Viciously Yours (Fae Kings of Eden Book 1)

Rennick shut his study door behind Amos and Amelia and offered the Desert King a seat in front of the desk. Rennick wanted his mate beside him at all times, especially after today, and dragged another chair to sit next to his own.

The disturbance at the south-west border of Vale, near the Desert Kingdom border, had been a ploy to distract from the other rebels sneaking in from the northern wilderness to attack the palace. Amos and his men were traveling to Vale early for the coronation ceremony and intercepted the faction just outside of the capital’s border by the time Rennick had arrived.

Upon their return to the palace, Rennick and Amos found pure chaos. The Desert King agreed to find Amelia while Rennick eliminated the lingering threat.

Rennick had become a killing machine, ending every rebel in sight. Taking hostages for questioning wasn’t an option, and when his father fought alongside him, doing the same, he knew they both remembered the night his mother died.

Protecting Amelia was their number one priority. The rebels never made it inside the palace walls, nor would any ever again.

He knew she was safe between Echo, Reyna, and Amos, but he took no chances with his mate’s life.

No one knew how to start what was sure to be a shocking conversation for Amelia, and Rennick worried about how she’d react. He’d kept the truth from her out of respect for Amos, but she might perceive it as a betrayal.

Amelia lowered herself into the chair and clasped her hands in her lap. “Explain.”

Jumping right in, then.

Amos drew in a deep breath. “There’s no easy way to say this,” he began, “but you’re my sister and second in line to the Desert Kingdom throne.”

Amos and Rennick waited with bated breath, and both men were taken aback when Amelia burst out laughing. “Very funny.”

“It’s true, love,” Rennick said softly.

Amelia’s laughter died down, and she motioned to Amos. “He’s fae.” She pushed her hair behind her ear and pointed to it. “I’m a human.”

“Your ears were clipped when you were born to hide your heritage,” Amos explained, his voice cautious.

She made an intelligible sound. “Come again? Because it sounded like you insinuated that someone cut off part of my ears as a baby.”

Amos raked a hand through his short blond hair, and the longer Rennick looked at him, the more he saw the similarities between the two. Their coloring was the same as were their mouths. Amos had a sharp jawline, where Amelia had a rounded face, but other than that, the resemblance was uncanny.

“When our mother was pregnant with us—”

“Us?” she parroted.

Amos nodded. “We’re twins.” She scanned his face, and Rennick saw the moment she realized what he said was true. “Our father wasn’t a good man,” Amos continued. “I could go on for hours about the horrors he inflicted on his family and people, but that’s a conversation for another day.”

Amelia looked as though she’d seen a ghost, and Rennick reached for her hand. She squeezed it with impressive strength. He wouldn’t be able to feel his fingers by the end of this conversation.

“He believed women shouldn’t hold positions of power.” Amos’ voice held a hint of nervousness. “There were no female warriors like there are in other kingdoms, no female council members, and more importantly, no female heirs.”

Amelia looked like she might say something, but only silence filled the room.

“Our grandfather was the same way, and when his wife bore him twins, the firstborn of which was a girl, he changed the babe’s name and sent her away the day after she was born, but later in life, she found out her heritage and tried to overthrow our father not long after he took the throne.” Amos cleared his throat and leaned his elbows on his knees. “He killed her and vowed that if he had a daughter, he would kill her immediately to prevent history from repeating itself. That’s what he told our mother.”

Amelia held up a hand. “Royals only have one child.” Her hazel eyes met Rennick’s. “Unless you lied.”

Rennick sat forward. “I wouldn’t lie to you, love. Usually, they only have one. No one knew your father had a twin or that Amos does.”

“I wouldn’t have known if not for our mother,” Amos added.

Amelia wavered, and Rennick extracted himself from her death grip to lay a steadying hand on her back.

“Our mother didn’t know it yet, but she was already pregnant with us when our father told her about his sister. When the midwife told her there were two heartbeats, she begged the woman not to tell anyone until she had a plan for what to do if one or both of the babes were girls.” He smiled fondly. “The midwife agreed without hesitation. The staff adored our mother and would have done whatever she asked.” Amos’ lips tilted into a half smile. “You’re a lot like her.”

