My Fated Mate Was a Lie, Now the Alpha King Wants the Truth novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: Initials

"Say it," I said. "Tell me how your ring got on that page."

Cassian didn't look away from the ledger.

"On the anniversary of the crowning, the Registrar brings the year's ward writs," he said.

"Forty-one sheets. He turns each one to the line, and I press the seal."

"And you read them."

"I read the first line of each. Reallocation of bond strength, as before."

"This is three years back."

"The third stack," he said. "I remember the afternoon. It was raining, and I wanted it done."

His voice stayed flat, and that made it worse.

"I'd have remembered your name," he said. "They were numbers to me, and I wanted them to be numbers."

I looked at the red oval beside the two letters.

I had spent seven years telling people that a seal is a promise.

"Don't say anything else," I said.

"Idony."

"Take it off your hand."

He worked the ring over his knuckle and put it down on the open ledger.

It lay there in the lamplight, small and gold and heavy.

I picked up the Hollin ledger and carried it past him.

He stepped aside for me.

He did not follow.

I heard the strongroom door close, and I walked through the dark palace with my arms full of my own name until I found a room with a lock.

The Ward Council sat at ten the next morning.

I stood at the back of the Moon Hall, by the pillar where Peregrine had hidden his wine, with the ledger on my hip.

The gallery was full.

Every noble in Silverreach had heard that the King wanted to speak.

Cassian came in alone, with no ring on his right hand and no coat of state.

He did not take the low throne.

He walked to the middle of the horseshoe and stood in front of twelve people in grey.

"I'm here to put a fact into your record," he said. "I'll say it where the gallery can hear it."

"Majesty," said the council chair, "the wards are a matter for this table."

"My seal is on every ward writ for five years."

The gallery went quiet.

"The bonds those writs drew on were bought, forged or stolen. I never read the schedules. I pressed the ring on the stack the Registrar gave me."

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