"Father, why did you withhold the full truth from August?" Ciaran asked, taking a seat across from King Nyxen as the evening shadows lengthened across the study.
"What makes you so certain I did not tell him everything?" Nyxen asked, lifting his chalice to draw a slow sip of wine.
"Had he known, August would have demanded my mother's execution," Ciaran replied gravely. "He would have claimed the very crown upon my head belonged to him by right. You were trapped in a marriage with a woman you never loved, forced to keep the woman you truly cherished hidden away as a mistress. Tell me, Father... did you ever wish for August to be the Crown Prince?"