“How do you know what I’m like?” Amelia cut him off. “We’ve never met, and I grew up in an orphanage with no family.”

He scrubbed a hand over his face, sat back, and motioned to Eddy. “I checked in on you periodically through Roland.”

Rennick felt the moment Amelia’s patience snapped. “His name is Eddy. You sent him to me when I was fifteen. That’s when you get your familiar, no?”

Amos pressed his lips into a grim line. “It is.”

“Then he is more mine than yours.” She lifted her chin. “He has lived with me for almost ten years. His fucking name is Eddy.”

Eddy whined and jumped into her lap, earning a look of betrayal from Amos. Charlie moved closer too, the two animals banding together against the Desert King. “He is my familiar, Amelia. I’m sorry, but he belongs with me.”

She leveled her brother with a stare that Rennick never wanted to be on the receiving end of. “I didn’t say otherwise, but his name is Eddy. You wouldn’t call a child by one name most of their lives and change it ten years later, would you?”

Rennick knew she spoke from a place of hurt, but he would make sure the fox’s name remained Eddy. He didn’t know how, but he would find a way.

Amos hung his head in defeat. “Fine. Do you want to hear the rest of the story or not?”

“Watch your tone,” Rennick warned.

Amelia motioned for Amos to continue.

“Our mother met Charlotte, the human queen, at a diplomat meeting, and they kept in touch over the years. Mom would visit the Human Kingdom often, and when she found out she was pregnant, Charlotte agreed to help her if she had a daughter. Charlotte hated our father more than anyone because he condescended to her in their meetings.

“Because Mom carried twins, the midwife said she’d likely deliver early. Our father didn’t know there were two babies and thought she had at least two more months to go when our mother asked if she could visit Charlotte one last time before giving birth. He said yes.

“She stayed with Charlotte, and when she went into labor, she gave birth to me.” Amos looked pained. “And then you.”

Amelia looked away. “How disappointed she must have been.”

“She was, but not because she didn’t want a girl, because she knew she’d never see you again until I took the throne.” The somberness in his tone tugged at Rennick’s chest. “She gave Father an excuse to stay another month with Charlotte to give herself time with you.”

Tears raced down Amelia’s cheeks, and Rennick felt her grief, a feeling he knew all too well.

Amos took a moment to collect himself. “She left you in the Human Kingdom with Charlotte and crossed back into the Desert Kingdom with me. She told Father she’d only just had me so that our births were recorded a few weeks apart.” He chuckled humorlessly. “I never understood why she decided to change my birthday and not yours, but it worked out in my favor in the end.”

“Heirs can’t cross the barrier,” Amelia argued, looking to Rennick for confirmation. The hazel eyes he loved so much pleaded with him to make everything better, but he couldn’t. Her confusion, anger, pain, and grief swirled within him like a hurricane, almost taking his breath away. Damnit, if he didn’t feel like the most helpless man in the world.

He did the only thing he could and attempted to push reassurance and tranquility through the bond. It might be futile, but he had to try.

“They can’t leave their kingdom,” Amos corrected. “But I wasn’t leaving, I was entering. There is no magic in the human lands to tie an heir there.”

“If she left me with the human queen, how did I end up in an orphanage?”

“They couldn’t chance anyone knowing who you were. They hid you until your ears healed, then left you where they knew you’d be safe. The queen monitored who ran the orphanage and had extra patrols stationed in your village.”

“Why couldn’t I leave with Rennick?” she asked. “We could have married when we turned twenty-two.” She turned to Rennick then, and he saw the hurt in her eyes, felt it clawing at his chest. “Why didn’t you send for me sooner? I had no one. I thought I had no family, and the entire time you knew.”

If his mate hated him for this, he would kill Amos. “We tried, love, I swear it. The human queen wouldn’t let you leave until I took the throne.”

“Why?”

