Chapter 16 #2
After several seconds of tense silence, Marion cleared her throat. “The Royal Key seems to be an enigma in more ways than one.”
“Marion,” I said shakily, wiping sweat from my brow. “And Isaiah. I’m sure it goes without saying that if I find out either of you have shared what you’ve seen here today…”
“I have no desire to share what I’ve seen,” Isaiah spoke first.
Marion smiled weakly. “You are in no danger from me, Your Grace. My loyalty is to the Crown.”
“Yes, well, right now the Crown is my mother. And she will not react kindly to this.”
“You are part of the Crown,” Marion said, her smile still brittle. “I have yet to divulge your secrets to her thus far. That will not change.”
I nodded as everyone relaxed.
Everyone except Isaiah, who I was pretty sure tried to stomp on a shadow that got too close to his boot.
Wyatt looked to Marion. “Rogelio II had his Key killed, then what?”
Marion cleared her throat again. “Rogelio II did not believe the Telekinetic was his true Key, instead thinking she must have played some telepathic trick on his mind, though he himself was a Telepath and it was later proven that she was not. He only had one other Link-mate, your great-grandmother. His madness was slow, but…it still took him, in the end.”
Isaiah sent her a sharp look.
“So he imprisoned all the Sensors to try and find his Key…who he’d already killed.” Wyatt said, leading the conversation now.
“That’s…probably why Josefa said they were confused for so long,” I breathed.
The Sensors couldn’t find Rogelio II’s Key because she was already dead. At some point, the Crusader and my father had shown up and had them switch who they searched for, but the Sensors were confused from their incarceration.
“And you were there to heal the King,” Wyatt said.
Marion looked uncomfortable. “There was a time when female Healers were not considered worthy of their affinities.”
“Since when?” Aiden scoffed. “Everyone knows female Healers are stronger than males.”
Wyatt glared at him like that statement was a personal attack, but Aiden only glared back.
“Why would you have been there to heal the King if he hated women?” Skye said, her tone strong. My heart clenched as she continued to avoid my gaze.
Marion’s discomfort became even more obvious, and she shifted her weight from foot to foot before speaking. “My sister told me of the impending attack on the King. I went to the Palace because I thought…I thought if it ended up being true and I saved him that it could grant me favor.”
Wyatt laughed like an asshole, so I punched him in the shoulder. He hissed, rubbing at his arm.
“How embarrassing,” I said lightly. “Did it work?”
“No. I was…well, I was a little young for the King, actually. But his son…your grandfather…” Marion’s white cheeks turned bright red and I pinched the bridge of my nose. Why was she humiliating herself?
Wyatt followed my thoughts exactly. “Are you telling us something embarrassing so we don’t read between the lines? Clearly, you went on to become a Palace Healer, the best of the best. Why wasn’t an unrequited crush the least of your problems?”
“It’s more than a little embarrassing considering how much he hated women,” I muttered. “Vince Shafer told us Rogelio III probably wasn’t the Key to his Chain, either.”
“Didn’t that Sensor tell you that?” Aiden interjected.
“Josefa only hinted that Rogelio II’s Key had passed, not that they knew it for certain,” Wyatt explained. “Also, I’ve always found it odd that Ramira is the Key after her father. Key status almost always follows the gendered line.”
“I guess it would make sense that my grandmother was the true Key,” I said, rubbing my chin. “But I never knew her.”
“She passed during your mother’s birth,” Marion said gently. “Your grandfather made me your mother’s nanny, as she was a sickly baby and even sicker child. I raised her for many years, until she was a teenager.”
Hmm. I hadn’t known that, but it made sense. My mother had always favored Marion as a Healer, never sending her out alone unless she had no other choice.
On the other side of the cavern, Skye looked to Isaiah. He gave her a curt nod, signaling Marion was telling the truth.
I narrowed my eyes at that.
Skye had known that man for all of an hour. They’d never even spoken. How did she trust him so easily?
“When he became sick, naturally…your mother called for me. I couldn’t turn her down even if I wanted to, but…she was almost my daughter, you see. I love the Queen in a way you’ll never understand.” Marion went on.
“She’s his mom, I think he gets it,” Aiden said unhelpfully.
Marion glared, then deflated when Skye moved back into her field of vision.
“You couldn’t heal the King?”
Marion couldn’t hold Skye’s gaze. “No.”
Skye again looked to Isaiah, and I secretly decided I should probably cut his head off before she grew too attached to him. One look at Wyatt told me he’d be on board. Aiden could probably be convinced.
Skye turned to glare at Marion, and holy shit–
“You’re lying?” Aiden snapped.
“I…I was trying to heal him–” Marion sputtered.
“But you weren’t,” Isaiah said. “She’s not lying, she’s just leaving something out.”
“Willow said something to me once,” Wyatt said slowly. I stared at him, looking for any sign that he was maybe leaking more spinal fluid from his nose, because why the fuck was he talking about his sister right now?
“Uh…” Aiden’s eyes darted between me and Skye like Wyatt was nuts.
“Her mother is sick,” Wyatt explained, slipping his hands into his pockets. “I suggested we have Holmes come help her, and she referred to you as the Healer who killed the King.”
Marion held his gaze even as her hands trembled.
“Vince Shafer told us affinities can evolve,” Skye said, changing topics so quickly that I was now in danger of whiplash. I blamed my inability to follow their train of thought on my earlier panic. “What do you think of that?"
“I would say affinities can evolve to do what we need them to do,” Marion said slowly. “Some affinities never evolve at all, while others are constantly changing.”
“Is that how the King died?” Wyatt asked. “Has your affinity evolved?”
“How the fuck–” Aiden started, but I cut him off with a bark of laughter.
“Wyatt crashed twice in the night, only recovering once you’d left the farmhouse,” I said, letting out another humorless laugh. “That little girl in Alaska was about to die from organ failure until Zephyr helped her.”
“Oh,” Aiden said slowly, dramatically, his eyes wide. “She hurts people.”
“No!” Marion practically shouted, then stammered, “I…I t-took the Healer’s Oath.”
“So it’s true, then,” I said, sighing deeply. How the fuck had this happened? How could the Palace’s finest Healer have an affinity for…hurting people? Making them sick?
“I can hurt people, but recently it seems…sometimes I can’t…” Marion ran her hand down her limp ponytail. “I hurt people without meaning to! It started with just simple colds and sniffles, but over the years its grown worse and worse.”
“Did the Princess know?” Skye asked quietly. Her silver eyes were trained on Marion, watching the old woman for any reaction. “About you or the Sensors?”
“She does not know about me, but I believe she may suspect it. I told the Royal Link Alexander what I thought about the Sensors,” Marion answered, her voice stronger than before.
“The Queen trusted him deeply prior to the Crown Prince’s accident.
He was overseeing the dungeons before he went on to work for the WAA. ”
I pinched the bridge of my nose while Wyatt sighed.
It was incredibly hard to mourn the loss of a man who seemingly made the world a better place by being gone.
I had complicated feelings about my father, feelings I didn’t want to confront now, or maybe ever. He’d never had friends as far as I knew, so why would he have been involved in this mess? Was he making…money?
“I think it’s time for a chat with the Princess,” I said, rubbing my eyelids with my fingertips. “Anyone else have a headache?”
“I fear for you,” Marion said, looking to Skye. “I do not think the Queen will ever accept you if she learns of your true affinities. The Royals are historically very anti…enigma.”
“I hope for her sake that she learns to get over it,” Skye replied.