"Isn't it?" I tilted my head, watching his mannerisms carefully. "Because if it's not yours, then who has the knowledge to lead them? Not as a king, but as a friend. As the one who knows? As the one who suffered to make sure they aren't going into this mess blind?"
He began tapping his finger on the arm of the chair. Not casually, but more like stabbing it down onto the wood. For much too long, he held his tongue, but I let the silence sit between us. He wanted me to fill it. I wanted him to talk, and this young man was not the kind who'd break easily. After all, he'd survived the Mad Queen.
Finally, "I'm the spare!" he spat at me.
"The heir now," I corrected. "Aspen's the Queen. Until she names someone else, you're the heir to both thrones."
"But I can't be!"
"Why?"
One single word, and it made his head snap up to look at me with wide, scared eyes. "Liam, I can't."
"I'm human, so explain it to me?"
He grumbled again. "I wasbredto control both Summer and Winter. Never before, in all the history of Faerie, has anyone had a claim to both thrones. It will confuse the magic. It will break the seasons. What the Mad Queen is doing is already tearing us apart!"
"Yet the six of you managed to kill not just one hunter, but two."
He grumbled. "And people have noticed."
I nodded, aware of the rumors that had been flowing through the kids who'd stayed here over the spring holiday. According to Ivy, they were coming from the teachers and fae who'd been out there that night. Too many of the details were correct - but not all of them.
"They heard him call her a princess," I pointed out. "Not the queen, but the princess."
"And now they know who we are!" he spat. "Ifshefinds out…"
"Do you ever call her 'Mother'? Maybe 'Mom?'"
My change in subject shocked him enough that Torian physically rocked in his chair. "The Summer Queen?" he asked, distaste coloring his words.
I nodded. "Yes. The woman who gave birth to you."
"Not if I can help it."
"Why?"
His jaw clenched hard enough to make the muscle bulge along his cheek. "Mothers love their children. Me? I'm just a resource. A loophole. A thing that is now in the way. Theonething I could do to pay her back was make sure Aspen took the throne so I can never touch it – nor can mymother.Now that my sister is queen?" He glanced away, swallowing back his temper. "Rain will take care of her, Liam. Keir will help. Wilder is loyal, and Hawke understands how important this is. She'll become the best monarch Faerie has ever seen. She will fix this mess."
"And who will sit on the Summer Throne?" I asked. "Unless you plan to leave your mother there?"
"The gates are locked."
"And your sister is here, which means your mother still rules there. She's still causing pain there. What difference does any of this make if you're going to ignore that part? Or doyou have some other idea for how to handle it? Seal the gates permanently, maybe? Let Faerie rot itself to death?"
"No..."
Uncertainty. I heard it, and it told me the last thing I needed to know.
"Torian, your job isn't done. You might be the spare, but you're also the heir. It's a difficult line to walk, sure, but I think you can do it. More than that, you're the one person who can help Aspen figure out how to control this power she's just accepted."
"They'll kill her."
We both knew he was talking about the people here, not there. Too many fae still believed in the divide between seasons. Worse, many of them hoped staying loyal to Summer meant they'd survive if the gates ever opened again. In less than a century, the ones here had already started adjusting their stories, twisting truths enough to make themselves look like poor innocent victims caught on the wrong side of the gates when they closed. Not refugees who ran for their lives.
"Mm..." I shook my head at the boy. "No one will hurt her if she's protected. To have the favor of the Summer Prince? Oh, that would be a powerful thing, wouldn't it?"
"Fuck them!" he snapped.
