“My daughter.”
The words echoed through Kaelira’s mind long after the Enemy King had spoken them.
They didn’t make sense.
They couldn’t.
Her parents had died the night the palace burned.
She had watched her world collapse in flames.
She had mourned them.
She had lived with that grief for years.
So who was the man standing before her?
And why did a part of her heart recognize his voice?
Kaelira slowly shook her head.
“No.”
“You don’t get to call me that.”
“If you’re my father…”
“Where were you?”
The question hung in the silence like a blade.
For the first time, the hooded king lowered his head.
“I was trying to keep you alive.”
Kaelira laughed bitterly.
“By destroying my kingdom?”
“By imprisoning me?”
“By turning the man I love into your weapon?”
The king’s shoulders s
