added to this by looking distinctly at the King, telling me exactly what it was meant as… A warning to leave me alone. After all, he had a promise to his brother to uphold.
However, I also knew that having the King escort me to my room wasn’t what Vern was making out that it was. Because, despite the King clearly being the flirty type, I knew that was all it was. Because he himself had admitted that the only full humans allowed in their realm would be their fated Queens. This then meant that he wasn't so different from any of the other Kings in my world who had been fated to find their own Chosen Ones. Something my mother and father’s union had kick started for everyone else. Because if the Fates were to be believed, then this was because they all had some sort of connection to my mother. Of course, for most, this had been proven to be true, my cousin Ella for one, despite how stubborn they both were on the matter.
But this meant that I understood the King a little better than most would. As the King’s heart was only ever going to be meant for one soul in the entirety of all realms combined and he knew that as well as I did. Which was why his flirting didn't bother me as I would rather that than incur his wrath, one that I’d merely had a taste of when negotiations had first started.
However, I was of a curious nature and anyone who knew me might have classed this as a flaw, one that often got me into trouble. But it was who I was, and it was why I wanted to know the King’s story. It was why I wanted to know why his brother had been banished and no longer ruled the Dark Fae Realm, but more than anything, I wanted to know why he wanted to bring his brother back now and if there was a possibility of that happening without Lucius being the one to drag him here himself?
Knowledge was after all, power, and seeing as I was lacking in that department in this realm, then it was all I had left… well, that and my clumsy charms, I thought wryly. But these were answers to questions I knew I couldn't ask in front of Vern. Because I knew they weren't questions that would have been answered in front of someone the King didn’t trust. And for some reason I knew the King trusted me. I knew this the moment I had asked the very question once a plan had been formed back in his library. I had asked him why Carn’reau had been banished and after a moment of looking forlorn, he had said in a distant tone,
“That, I am afraid, is a story for another time.” This answer at least gave me hope that he might be willing to tell me that very story once we were alone, so that I may better understand what had driven him to these extremes. Also, he didn’t seem like the kidnapping and holding to ransom type.
But then the problem I had with all of this was Trice’s voice entering my head and telling me not to trust the King. Something I was finding very difficult not to do, because I didn't know what it was about King Auberon, but I felt his loneliness. I felt his compassion for his people. I felt his love for his Dragons and his adoration for his sister, even though she too had been absent during the meal. In fact, it felt as if I actually knew him, as though he had unknowingly been projecting elements of his personality and I kept picking up on them. I wanted to understand what would push a King like him into making such a rash decision in putting trust in a witch. To make a deal that clearly would have been the wrong one, for the King had just ended up another one of the witch’s pawns. A way to rid herself of the McBain brothers by casting them out to a different realm and being imprisoned by a King who only wanted to bargain their lives for that of his brother.
What drove him to make that decision?
Well, I felt compelled to find out, which was why I made my own rash decision. Meaning the moment that the King and I both watched as Vern disappeared into his own room,