Black Crown (Darkest Drae, #3)(80)

“What would you like to know?” The woman dragged her hand through the top of the pool, sending ripples across the surface.

I shrugged and hiccupped, only then realizing I was crying. What the hay? I laughed at myself, frustrated with my inability to control my emotions about someone who was already dead. Or was that sadness doubling up with missing Tyrrik and the lingering fear from the blackouts? Regardless, the overwhelming emotion clogged my throat, and I croaked, “Everything. Anything. What was she like when she was here? What did you all do?”

These women had been with my mother here for over eighty years in Draedyn’s company and likely longer before that. My desire to know more about my mother was insatiable. I wasn’t foolish enough to believe Draedyn wouldn’t find out or that there wouldn’t be consequences, but it didn’t matter. Whatever aftermath ensued would be worth it because right now in this very cavern, my mother and these women had spoken together, lived together, grieved together, just like we were now.

The three female Drae laughed at my stream of questions, and I held up my hand to stop them. “Wait. Before you start, before we go any further, will you tell me your names again? I recognize Draesi up there, and you’re Draelys, right?”

When I first saw the Drae women, I’d thought they looked so similar; obviously, they were all kin to one another. But after a couple hours in their presence, my mistake was embarrassingly noticeable; both by appearance and personality, these women were not carbon copies of one another, regardless of what Draedyn had attempted to do.

“This is Draemyr, and that one over there with Draesi is Draenique.”

My gaze darted back and forth several times, and, jerking my head to the last two Drae, I asked, “Are you two sisters?”

“No,” Draemyr said, cracking a smile. “At least not by birth. Growing up together in this palace made us sisters, regardless of who our parents were.”

Draelys perched on the edge of the pool and tugged her tunic up so she could slide her legs in beside me. “I don’t remember my parents. I was four when Irdelron stole us.”

Draemyr squinted and counted on her fingers for a moment. “I was five, almost six.”

Holy pancakes. I didn’t even have memories from when I was five, and that was only thirteen years ago. Crazy.

“How many of you were taken? Or how many of you made it here?”

The woman with the scar answered. “There were fifty-two of us taken. Forty-eight made it here to Draedyn’s palace. Twenty-two died in childbirth before your mother had you, only one since then.”

Twenty two! My mouth fell ajar. He’d killed nearly half of them through forcing them to bear his child unmated. I did the math in my head, but the numbers didn’t gel. There weren’t twenty-four anymore. “What happened to the others?”

The Drae ran her hand through the dark water again. “Several found ways to take their own life. There were Phaetyn in the palace after all. And Draedyn has used a few more of my sisters as . . . examples.

I didn’t need to know what they were used as examples for. Clearly, being an example did not end well. No surprise there with plain-ole’ eat toast and then control everyone Draedyn.

“I couldn’t help noticing some of you have similar names. Why is that?” What I really wanted to ask was why did Draedyn and I have a similar name. The fact that his name was Drae with a –yn and my name was R-yn had not escaped my notice.

The leader leaned toward me in the water and whispered, “It’s usually the firstborn child who gets the suffix –yn.”

Which meant Tyrrik had an older sibling before being taken. My heart panged, and I rubbed my chest again. “So Draedyn was the first born?”

“No. He was not. He was the second child, and like many second children, he struggled to find his place in his brother’s shadow.”

That Draedyn had a complex shouldn’t surprise anyone. “But he was the emperor, or rather, he is the Emperor.”

“Yes, but his older brother was the alpha Drae.”

“So Draedyn’s brother was the one to refuse to help in the emperor’s war?” Is that what he’d meant by the ‘those who don’t fight for me are against me rubbish?’ I continued, “Draedyn had his own brother killed.”

Power could make people do crazy things, like Kamoi. He’d barely flinched when his parents were killed, and his mother had basically killed her own sister for power. Yet with Draedyn, my gut told me there was something . . . more.

“No. When Draedyn’s brother, Aedyn, disappeared, Draedyn, then known as Aerik, believed he should become the alpha, but the position of alpha male is not inherited within familial bonds. Aedyn chose his successor before he left, and it wasn’t your father.” She looked at me meaningfully. “Any guess who it was?”

How was I supposed to know? I shook my head, not wanting to interrupt her but also cataloging a question about the meaning of –rik later.

The female Drae continued, “Aedyn died as did his mate, and a new alpha male rose into power over the Drae, Baeyn. Aerik, your father before he was Draedyn, was already emperor over the humans. He declared war oversees and asked Baeyn for aid. The previous alpha had refused, so the new alpha did as well. Aerik changed his name to Draedyn, declaring he would one day rule all of the Draeconia and the Drae. This led to his movement against our kind through the Veraldian king.”