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the privacy of the castle. He chose to strike during the
public portion of the ceremony.”
    Now this part Seth had heard before, about
the giant raven which had flown down and made the grim
pronouncement that the child was cursed and would stick her finger
with the spindle of a spinning wheel, falling into an eternal
slumber, with only true love’s kiss able to break the spell. From
all accounts chaos ensued, with the guards trying to kill the bird
and people scattering from the evil magic. Matthias squirrelled
Rosamund away after that, and no one saw her again.
    “Why couldn’t the fairies reverse the curse?”
Kira asked, her fingers squeezing Seth’s.
    “I don’t know. I know they were asked and
they didn’t.” Taren ran his own palms over his thighs, echoing his
daughter’s earlier nervous gesture. “Kira, I have something to tell
you.”
    Taren sounded scared, the first time in
memory Seth had ever associated that emotion with this man. Kira
settled into stillness, her fingers going lax in Seth’s grasp.
“What is it?”
    “I was never going to tell you this, but I
have been in discussions recently, discussions of the old days.
After much thought, I think you knowing is the best way to move
forward and to get away from this curse.”
    A fine tremor ran through Kira’s form.
Taren’s fear was unsettling to Seth, but it was wrecking his
daughter. “What is it?”
    Taren licked his lips. “A week after the
raven delivered the curse, King Thomas came to me. My wife had been
dead a very short time. I sometimes wondered if somehow her death
was part of the evil that had been poisoning us.” A different grief
fell over the man then, as for a moment his memories of his
departed wife were almost tangible behind his eyes.
    He shook them off and continued. “King Thomas
said that plans had been made, and that I was to help rebuild the
kingdom…” Taren tore his gaze away from them and went back to the
fire. The flames highlighted the unshed tears in the man’s eyes. He
paused for several moments, and then said, his voice regret
personified, “You are not my daughter, Kira. King Thomas gave you
to me when you were just a baby for me to raise. He said you were
to be trained as a warrior and that you’d be Seth’s companion and
eventual guard.”
    Everything went still, and only Kira’s
crushing grip on Seth’s hand penetrated the blankness that settled
over him.
    And then Kira released him and ran out the
door.
    That’s what Kira did when the emotions were
too much, she ran. She couldn’t stand the thought of breaking down
around others.
    And there was only one place she would go.
Seth rose to go after her but Taren’s hand on his arm stopped him.
“No, Seth,” he said. “She needs time to herself, and I still have
something to tell you. It would be better to do so alone.”
    “How can you not be her father?” He was
pulling away from Taren, his focus on Kira, but the old warrior’s
grip was still a reckoning for he could not free himself. “Who is
she?”
    “I do not know her family. Thomas might, but
I could not swear to that. Please, Seth, I know how dear she is to
you, but she would not welcome your company right now. You know her
better than anyone. If you stop and think, you know what I’m saying
is truth.”
    Truth. Yes, it was truth. Kira needed to get
her emotions under control; when she was like this, she didn’t want
anyone around, not even him. Seth stopped struggling, and Taren’s
grip loosened, though it did not leave entirely.
    Seth shook him off. “I will not go after her
right now, Taren. Soon, not yet. What else did you want to tell
me?”
    How could this man not be her father?
He was the closest being Seth would call a friend and an ally,
outside of Kira. How could he turn into this stranger, being used
by his father like every other person in this castle?
    Taren sat down himself but did not motion for
Seth to join him, perhaps intuiting that Seth would not relax in
front