Saven Defiance (The Saven Series Book 4) (16 page)

The king leans forward again. “I told my father of my choice the next day, and he put in the request for your mother’s hand in marriage. Shinks, I was in agony as I waited for the official reply. Tayla and I were inseparable during the weeks she remained on Narik. And when she returned to Saven, we remained in daily—practically hourly—contact. She was as uninformed as I was, but we knew we were meant to be together. That destiny demanded it.”

Logan’s brows knit together. “What exactly are you saying?”

“Tayla and I were like you and Sadie. We shared an Eterno connection.”

Logan jumps up out of his chair, startling me. “You lie! No one has Eterno bonded in Saven for many, many years!”

“Eterno
bonded
, yes, but I
am
telling you the truth. Your mother and I were fated for one another. She was my Eterno in the same way Sadie is yours.”

Logan starts pacing the floor. His anguished look slices through me, and I act instinctively, crossing the room and wrapping my arms around him. His head falls on my shoulder as he leans against me. I hug him to me as he gradually tries to get his head around it. After a couple of minutes, I nudge his chin up and guide him back to his seat. “Let’s hear the rest of it.”

Logan pulls me into his lap, and I go readily, circling my arms around his neck. He must be all over the place if he’s acting so unprofessionally in front of the king. But King Coryn doesn’t appear to mind. If anything, I’d say the look on his face is the royal seal of approval. “Can you tell us the rest?” I ask. “I’m assuming you didn’t Eterno bond with Logan’s mother?”

The pained look returns to his face, and I regret my ill choice of words. “I didn’t mean to be insensitive. Only that this is hard for Logan, and it’s better to rip the Band-Aid off in one go.”

“I’m not sure I follow,” the king admits, “but there is no need to apologize. Can you imagine how hard it would be for you, knowing Logan is your soul mate, the other half of your very existence, and being denied the chance to connect with him in the way intended?”

“Actually, I can.” There have been enough occasions recently where I believed that to be the case. “I don’t know how you coped.”

He gets up and walks around so he is closer to us, propping his butt against the edge of the desk. “I haven’t, and that is an honest answer. If it hadn’t been for my son …” He looks off into space.

“Are you okay?” he asks Logan a moment later. There’s a genuine concerned edge to his voice. Tentatively, he places a hand on his shoulder. “Do you want me to continue?”

Logan nods his head, and I kiss the side of his temple.

“Tayla’s father denied the Narik request because the request had come in from Adjani, your father, in the intervening period. Tayla would never be permitted to wed a Narik king where the Saven king sought her hand in marriage. There was nothing we could do. Tayla appealed to her father, informed him about the Eterno connection, but he scoffed at the notion of it.”

He rubs a hand across the back of his neck as he goes to fix himself another drink. He walks back over and sits in the chair beside us. “Sorry,” he says, raising the glass. “I don’t normally drink much, but I can’t get through this without it.”

“It’s okay.” I speak for both of us. “You don’t need to explain.”

“How was the Eterno connection possible?” Logan asks. “I don’t understand.”

“My father was the product of a Tor-Narik marriage, and his mother was the product of a Tor-Saven pairing. I told you it was complicated,” he says, noticing our puzzled expressions. “Essentially, my genetic makeup is a mix of Tor, Saven, and Narik DNA. That’s how I connected with your mother, much the same way it’s worked for you two. And speaking of which,” he says, sitting up a little straighter in his chair. “I need to come clean about something.”

Logan and I share hesitant looks.

“Are you aware of your true identity, Sadie?”

All the tiny hairs lift on the back of my neck as he addresses me. “Yes,” I confirm cautiously.

“Good. At least that’s one less thing I have to explain. So, I presume you’ve been informed that Griselda injected you with a hybrid Tor-Saven DNA strain?” He lifts a brow at me.

I gulp nervously. “I’m aware of that fact.”

He leans forward in his chair. “Then you most likely know that it wasn’t Griselda’s initial intention.”

I nod as I silently spur him on.
Rip the Band-Aid off, please.

“I’m the one who switched out the sample. I’m the reason you have Saven DNA in your system.”

