Chapter 10: The Reports

Keira's POV

The reports were short, and that was the worst part.

His watchers had written them in a flat clerk's hand, one page for every winter, and they never wasted a word.

*Her ninth winter. Moved to rooms over the garage by order of the Alpha. One stove, no lamp.*

*Her tenth winter. Eats in the kitchen after the staff. Weight low for her age.*

*Her twelfth winter. A lock fitted to the outside of her door by the second son. She was inside at the time.*

*Her fourteenth winter. Not at the table on any holiday. Third son leaves bread at her door. She eats it standing up.*

I read forty of them before I looked up.

Lucan was sitting on the edge of the bed with his elbows on his knees.

He had put his trousers on and nothing else.

He was looking at me with a face I had never seen on him.

"You knew," I said.

"Yes."

"Every winter."

"Every winter, a page. They came with the spring tides."

"You knew about the lock."

"I knew."

"You are a king." My voice was low and flat. "You had ships. You had a host."

"You knew a child was being locked in a room, and you read it with your breakfast."

"I read every word, Keira. I have read them all more than once."

"Then why?"

He didn't flinch.

"Because the oath said I could not set foot on Ashgrove land," he said. "The guard on that land depended on the oath."

"I wrote to the Beta each year. I told him you were to be fed and warm."

"He wrote back that you were fed."

"I was fed *standing up*."

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