She loved the way he phrased things. "Thank you, Mari. For everything."

He inclined his head to her. "Gera wanted me to tell you that she rescheduled your first lesson for four."

She cringed at the mere thought. "Great."

"If it makes you feel better, I told her I didn't think you needed any help. Obviously from what we've been hearing, we all know you're quite capable of pleasing his lordship."

"Are you going to keep torturing me with that?"

"Probably." He handed her a sedate dark green dress. "This will be lovely with your coloring."

Taking it from him, she ignored his comment as she returned to their previous conversation. "Darling said that he'd told Gera I didn't have to be prepped anymore."

"He did tell her that. She didn't listen. She said that this was one lesson you really didn't want to miss."

Zarya quirked her brow at that. "I think I'm afraid."

"I definitely would be," he whispered. "But it could be good... Maybe. And if it is as good as she says, you'll have to share with me later."

"You're terrible." She went back to the bathroom to put her dress on.

As soon as she finished, she rejoined him in the bedroom where he waited patiently. "Maris? Can I ask you something?"

"Sure, just as long as you understand I'm not obligated to answer."

She also loved Maris's disclaimers. He almost always had one for every occasion. "Darling said that he trusts Ryn to run things for him and that he knew his brother didn't want the throne. He said he had the scar to prove it. But he wouldn't elaborate. What was he talking about?"

The humor drained from his face. "Are you sure you want me to answer that? It's not very pleasant."

It seemed nothing about Darling's past was. "Yes, please."

Maris paused as if he was considering something. After a few seconds, he narrowed his eyes on her. "Come with me."

She followed him out of the room and down a long, winding hallway. Ornate and gilded, it was breathtaking. For all the brutality members of the Cruel family had committed, the palace itself showed nothing but beauty. They passed countless portraits of Darling's numerous ancestors who had ruled before him.

"Where are we going?"

Maris slowed. "The family wing." He opened a set of heavy doors that led to another ornate, marbled hallway that stretched out for what seemed to be a mile at least. Each side of it was lined with doors. "This is where the governor's wife and children stay whenever they're in residence."

So this was where Darling's room had been before he killed his uncle.

As if he heard her thoughts, Maris led her down to the next to the last set of doors on the left side of the hall. She wasn't sure what to expect as he opened the room and stood back for her to enter first.

Large and airy, it was definitely a boy's room. Decorated in maroon, dark blue and gold-the national Caronese colors-the room held a large canopy bed with a seal on the headboard that matched the seal in Darling's current chambers. There was an old computer on a huge desk that was littered with chemistry sets and spaceships.

The wall on her right was covered with intricate drawings and sketches pinned over each other. "Are those... chemical compounds and bombs?"

Maris laughed. "Darling was always a little strange. But yes, they are components to different devices and explosives he was working on."

But as she looked around more, she was nonplussed by what she saw. The room was like a time capsule. Covered in dust and obvious signs of neglect, it appeared as if Darling had been ripped out of it as a boy and never allowed to return. There were even toys left scattered across the floor.

It didn't make sense. "This was his room before Arturo died?"

Grief and sadness lined Maris's features before he spoke. "We were at school, laughing during study hall about something innocuous. Suddenly, there was a shadow falling over us. Thinking it was a teacher there to yell at us to lower our voices, we looked up to see three Caronese guards. Without any compassion or decency, their captain glared at Darling and said coldly, 'Your father's been assassinated. You must come with us.' "

Bile rose in her throat at the cruelty. How could anyone be that cold to a child when telling him his father was dead? "Are you serious?"

He nodded. "I'll never forget the look on his face when he heard those words. They didn't give him even a second to recover or pack so much as a toothbrush before he was hauled back here. He was only twelve. A scared little boy who had no idea what had happened. When he tried to see his mother, she refused."

"Why?"

"I don't know. Grief does strange things to people, and everyone copes differently. I won't pass judgment on her for it. But it devastated Darling. After the funeral, we came back here to his room. His mother wouldn't even look at him. She retired to her chambers with Drake and Lise, and Darling wasn't allowed near them."