“Because until you married him, you were considered an heir to the Desert Kingdom,” Amos said softly. “One look at you, and our father would have known you were his.” He gestured between them. “We look just like him. If you married another king, you’d no longer be in line for the throne because you’d already rule another kingdom.”

Her forehead wrinkled. “How do you know that sitting on one throne prevents you from taking another?”

Rennick noticed the dark circles under Amos’ eyes when he looked listlessly at his sister. “A treaty signed between the five kingdoms over a thousand years ago states that no one person can rule two kingdoms.”

“Rennick would’ve kept me safe,” she argued weakly, her shoulders slumping with defeat.

Amos shook his head. “It wasn’t worth the risk.”

“Where are our parents now?” Her voice sounded bone tired. “Did our mother not want to meet me?”

Amos’s eyes filled with unshed tears, and Rennick knew this was hard for him, too. “She fell ill when we were twelve. She’d been so full of life one minute, and the next she puked for hours, and her mouth filled with sores as if burned.” He stared at his feet for a moment. “I think she was poisoned, possibly by mistake, but there’s no way to know for sure. There were many people in our kingdom who wanted our father dead.” He sniffed. “When she realized she was dying, she told me everything and begged me to make sure our father never knew of your existence.

“I was a child, but I swore to her I would take care of you. The following year, the Mountain King came looking for his son’s mate—a girl named Amelia born on my real birthday. I knew in my gut it was you, and I thought Callum could protect you. I managed to get him alone before he left and told him everything.”

Silence sat heavy between them.

Amelia shuddered out a sob, breaking Rennick’s heart into a million pieces. Amos stood and rounded the desk to kneel beside her chair, but Charlie wouldn’t let him.

Amos stared at the lynx and raised his brow, then glanced at Rennick, who subtly shook his head. We’ll discuss it later.

Amos looked unsure of himself as he awkwardly laid a hand on Amelia’s shoulder. “You were always loved, and I came for you as soon as I could.”

Face in her hands, she nodded, unable to speak through her cries. Eddy whined and pushed his body into hers.

Amos backed away and motioned to the door. “I’ll find towels.”

Rennick nodded as the Desert King left, then wrapped his hand around Amelia’s wrist. “Come here, love.”

Eddy hopped down from her lap, and she crawled into Rennick’s, laying her head against his shoulder. “You could have told me when you came for me.” Her chest shuddered. “Why didn’t you?”

He rested his cheek against the top of her head. “Amos wanted to be the one to tell you, and were it not for him, I would have never found you. I owed him that much.”

Amos returned with two towels, one dry and one wet, and held them out to his sister. Amelia cleaned her face and blew her nose repeatedly until her tears finally subsided. “What if your father still tries to kill me?”

“I’ll kill him,” Rennick said, knowing he’d kill him anyway.

He watched Amos’ demeanor transform into one of cold indifference. “I already did.”

Amelia sucked in a sharp breath. “You didn’t have to do that for me.”

His expression remained blank. “Our father was a monster. He received the death he deserved.”

Rennick saw the way his mate assessed her brother and squeezed her side lightly. It was clearly not something Amos wanted to discuss with them. She chewed the corner of her lip and changed the subject. “If I’m fae, why don’t I have magic?”

Rennick and his father had talked extensively on the subject and came up with one answer. “You never crossed into fae lands.”

Understanding lit up her face. “You said that’s why royal heirs can’t leave their lands; they need the land for their magic to develop to its full strength.”

He nodded. “We hope you’ll gain at least some of your magic when we marry.”

She sat up straighter. “Birdie.”

Rennick adjusted her in his lap to see her face better. “The maid?”

“Yes. She called me a royal.”

Rennick and Amos both swore. “What do you mean? Who is this woman?” Amos demanded.

Amelia waved her hands. “I think I made myself disappear.” They stared at her, and Rennick wondered if the shock had affected her more than he’d realized. “When you were in your study with Ora, Birdie and I stood in the hall, and I wanted to disappear. I hadn’t meant literally, but Birdie looked scared and asked where I was. She reached out and bumped my shoulder. I looked at her to see what was wrong, and she appeared startled, then called me a royal. She never brought it up again, and I didn’t think anything of it.”