I stare at him slack-jawed. Blinking furiously, I try to make sense of it, but I can’t. Logan asks the question before I can form the words myself. “Why interfere? And how did you even know about her? Or what Griselda was planning?”

“I need to backtrack a little to explain,” the king says.

We both give him a “get on with it” look.

“Tayla and I kept in contact. We couldn’t help it.” He takes a furious swig of his drink. “She was a mess, falling apart at the thought that we couldn’t be together. She didn’t want to marry Adjani.” Logan flinches, and the king notices. “I’m sorry, Logan. Some of this is bound to be unpleasant, but I need to speak the truth.”

Logan’s jaw throbs but he nods.

“She wasn’t happy about it, but she did her duty. Before your parents’ wedding ceremony, she told me she couldn’t remain in contact with me anymore. It was too painful for her. For both of us.” He pinches the bridge of his nose with his free hand. “I didn’t see her for almost two years. Our paths finally crossed at a Gala Ball on a neighboring planet, and it was as if the years of separation melted away.” His face softens as he loses himself in the recollection. “We couldn’t stay away from one another, even if we had tried. We couldn’t keep our hands off each other.”

Logan growls. “That is my
mother
you are talking about. I don’t want to hear that!”

He doesn’t apologize, but he doesn’t elaborate further either. “We conducted a secret affair from that point on. We generally only met up at the Heir’s Summit, but on a few occasions, your mother managed to sneak in a few visits, and she brought you and your brother here. Do you remember that?”

“It’s a little hazy, but yes.”

“As the years passed, your mother became suspicious that your father knew about the affair. But, if he did, he didn’t intervene. That last time we were together—at the Heir’s Summit—your mother told me she believed your father had hired a special investigator to follow her. She also told me that she couldn’t continue to live a lie. That it wasn’t fair on any of us, especially your father. So we made plans. I was going to abdicate my throne in favor of my younger brother, and we were going to flee the solar system with the three of you.”

Logan wilts in my arms, and all manner of emotions are displayed on his face.

“That was the last time I held her in my arms.” Tears glisten in the king’s eyes.

I well up automatically. He loved her so much! It’s so dreadfully tragic, and my heart can’t help relating and responding.

“She made me make a promise that last day,” he continues in a strangled voice. “I promised that if anything happened to her, I’d look out for her sons. That I’d do my best to protect them, to look after their interests. I have tried to honor that request to the best of my ability.”

The king pauses as he scrutinizes Logan. Logan’s glazed look worries me, but we still haven’t heard it all. The king looks to me for guidance. I nod at him, urging him to continue, as I embrace Logan more tightly.

“After your mother was denied to me, I was matched with Griselda.” We both stiffen at that admission. “She was only fourteen then, and it was deemed necessary to wait a few years before confirming the marriage. Once I started a relationship with your mother, I knew I couldn’t marry Griselda. Watching how Tayla struggled with the guilt, I didn’t want to involve anyone else. I knew there would never be anyone for me but Tayla. She was—is—the only love of my life.” He stares off into space for a few seconds.

“Anyway, my father had passed by this stage, and we were close to perfecting our security software, so I extracted myself from the marriage contract with Griselda, believing it to be the right thing for all parties. I thought I could protect Narik from any possible retaliation.”

Bringing the glass to his lips, he swallows the rest of the liquid. “But I completely underestimated Griselda. While her father was furious, it wasn’t a patch on how she reacted. Of course, she bade her time, choosing the perfect moment to reveal the true extent of her rage and hurt. After Tayla died, she paid me a visit. She took great delight in telling me exactly how your father had killed her and how much she had suffered.”

He looks away, as Logan does. The air is thick with grief and sorrow.

Clearing his throat, he forces himself to continue. “Griselda swore I would pay for all the ways in which we had slighted her. Told me she wasn’t finished with me yet. She followed through on her threat, killing my son a few years later.”

Logan’s head picks up. “What? We were told Kyrn was killed in battle.”

“I concocted that lie to avoid an all-out war with the Tor. That is what Griselda wanted, and I refused to give in to her. I didn’t want my people to pay the price for my actions. I let Griselda believe she had broken me beyond repair. She very nearly did.” He reviews his empty glass with a tired look in his eyes. “She told me, in minute detail, how she had kidnapped and tortured Kyrn, how she had abused and debased him. She sent me a recording of her tossing his battered body out into space. I couldn’t even bring my son home to give him a proper burial.”

