I blinked back more tears, fighting to pull myself together. “I don’t care about whatever promise you made.”
“You don’t understand,” he said gently.
“I do. Tawny told me that you’re aviktor, just like Leopold,” I told him, and his jaw tightened as something crossed his features, but I couldn’t be sure what. It could’ve been the tears crowding my vision. “You did your duty. You trained me, prepared me. Without you, I know I wouldn’t be here today. You’re like a—” My voice cracked. “You’re like a father to me.”
“Poppy.” He pulled me back against his chest, holding me tightly as he once again dropped his chin to my head. “You have no idea what it does for my heart to hear that,” he murmured, his voice gruff. “You were the daughter I didn’t get to see grow. I couldn’t be prouder of who you’ve become and the choices you’ve made.” He cleared his throat. “Including saying yes to that smart-mouthed, arrogant husband of yours.”
I was crying again but also laughing. “He’s not…”
“You’re not really going to claim that boy isn’t smart-mouthed or arrogant, are you?”
I opened my mouth, then closed it.
“Didn’t think so,” he said, amusement clear in his tone. “Wouldn’t have been my first choice for you, considering we only ever saw eye to eye on one thing—keeping you safe. I don’t think he’s good enough for you.”
My lips curled into a shaky smile.
“Then again, I don’t think anyone would be good enough. But the boy loves you,” he continued while I tried to imagine Casteel’s reaction to being calledboy. “You’re the most cherished part of his life, and that promise he made to you?” His fingers curled into the hair above my braid. “When he said he’d give up the throne if that’s what you wanted? He spoke the truth. So, I can’t really hate that choice for you.”
A laugh bubbled up but realization quickly snatched it away. “How did you know I got married? Or that he said that to me?”
“I kept an eye on you when I could. Don’t ask how—I know you’re about to,” he said, and he’d been right. “There are things I can’t say without the Arae being all up in arms.”
He was talking about the Fates. In the past, I hadn’t believed there were beings who could see the lives of every single living creature. It had sounded completely unbelievable to me, but that wasbeforeI came to accept that there had to be…higher beings involved. AndbeforeTawny confirmed they were, indeed, very real.
“So, I need to be careful with what I say,” he told me.
“But I have so many questions,” I muttered.
His laugh was lighter this time, and I was betting the skin crinkled at the corners of his eyes. “I’m sure you do.”
“Can you tell me if you were, like, born again?” I asked what I’d been wondering since Tawny told me about Vikter. “Like, did you have to go through growing up again and all of that?” Ipressed my lips together. “That has to be the weirdest question I’ve ever asked.”
Vikter chuckled. “Normally, I would’ve had to. But not this time.”
“Why?”
He exhaled softly. “Because the situation with you is different.”
I had a feeling that was all he could say about that. “Was…was Camilia real?” I pulled back and looked at him.
“She was. And so was my babe.” His voice thickened with grief, and there was no faking that. “They sent me to Solis upon your birth to give me time to adjust to how things had changed. It had been a while since I’d been in the mortal realm.”
“How long?”
“A long time,” he said with a raised brow. “Longer than I can say.”
My lips pursed. The gods knew I wanted to push, but I knew if Vikter could give me an exact length of time, he would’ve already. “Was it hard adjusting to the mortal realm?”
“It was a little disconcerting at first,” he said after a moment. “But even though the land and cities looked different, those who inhabited them usually remained the same.”
I didn’t know if that was a good thing or actually kind of sad. Either way, it made me think of what I’d seen earlier.
“What you saw today,” Vikter said. “Beyond the Primal Veil?”
The Primal…?
Something…strange happened. I suddenly knew the mist hid the lands to the east and west of Iliseeum and the mortal realm. How I knew that without a single doubt was beyond me.
