her. It was easier to just see her as accidental, for that made her less than she was.
And she was already far too much.
But she was right. She could not do the job she did, couldn’t have graduated from University, if she were truly haphazard.
“Tell me,” he said, the command in his voice like iron. For his every command was iron. “What was it like to grow up with your father?”
She blinked. “Why?”
“Because I’m intrigued. I’m interested in what exactly has made you...this. You were raised practically in the palace, as I was.”
“As was Dionysus,” she said. “But the two of you could not be more different than... Well, a Ferrari and a lion.”
“Those comparisons have nothing in common.”
“To my point,” she said, dryly mimicking something he’d said to her earlier. “You know, one is machinery. Modern and sleek and shiny. The other is a bit toothy. Dangerous. Ancient.”
“If that’s a joke about my age...”
“Oh, no.” She waved a hand. “It’s definitely about your personality.”
“So tell me. How is it you managed to grow into...what you are?”
“You saw me grow up. I was here most of the time.”
“And when you weren’t?”
She blinked. “I don’t know. I guess... It was difficult with my mother. Always. I think she loves me.”
She looked away, her eyes downcast.
“You think?”
She looked back at him, her expression defiant. “Yes. I think she withheld her praise because she thought if she gave it I might not try. And in her opinion I never tried hard enough.”
He felt...he didn’t like it, for he felt. But he knew what it was to be denied your mother’s love. He knew.
“Tried hard enough for what?” he asked.
“To be... Well, to be her, I suppose.”
Her mother had always seemed spoiled and selfish to him. Certainly nothing like Tinley. And nothing she could ever want to be.
“If I remember correctly. You really are nothing like your mother.”
She shook her head. “No. And I also think she was very disappointed that I wasn’t... Well, that I wasn’t asked to be your wife.”
“My wife?”
“Princess is a bit below Queen, particularly in the estimation of my mother, who I think believed that our fathers’ connections would benefit us more than she believed it did in the end.”
“So my brother wasn’t good enough for her?”
“Mostly, I’m not good enough for her. But the thing is, I was more than good enough for my father. I loved him so much. And he loved me.” She looked down at her plate. “Your father picked me for Dionysus just like I was. It was much easier to be more of that person than the woman who could never be the Queen my mother wanted me to be.”
He knew what it was to disappoint a mother. More than disappoint. He might as well have taken a knife and cut his mother open.
He should have been the one to be keeping an eye on his brother.
They had been outside playing on the palace grounds, and it wasn’t until he realized he no longer heard his brother laughing that he realized something was wrong. He had lifted his head to see the back of his brother as he disappeared into the Dark Wood. As the trees seemed to swallow him whole. He had run after him. With all of his speed and might, but he was nowhere to be found.
Not a trace of Lazarus had ever been found.
He had only been seven years old, but Alexius had searched for his brother in the wood with the men until he had nearly fallen off the mount with exhaustion.
And then, he had gone back out the next day, after forty-five minutes of sleep, to continue searching. He had gone into the wood, and no harm had become of him.
The Lion of the Dark Wood. Or, a failure who had allowed his brother to die.
Opinion was divided.
Not with his mother, though.
He was thankful yet again that she had not lived through the death of Dionysus, for her opinion would’ve been confirmed then.
“And you...you were born a mountain?” She asked.
“I was born to be King. But time changes us all.”
She shook her head. “You’ve always been like this.”
“Regretfully, I cannot speak to the way that you’ve always been.” But he could. For he could remember her, a ball of energy and light and noise.
And could remember her as she grew older, watching the energy shift and change into something that shone from her eyes, rather than exploding into uncontrolled movement.
That was when the feeling in him had