KAIA'S POV
I shifted awkwardly, my fingers picking at the edge of my sleeve. “Can I ask you a different question then?”
Amusement crossed Athena's eyes, and she nodded. “Very well then. You may go ahead.”
I hesitated, but the question had been burning in my chest for too long to keep in. And by too long, I mean since last night. “How… how are you royalty? And how are you the sister of the late King?”
Athena let out a long, heavy sigh that sounded like it carried a thousand years of sadness. “Some stories,” she said quietly, “are too dark to tell in full.”
She paused, looking past me at something only she could see. “The King and I… we are half-siblings. I’m an illegitimate child born to our father by a witch.”
My jaw dropped. “Your mother was a witch?” The words slipped out before I