Rennick’s mind raced. If the woman mentioned the occurrence to anyone, there’s no telling what would happen. “Why didn’t you tell me? We need to find this maid.”

“Rennick, if you do anything to hurt her, I will not marry you.” The air whooshed out of him, and he ran through ways to force the marriage. Amelia wouldn’t leave him. “She’s my friend.”

“Fine,” he reluctantly agreed. “But I’d still like to speak to her.”

“We will speak to her. I don’t trust you not to scare her.”

Smart girl.

Amos crossed his arms and widened his stance. “I’d like to speak to her too.”

Amelia glowered at him, and Rennick looked away to keep from smiling at how easily the twins fell into their natural sibling roles.

“Thank you for telling me,” she said to her brother with a weak smile. “Please, don’t take this the wrong way, but I’d like to go to my rooms.”

What the fuck?

Amelia walked silently beside Rennick to their rooms, thankful to have someone to lean on for once. She could feel his worry, and he had enough things on his plate without her familial crisis weighing him down.

“What was the point in telling me?” she wondered aloud. “I would have been none the wiser.”

Rennick opened the door to their rooms and waited for her to cross the threshold. “He wants to know you. He watched you grow up without him.”

Guilt slammed into her. She’d been so worried about herself that she’d not taken a moment to think of how it might have affected Amos. “I’m a terrible person.”

“You’re in shock, love.” Rennick led her to the bathroom, started a bath, and stood behind her to undo her dress. “He understands.”

After he helped her bathe and get ready for bed, they climbed under the covers and faced each other. She noticed the lines etched into his young face and reached up to smooth them away. It’d been a long day for them both, and it wasn’t even dinner time yet.

“Are you okay?” she asked quietly.

He smiled wryly. “I’m not the one who had their world tipped upside down today.”

She scooted closer and stroked the dark stubble on his jaw. “Did rebels attacking the walls remind you of your mother?”

He covered her hand with his and leaned into her palm. “It did. I remember watching my father run with her limp body in his arms, and when I saw our men fighting outside of the walls, I—what if you’d been outside and one had slipped in somehow?”

Seeing the mighty King of the Mountain Kingdom fight back tears, feeling his despair, was heart-wrenching. “You left me with Echo, and your father left his murderous house cat, too.”

Rennick’s chest shook with laughter, the tight lines around his eyes loosening. “Don’t let Reyna hear you say that.”

“How did she know Amos? Echo wanted to run a sword through his heart, but Reyna licked him.”

“My father traveled to the Desert Kingdom often to check on Amos. He didn’t want your father’s ideals to rub off on him.”

That surprised her. “Why did it matter?”

“Amos knew everything about you. My father would have gone to the human queen and demanded you be moved if he felt your brother had become a threat.” Rennick mindlessly stroked the back of her hand. “And I think he saw a little boy with a cruel father and no mother who needed someone to love him. Over the years, they bonded. My father talks about Amos as though he is his own son.”

Amelia’s throat tightened at what Callum did for her brother. “The Desert King wasn’t suspicious of your father visiting often?” She found that hard to believe. If what they’d spoken was true, the two kings’ personalities were vastly different.

Rennick’s smile was small, but pride shone in his eyes. “My father made friends with the man, even though he despised everything the former Desert King stood for. He didn’t care what others thought. Our people know he is good, and that was all that mattered. He did what he had to do for you and your brother.”

She trailed her hand down Rennick’s neck, watching the skin raise under her touch, willing herself not to cry again. “The people know you’re good, too.” Her eyes met his. “I’ll do everything I can to make them accept me.”

He cuffed her wrist and rubbed her pulse with his thumb. “I’m a good king, but I am not my father. I am not good. My soul is not beautiful or bright or even a shade of grey. It is an unforgiving inferno, and if our people refuse to accept you as their queen, they will burn their way into the afterlife.”

There was no doubt in Amelia’s mind that Rennick meant every word, and she knew, if their roles were reversed, she’d mean it too.