I was here.”
I shrunk back in the chair at her words, my shoulders slumping around me.
“He’s trying to give you the space you asked for, Ara. He’s doing as you asked and that action alone is the very opposite of what his father would have done. He cares for you and he’s trying his best to show it, in the ways that he can.”
My mouth fell open before snapping shut, biting my lip as she descended the stairs.
I’d known Adrastus was cruel to him—just as he was to the rest of his kingdom— but I hadn’t considered that with his mother gone and him isolated from the rest of Ravaryn, no one had been left to show him any kindness.
Guilt tore the breath from my chest. I glanced at the window, grimacing, and the rain slowed to a drizzle before stopping entirely. I hoped it never reached him in the first place.
Averting my gaze, it landed on Vaelor’s journal. I quickly picked it up, flipping it open in need of a distraction.
Today, I received news that a draig has emerged and is terrorizing a small village just south of Blackburn. It’s frustrating. And incredibly disappointing that a Fae would attack his own people. Innocents. According to the reports, the draig destroyed several houses while raiding and pillaging, stealing the incomes of several families. I sent Ewan with supplies to rebuild their homes and enough food to replenish their stores, but this draig needs to be taken care of. We cannot manage to rebuild another village if he were to attack again.
My blood went cold. Not the distraction I was hoping for, but I continued to the next page.
Ewan found the draig. It’s Adrastus, son of Drakyth, and he’s residing in an estate south of Blackburn. The information is not entirely surprising, considering the location of his attacks (and there have been many since my last entry). But why? Why now? I cannot fathom reason enough to do this to your own people. Is he running out of money? Is his ornery dragon form clouding his mind? I think once we determine his ‘why,’ we can learn how to stop him, or at least figure out his pattern of attack.
It pains me to think of raising arms against one of my own people, but as Elora said this morning, it will be the loss of one for the good of many.
I may be older, but she has always been the wiser.
I closed my eyes, inhaling a shaky breath, and flipped to the next page.
He’s looking for a mate.
According to a servant from Adrastus’ estate, he is looking for his mate. He must feel her close by for it to agitate his dragon so. My heart aches for the person he does find… but that is not the only information we received from the servant. If she is to be believed, it would seem Adrastus sired a child well before he began the attacks. About ten years before. But the boy had been born without wings and when he saw it, he went into a fit of rage, destroying the nursery and abandoning the boy and his mother.
According to Father, for any shifting form to be passed down a generation, the child must be produced from the union of mates. Magic that strong cannot be inherited without their combined power, not without the help of the Goddess herself. Apparently, he’s been searching for the past decade, but to no avail, and now he’s getting frustrated. Hence, the violence. He’s trying to force her hand.
I ordered Ewan and Father to speak of this to no one. For the safety of that child, no one must know who his father is and hopefully, for the child’s sake, Adrastus will never find him. May he live a happy life, away from the cruelty he would surely face from his father.