pain in the ass to handle. She has a very small brain, but a very large mouth. A combination none of the other rulers, including myself, want to deal with constantly.” Father leaned back and lit another cigar with his firepower. “That brings me to King Athon.”
“Are you two still fighting? Since neither of you died after I left, I thought you’d worked out your issues.”
“We will continuously fight.” A puff of smoke gathered in a haze between us once more. “Do you want the truth on why it will be this way forever? The real truth?”
“Now is as bad a time as any.” I lifted a red brow.
“Cute, my heir.” The fire burned bright at the end of his cigar, just as bold as his hair, as he inhaled heavily. He finally let the captured smoke release in a slow stream past his lips. “It is because I screwed up. Had I known just how powerful he was, I would have left his vile father on that throne.”
I cleared my smug expression from my face. “How powerful is he?”
“Although I sit right in the middle of longest to shortest years on the throne compared to the other rulers, I have always had the most power in my Fae-spark—until King Athon took the throne. He is only five hundred years old, less than half my age, and his power rivals my own. I fear to think how powerful he will be when he is my current age, if I’m not around then to keep him in check.”
I swallowed on a dry throat, and questioned, “Why don’t you kill him now? You’ve already assassinated his father.”
“A few reasons, my heir. One, he has no direct heir. Two, he has no siblings to take his place. Three, his father killed off the rest of his extended family before I could kill him. Four, despite how ruthless and cruel he can be, he is a great ruler to his people. He keeps the shifters in check, which is hard to do with such an unruly kind.”
I nodded gradually. “So there are no more shifters with his royal bloodline power to take the throne, and he isn’t killable on a moral level. Understood. So what is his weakness?”
My father grunted quietly, and said even more softly, “I haven’t found one yet.”
“You have got to be kidding. He’s been on the throne for three hundred years, Father. There has to be something.”
“He’s a very secretive man. The asshole doesn’t give much away that isn’t already obvious.” King Traevon stabbed out his smoke, not even halfway done with it. “I would kick myself in the ass if I could, believe me. If I had only been more patient and waited for him to produce an heir, I could have wiped him and his father out at the same time.”
“Lesson learned,” I groused. I shook my head, feeling my father’s own aggravation for a missed opportunity. “So, Father, what is your weakness? What do they all know about you?”
His emerald eyes disappeared and reappeared in an extremely slow blink. “You should know this.”
“I don’t. Just tell me, oh perfect one.”
Father snorted and shook his head in exasperation. “It’s my family, Trixie. I am the only ruler who is soul-mated so far, and I have a daughter I cherish, that child who I hid away from everyone else so that she would be kept safe. My weakness is my family. If they want to get to me, they will somehow attack you or Minnie, just as King Athon killed my mother.”
I blinked. “Did you end up approving that trade embargo?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Then your weakness is not your family.”
The king’s laughter was humorless. “She was already dead. I wasn’t giving him shit.”
“I’m right here, King Traevon. How can I be dead if I’m here?” Grandmother Isabella’s voice snapped behind me.
Father sighed and dropped his forehead into his hands and started rubbing his temples. “Just for one night, Mother, can I have some privacy? It is bad enough you bother me while I’m on the toilet every stinking Fae chance you get, but I specifically asked you to stay away tonight.”
Both of my eyebrows lifted high on my forehead. I turned my head to the side, glancing behind me. Sure enough, my grandmother’s spirit form was standing there with a glare on her translucent face.
She griped, “It’s the only place you’re alone when I’m around. It’s not like I can smell your stink while we’re talking. And if it bothers you