A Throne of Ruin (Deliciously Dark Fairytales #2)(106)

A flash of lust slithered across my flesh. “Okay.”

We resumed eating, and although I didn’t dwell on all the things I was surely doing wrong, I did pay more attention to how I went about it. I’d be damned if I’d drip food all over my fancy dress.

“This is one of our more casual dining areas, anyway,” he said, looking around. “It’s as small as we have.”

“No quiet family dinners, then?”

“Not for our immediate family, no. My dad and mom…didn’t occupy the same space if they didn’t have to.”

“I get why your mom felt that way, but didn’t your dad like your mom?”

His smile had no humor. “She might’ve technically been a noble, but she was from a mountain village in a wolf’s kingdom. She wasn’t much better than a commoner in his eyes. They didn’t celebrate wealth and finery like he did. They didn’t have a slew of servants. They were—are—warriors. All of them. She came here like a fish out of water. She had to be taught how to carry on polite conversation, how to eat at a fine table like this, how to hold herself…”

“But…” I frowned at him, finishing my soup and hoping for more. This staff might not be well trained, but the cook certainly knew his way around a soup. It had been delicious. “Then why marry her?”

“To get a son like me. Mostly.” Nyfain dabbed his mouth and dropped his napkin back into his lap. “My mother’s line is fierce and powerful. He wanted her brood.”

“And he got it. He got the warrior.”

“Well…” Nyfain leaned back as Mr. Belly collected his bowl and Liron—I seemed to recall that was his name—collected mine. “He did and he didn’t. He got a fighter, yes. A son with maximum power. But he didn’t expect a son that preferred gardening and singing. I was more sensitive than he liked. I expressed my ruthless fighter side only when necessary. The other times…I didn’t see the point in being an asshole just to seem powerful at all times. I was powerful. I didn’t feel like I needed to constantly prove it.”

“That’s called confidence.”

“My father didn’t agree. He blamed my mother for ruining me.”

“Ruining you? Good gracious.” I watched as a plate of fish swimming in a buttery yellow sauce was placed in front of me. “That’s a bit extreme.”

“He essentially wanted me to be a tyrant. Like him. My mother was never going to let that happen, though, for which I am thankful. But when I was of age and proving to be just as powerful as he’d hoped, he took me in hand. That was when the beatings really amped up. He was going to make a man of me if it was the last thing he did.”

“By beating you?”

“By making me tough. And yes, the way he thought I would be tough was to get beatings.”

“And did it work?” I whispered, laying down my fork. My plate was clean. Hannon needed to take some lessons from the cooks in this place. Also, I needed to eat downstairs for dinner more often. The meals sent up to my room weren’t nearly this good.

“I was already tough. He just made me angrier at him. By eighteen, I’d had enough. I turned the tables and made sure it was the last beating he’d ever give me. I scared the whole castle that day. They thought I’d kill him and anyone who tried to get in my way. Soon after that, at my mother’s behest, I started looking for a way out of this place.”

“Why not go to her village? Why not meet people like you’d been raised?”

The next course came, rabbit with carrots and potatoes atop a mouth-watering sauce that I would probably dream about.

“I thought about it. Nearly did. But…as a prince, I would’ve had to visit with royalty in the Flamma Kingdom before being allowed to travel to my mother’s village. Once there, I never would’ve been able to relax. The wolves would’ve been nervous about the dragons rising up and going for the crown. And they weren’t wrong. My dad would’ve thought about it. Maybe even tried to goad me into it. I decided to remove myself from the whole scene. Faeries couldn’t give two shits about shifter royalty. They are much too arrogant. With them, I felt halfway normal.”

“What made you decide to propose?” A surge of jealousy stole over my heart. I cleared my throat and wiped my mouth in careful little dabs like he had.

He reached across the table and took my hand. “What it came down to was that she was willing to have me. It wasn’t a great love story. We each had something to offer the other, and we got on pretty well. It was enough to get me out of my kingdom and escape my father, which was the overall goal. Had I known—”

“There’s no sense in dwelling on that,” I said, entwining my fingers with his. “You obviously know it wasn’t your fault. The king sounds like… There really aren’t words for him.”

“He was just like my grandfather. My father tried to train me the same way he’d been trained.”

“It must be right because that’s how it has always been done,” I said.

“Just so.” He ran his thumb across the top of my hand as our dishes were cleared.

Dessert came, a chocolate mousse. I didn’t know how I was going to fit it all in my belly, but I was definitely going to try.

“Would you have missed home, do you think? If you’d…” I couldn’t even say it. I could not even ask about almost marrying someone else. Goddess save me, I was not usually a jealous person, especially not about something that had never come to pass.