CHAPTER 33 #3
“There are many things I haven’t told you, Father,” Axel softly replied.
Dropping his eyes, he finally sheathed his sword as the weight of his many lies settled around his shoulders.
“The first is that Lotti was my voice tutor. When I used to disappear before Katy came to us, I was meeting Lotti at the theater to work on my singing.” Father’s eyes narrowed, but Axel plunged ahead.
If he was finally confessing, he might as well tell it all.
“The next is that I met Katy before you brought her here.”
“I already knew that you’d met her in Flussendorf,” Father frowned.
“That’s not what I meant.” Axel covered Katy’s hand with his own and met her eyes. “I invented Heidi. Katy was the girl that captured my heart on opening night of The Tanner’s Secret. She found me after the show, because you were correct – I sang in the show that night. I am Gunther.”
Katy held his eyes, and he drew strength from the approval he found there. She was pleased with him for coming clean. Now, he had to survive his father’s reaction.
Which hadn’t come yet.
Looking up, he found the king watching him with familiar disappointment. Axel was surprised to not see any anger.
“You lied about that? And you were sneaking out of the castle to meet with this woman?”
Otto cleared his throat. “He wasn’t climbing the wall, Your Majesty. It was my fault that he left.”
“But I’m the one who asked permission,” Axel quickly added, throwing Katy’s cousin an exasperated look. He didn’t want Otto sharing in the trouble. “And I’d been slipping out for four years before you came to Himmelsburg.”
“But…why?” Father asked.
Looking away, Axel said, “Because you would have forbidden it if I’d asked, just like you forbade me to perform. And singing with Lotti was the only way I survived the pressures of the court and endured the performances of others.”
“You were that unhappy?” Father softly asked. Risking a glance at him, Axel saw that the king’s eyes were downcast, and his eyebrows pinched together in a way that suggested…shame? “And you never told me?”
Axel shrugged uncomfortably. “I was not unhappy. I just—” He stopped, not sure how to finish the sentence.
“I’m sorry, son,” Father sighed, dropping his head into his hands. “The effects of Helena’s curse cannot excuse my behavior toward you. Even without it, I could not have allowed you to participate at the theater. But I could have handled the rest better.”
“Thank you, Father.” They dropped into an awkward silence; his confession had gone better than he had expected, but Axel wasn’t sure how to proceed. He’d never seen his father…vulnerable.
Katy squeezed his arm before turning toward the king. “I’m glad we got that straightened out, but maybe we should return to Fabian. You said that you know why he wants our child?”
The vulnerability disappeared from Father’s face.
Pushing out of his chair, he brought his right hand to waist level and began drawing small circles with it as he paced.
“The object that Ulrich took from the vault,” he began slowly, looking away.
“It is a powerful enchanted ruby, gifted to the first king when Ralnor was formed centuries ago. To ensure that it could not be used for evil if it fell into the wrong hands, he requested an additional piece of magic be worked into it: that only a Dracovich could use it. Specifically, the direct line of the king or one of his heirs.”
The significance punched Axel in the gut. “That would explain it. But then why did Lord Ulrich give Katy an object that he thought would prevent pregnancy?”
Father stopped by the window, staring out at the gardens beyond.
“He wished to name a new heir. It is uncertain whether adopting one of the nobles into the Dracovich family would satisfy the magic. It has never been done before, and few people even know of the dragon’s existence.
” Sighing, he turned back to them. “But Ulrich wasn’t willing to wait years for a child to grow up and learn control of the fire dragon.
Instead, he hoped the law providing for a replacement heir would transfer the power to someone under his influence. ”
So all of this: Fabian’s bargain with Katy when she was eleven, the manipulation of people and events to orchestrate the spinning trial and their marriage, the trouble regarding the succession in the council – it was all a plot to gain control of that small red dragon and the magical power it held?
And if Katy had told Axel the truth before their wedding, they might have avoided it. If they had found a way to marry without Fabian’s assistance, the deal would have been void.
A curl of anger trailed through Axel’s chest. If she had been honest, the same way she demanded honesty from those around her, none of this would have happened.
He shook his head, relaxing the hand that had tightened around Katy’s. He had no room to complain about someone withholding information. Besides, would he have been more willing to reveal such a thing, had he been in her shoes?