Edric felt the realization settle over him like a blade slowly sinking into flesh.
His idiot son had lied to him. Not about something trivial. Not about some reckless whim or harmless secret. But about the single most important detail of all.
The girl Kael had brought into this mansion was not merely some mysterious woman from Aurelmont. She was someone the Crown Prince himself intended to protect.
Jusging by how quick he appeared… she might be someone close to his heart.
Suddenly, everything made sense in the most humiliating way possible.
Even the King had once remarked that Kael would obey no one except the Crown Prince. If Kael had hidden something this carefully, then of course it had been done for Theron's sake.
And Edric… Edric had walked straight into disaster with his own hands.
But that girl…
His gaze flickered briefly toward the ruined corridor, toward the cracked earth and the lingering traces of power still hanging in the air.