He jerked his chin toward the desk. "Darling sat there looking shell-shocked for hours. He didn't speak. He didn't cry. Just stared at nothing, except the floor, while I sat on the bed, waiting for him to say something. Ryn was the one who finally came to check on him. He told Darling that he couldn't stay, but that if he needed anything at all to call him."

Zarya tried to make sense of that. "Ryn abandoned him, too?"

"In his defense, there wasn't much Ryn could do. Both Arturo and Natale hated him. Natale had driven him out not long before Drux died. And at the funeral, Arturo made it abundantly clear that Ryn would never be welcomed here in any capacity. But Ryn tried to keep in touch with Darling. Three days after the funeral, Drake and Lise were allowed to return to school. Arturo withdrew Darling and kept him here."

"Why?"

"The Grand Counsel isn't a blood position. It's anyone the governor appoints. As the future governor, Darling could have chosen another."

She'd never heard that before, and it didn't make sense that Darling would live under his uncle's vicious rule if he didn't have to. "Why didn't Darling choose someone else?"

"It's not quite as simple as it sounds. First, the replacement has to agree to it and show cause as to why he would be a better counselor than the one picked by the former governor. And Darling had to be sixteen to make the declaration."

"Was that the only way?"

Maris nodded. "It was why Arturo wanted to keep Darling close by so that he could watch him. And I'm sure it's why he didn't tolerate Ryn's presence here. He knew how close Darling and Ryn were." He motioned her to follow him again. He went down the hallway, back toward the main part of the palace.

They turned a corner into a smaller corridor that was far less ornate.

Maris stopped at the first door on the right. "Three weeks after Darling turned fifteen, this became his room." He opened the door and stepped back for her to see it.

Horrified, Zarya covered her mouth with her hand at the tiny room that had no windows. It was completely empty except for a single blanket on the floor and a flat pillow.

Maris jerked his chin to the door across the hall. "That's his bathroom and dressing chamber. Every night, he had to go in there, get ready for bed and remove all of his clothes. Then naked, he'd come here so that his guards could cavity search him."

Her stomach heaved. "Why?"

"Darling kept running away from home. Arturo wanted them to make sure he didn't have anything he could use to escape or to call anyone with. Once he was searched, and they were never gentle about it, he'd be locked in here until morning."

Or until they dragged him out for his uncle's amusement.

She wanted to hurt someone over it. "How long was he kept here?"

"Till the night he killed Arturo."

"No..."

He nodded.

Her senses reeled as she thought back to the times when she'd been speaking to Kere...

Had Darling really been in this room during those times?

Was that even possible? "I don't understand. If he was kept here, like that, how did he ever have any freedom?"

"He's cunning and resilient. Plus Nyk, Ryn, and friends helped him to escape from time to time under various ruses for a few days or weeks at a stretch. And once Nyk was crowned prince, he appointed me as an ambassador so that I could watch out for Darling and use my political ties to get him out of here whenever it got too bad for him. But this was always what he was dragged back to."

Her mind boggled over all the things she'd never known about the man she loved. All the secrets he'd kept and things she would have never, ever guessed at.

All of it made her angrier at the world on his behalf.

Damn them!

She swallowed against the painful knot in her throat. "Please tell me that there was at least some brightness to his existence."

"How so?"

"His brother and sister? Did Arturo treat them like this, too?"

Maris closed the door to that awful room. "No. As long as they stayed out of his sight, he left them alone."

"Meaning?"

"Lise never pushed it. She would hit the door running to her mother's chambers and stay there until she could return to school. Drake's a little more... offensive. As he got older, he became cocky, and he had no respect for Darling back then."

"Why not?"

"Like everyone else, he bought into the rumors that Darling was a crazed degenerate who earned his punishments. Since Arturo didn't beat on him or confine him, Drake figured there had to be a reason for Arturo to beat Darling. Obviously it was all Darling's fault."