He breaks down, and massive sobs rock his body. His chest heaves as tortured cries waft through the air. There is something so raw, so visceral, so heartrending, about witnessing such a strong, impressive man reduced to a base emotional state. At least, that’s the only explanation for what I do next.

Something completely foreign to me.

I get up and hug him. Fiercely. Tightly. Pouring all my empathy into the embrace. He doesn’t hesitate to hug me back, and I’m glad I am able to offer him some comfort.

After a couple of minutes, he eases out of my arms, composing himself. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.”

“I had no idea,” Logan says, leaning forward on his elbows. “Kyrn was a good guy. He didn’t deserve that. You didn’t either. I’m so sorry.”

I sense the distrust thawing, and though this is painful, it is also therapeutic. Flopping onto Logan’s lap, I kiss his cheek as his arms encircle my waist. He nestles his head in my neck, and I cling to him.

“It warms my heart to see how much you two love each other,” the king says, smiling through his tears. “To know I did something right.”

We both perk up at that.

“When I broke things off with Griselda, she vowed to seek vengeance, and I believed her. I knew I had to do something to thwart her. She had threatened the Saven also, and I knew she blamed Tayla for my refusal to marry her. I tried to warn your father, but he wouldn’t even hear me out. After your mother’s death, I was worried she would seek revenge on you and Dante. I’d visited Torc many times during the period I was engaged to Griselda, so I had some friends in important places, and I enlisted a couple of guys I knew were trustworthy to act as my eyes and ears on the ground. One of them was a member of the Assassins Program who traveled into the future to spy on you.”

He pauses briefly, before continuing. “He gave me a copy of the recordings and told me everything she had planned.” A spark of enthusiasm lights in his eyes. “When I saw what you two will achieve, I knew you both had to be protected, even if it meant risking everything I’ve worked so hard to build here in Narik.”

Looking a little sheepish, he turns his gaze on me. “I was going to abduct you myself and keep you here until I could connect you with Logan, but she got to you first.” His face is full of regret. “So, I invoked Plan B. I knew I would never be able to pull off a rescue mission, so I did what I could. It was a long shot, but there was something different about you two. I saw it in the way you moved around one another like you were part of the same entity. It wasn’t a conscious act; it came completely naturally, and I don’t think you even realized you were doing it. In the original version of the future, you weren’t Eterno connected, because you were one hundred percent human, Sadie. But I had an intuition, a very strong feeling that you two were meant to be together in every way conceivable. So, I asked my friend to swap out the DNA sample they were intending to use on you.”

My spider senses tingle in awareness, and I suck in air. “Oh my God!” I jump up. “Are you saying that you … that it was your …”

His face softens as he shakes his head. “It wasn’t my DNA we used.” My heart kinda deflates. I like this man, and I wouldn’t have minded having a genetic link to him. Yes, it wouldn’t have meant he was my father in the real sense of the word, but it would have been nice to have a connection. Now, I’m kind of embarrassed at jumping to the wrong conclusion.

He clearly reads all that on my face. “Nothing would have pleased me more, my dear.” He takes my hands in his. “But I couldn’t risk it. If the sample had been analyzed and they discovered Narik DNA, then I don’t think it would have taken long to make the link. I couldn’t risk my friend. There are thousands of hybrid Tor-Saven on Torc, so I knew it would garner less attention if the sample switch was somehow discovered. Besides, if the Eterno connection was to stand any chance of linking you two, we needed as potent a sample as possible. I asked my friend to find the most pure Tor-Saven DNA to switch out, and he did. And it worked. And here you two are.”

No one speaks for several moments, letting the enormity of what he did settle.

“Thank you.” Although, I’m still muddled over how I feel about these new revelations, I know things could’ve been a whole lot worse if he hadn’t interfered.

Logan is abnormally quiet beside me, still struggling to take it all in. I don’t blame him. It’s as if we’ve been hit with full-blown gale-force winds, knocking us off our feet and taking our collective breath with it. At least, that’s how it feels to me.