her a direct answer. That was all right. She’d waited her entire life. She could wait a few more minutes. But no more than that.
“I loved your mother once. Twice,” King Drem mused, his tone pensive. “And I believed she loved me. We made plans to wed, but right before our wedding, she told me she would be marrying King Puck instead. She wasn’t royalty then and to her it was a heady thing, to be made queen of her own people.”
Shocked, Willow took pains to conceal it. This was news to her. She’d always believed her mother had come from minor royalty. But then, since Millicent was extremely tight-lipped, Willow hadn’t actually known anything of her mother’s history, nor she suspected, did Tatiana. Her mother had always been very secretive of her past. Now Willow understood why.
For a moment, an old pain flashed across King Drem’s autocratic features. “I loved her,” he repeated, his low voice breaking. He looked away, obviously gathering his composure. Out of respect, Willow glanced down at her feet, waiting until he spoke again.
Finally, he cleared his throat. “She had a choice,” he continued. “True love and ruling over my people or...her own people. She chose to remain among the Brights.”
Eyeing her blankly as though he didn’t really see her, the Shadow king appeared lost in thought and memories. His obvious grief, even after all these years, made Willow’s chest ache.
She glared at the court, willing them to converse. She hated that they were so bold as to intrude on such a private moment. Everyone in the room strained to listen with no shame.
“That was her reasoning?” Willow asked, pitching her voice as low as she could to keep it from carrying. “The desire to rule the Brights meant more to her than her true love?”
Of course, knowing her mother as she did, Willow could easily imagine this scenario. What she couldn’t picture was her mother actually loving someone other than herself. Though, the more King Drem spoke, the more it sounded like she hadn’t.
“Millicent didn’t want even to try to overcome the prejudices of our two peoples against each other. She would have been an outsider here.”
Raising his head, he sighed, gazing off into the distance. “So she chose Puck instead. They married amid great celebration, or so I hear. I, of course, was not invited to the wedding.”
“But this was all too long ago to have resulted in my birth,” she protested. She fell silent when King Drem raised his hand.
“You have no concept of how difficult this was for her,” he said. Though privately Willow doubted that, she nodded and kept her mouth shut.
“Were your two people enemies then?” Ruben asked. He’d come up beside her and, to her surprise, took her hand, wrapping his fingers around hers.
“Not enemies,” King Drem said sadly. “We weren’t friends, either, but we did do a fair bit of trading between our lands. That has completely stopped these days.”
Willow nodded. Though many years had passed, and Shadow handicrafts were few and far between; their knives were valued for their craftsmanship and beauty.
This was all very well and good, but didn’t even begin to answer her question. Again, Willow faced the king, drawing strength from Ruben’s fingers intertwined with hers.
“If this is the case, did you ever see my mother again?” she asked. “Obviously, you must have.”
Focusing on her, slowly King Drem nodded. “I did.”
“When?” she persisted, wishing he’d just come out and say she was his daughter.
“Years had passed and Millicent had been married to Puck several years. She had already borne her husband a daughter when she sought me out. She was unhappy and wanted to see if what we’d once had still burned as bright.” His throat worked as he swallowed. “I, of course, could never refuse her anything.”
So it was true. She waited for a sense of joy that never came.
The king smiled sadly. “Obviously, you were the result of that union. Foolishly, I thought she’d stay. But her husband wooed her back with jewels and honeyed promises.”
She couldn’t help but notice he didn’t mention the baby she’d been. Willow squared her shoulders and braced herself to hear the rest. She’d come here for the truth and the truth she would have. No matter how much it hurt. “Weren’t you curious about me? Did you truly have no desire to see the child you helped create?”
His dark brows came together in a thunderous frown. “Your mother didn’t tell you?”