Obviously, indeed.

Zarya was beginning to really not like Darling's brother. The more she learned about Drake, the more he seemed like a selfish ass.

"I'm surprised Darling has any use for his brothers."

Maris shrugged. "Darling doesn't forgive easily and he never forgets. But at his heart, he is a peacemaker. His father used to have a saying. The world isn't fair. And no matter how good and decent you are, no matter how much you give to others, someone is always going to hate you for no other reason than the fact that you breathe. You can't help that. You can't change people or their minds once they've allowed them to get twisted by hatred. But you can change how you deal with them. Never back down, but walk away when you can, fight when you must. Whatever you do don't give them the power to hurt you. Don't let them inside you. They're not worth it. Live your life for yourself. Stay true to yourself and if they can't see the beauty that is you, it's their loss. Let the bitterness take them to their graves. Spend your time on what matters most. Being you and appreciating the people who see you for who and what you are. The people who love you, and the ones that you love. They are all that matter. Let the rest go to hell."

Those words touched her. "His father sounds like he was a great man."

"He was, indeed. Very much like Darling."

But those words also made her stop and think. Most of all, they made her wonder if there could ever be a real future for them after everything that had happened to divide them. Maris had said that Darling didn't forgive easily, or forget. So where did that leave her? "Do you think he can ever forgive me, Maris?"

"Honestly, I don't know. I think he wants to. But he's been hurt so badly by so many. You're just going to have to give him time to learn to trust you again. Have faith that his love for you will erase the rest."

Something that was much easier said than done. Broken trust was the hardest thing to repair. But she wouldn't give up on Darling. She couldn't.

But what if he gives up on you?

Darling wiped at the sweat underneath his mask as he sat at his desk, reviewing his mail. Strange how quickly he'd gotten used to not wearing the stupid thing with Zarya. But it was easy when she didn't seem to notice his grotesque scars.

Unfortunately, he knew the rest of the world didn't view him through her eyes.

Don't think about it.

How could he not when he was forced to stare at the mask while he worked? A mask that made him remember the scars it covered. And there were so many of them. Scars that twisted his lips and made his eye droop. Scars that ran down the side of his nose and across his cheeks.

And the one of Pip's name showing through his beard as plain as the writing on his monitor.

His head throbbed from the eyestrain of trying to catch up. And then it started...

That irritating jerk.

Closing his eyes, he pressed his finger against his eyelid, trying to will them to stop. Still they spasmed and twitched. The motion made him queasy. But most of all, it made him blind.

Damn it! It was the most irritating thing and it wasn't helped by the addition of a sudden nosebleed.

Great. Just great. What next?

Just don't let me have to go to the bathroom. He couldn't take any more of his broken body. He was tired of being in pain all the time. Of having to fear the next round of What's Going To Piss Me Off Now.

As he reached for another tissue to replace the one that was already saturated, something crashed through the window on his right and exploded.

Trying to focus his jerking gaze, it took him a second to figure out what it was. Faster than he could move, fire spread up the wall, setting off alarms and sprinklers.

Crap! It was an attack and he'd left his blaster upstairs.

Darling held his breath as he tried to get to the door. Something easier said than done while his eyes kept jerking. Everything shifted and moved which disoriented him even more. Worse, his eyes and skin burned from the fumes.

In that moment, he realized what had been shot into his office. Fledon. A nasty little chemical that was lethal when inhaled.

He pushed the controls for the door.

It didn't move.

What the hell?

As part of the fire system, the doors were supposed to spring open automatically whenever the room was occupied to keep from trapping anyone inside the office.

Panic set in as he realized that someone had intentionally blocked them and reset the sensors. He reached for his link only to remember that he'd left it in the bedroom this morning. He'd been so preoccupied with setting up Zarya's link that he'd forgotten all about his own.

His eyes burning even worse, he pressed the alarm for his guards.

Why weren't they coming?