Page 18 of The Ruthless Fae King
“What’s so funny? Surely not cutting out a man’s tongue!” I snapped, reaching out to poke his chest.
His hand snaked out and caught mine, clasping my fingers lightly as a shock of ice cold zipped up my arm. His gray eyes bored into me then and it felt like he was seeing my very soul. The way he gazed at me was unlike any look a man had ever given me. It made my stomach drop and warm at the same time.
“I became king at sixteen, shortly after my mother died. My father abdicated in his prime, which made our family look weak. How else was I to ensure my position so that no one would come to dethrone me?”
Our fingers were still touching, and I couldn’t get that out of my mind enough to process his words, but Piper gasped next to me, clearly getting his reasoning.
“You made up the stories,” Piper said.
Lucien smiled at Piper. “Yes. I paid my palace staff to spread rumors that I was a horrible, powerful, vengeful king.”
Shock ripped through me, and I finally pulled my fingers from his. “You didn’t! But… people hate you for those stories.”
He shrugged, peering at me coolly. “I’d rather be a hated and feared king than a challenged and dead one.”
My mind spun with this new revelation. He wasn’t wrong. The way his father became king was to challenge and fight the previous king, killing him and taking his place. It was our way. But no one challenged a powerful king who was known to fly off the handle at any moment and cut out a tongue.
“That’s… You…” I couldn’t find the words.
“Genius?” Lucien offered, raising one eyebrow and looking impossibly handsome.
I scoffed. “Well, the rumors of your lack of humble nature are true I see.”
Lucien just smirked as if he enjoyed ruffling my feathers. It all made sense now, why the man who had shown up to negotiate my dowry was a far cry from the ruthless menace I’d heard stories about.
“But the Freeze, that was real. I lived through it. You admitted as much,” I told him, indicating the night so many across our realm died.
He sighed, his face falling as a haunted look took over him. “Yes, well, not everything is a rumor. I’m not a perfect man.”
A deep sadness crept into my heart then. I didn’t know why I thought all these years that he didn’t carry any regret over that night, but the look on his face, like I’d shot his beloved pet, told me all I needed to know.
That night was a mistake, and he regretted everything about it.
I reached out and grasped his hand tenderly. “I have trouble controlling my powers too sometimes,” I told him. It was a bit of a lie. I rarely lost control, and when I did, it was easy to rein back in.
He looked at me flatly. “Have you ever killed over fifty people with a windstorm that you created and couldn’t stop?”
I dropped his hand and leaned back into the seat. This was clearly a touchy topic, and I didn’t want to push him anymore.
“No,” I admitted, and we settled into a silent ride. Everything he had said filled the air. My mind chewed over every single word.
He lied. The cut-out tongues, the dragging staff from horses as punishment… all of those insane stories of a cruel king… were lies. It was also kind of genius, like he’d said. No one dared challenge the ruthless winter king. The Thorne family ruled for generations, only having been dethroned a few times but always winning the kingship back with the next heir. It’s why our realm was named Thorngate.
When Lucien’s mother died, there were rumors that it broke his father and that’s why he’d abdicated. Lucien had to step up and become king at sixteen years old or someone would have come for his father. They would have challenged him and killed him.
But the Freeze was real, and he did have a cold personality at times, so there was a story there but not enough to make him the monster I’d spent my entire life believing he was. The longer we drove, the more the guilt of what Sheera had told me was eating me up inside and I could no longer contain it. This was my future husband, the father of my future children,my king.
“Lucien, if I told you a secret, would you promise not to retaliate or punish the person in question?” I said as Piper went rigid beside me.
Lucien slowly looked up at me through steel gray eyes. “I can make no such promise, but I will do my best.”
I chewed at my lip, knowing that now that I had mentioned it I would have to say something, but also that I didn’t want to indicate Sheera.
One gift the king had, that all the kings across Avalier had, was the power to detect a lie.
Careful with my wording, I cleared my throat. “Be careful with Duke Barrett. I heard a rumor he might like to overthrow you one day.”
There, the truth, and it protected my friend.
