NATHAN

"What are you going to charge me for telling the secrets of Amaranth Manor and the Rosebrights?" I asked Scanderoon as the carriage headed out of Velvetleaf. "My soul?"

"You’re soul isn’t worth anything. Besides, I need more tangible rewards. Favors owed by a powerful Duke are more valuable than most things people have to trade." Scanderoon twisted the cane in his grip. "What do you know about the Rosebrights?"

"The night they disappeared, Sophia was given to the Pagemoores to raise."

Scanderoon looked up, his gaze sharp behind the pink lense of his glasses. "Oh? And where did you hear that little tidbit?"

"From Sophia. A few weeks ago we were in an airship crash. She got a head injury and ended up with amnesia. Her memories have returned, but it seems her mind is allowing her to remember even her childhood."

"Why wouldn’t she remember that?"

"The Cardigill Ick," said Hune. "She got amnesia after barely surviving the disease."

"It seems your Sophia is prone to illness, Your Grace. You may want to help her strengthen her body so she can withstand worse challenges."

"You’re right," I said. Teaching Sophia basic exercises, self-defense, and weaponry might be very helpful in the future. And it would be a way I could feel less worried about her being without me.

Even now, anxiety crawling through me like stinging ants. Was she okay? Had she awoken from her illness? Did she eat more chicken soup? Was Tilda even capable of giving her the care she deserved?

"Sophia would be very disappointed if you turned back now," said Scanderoon. "She wants to know what’s going on at Amaranth Manor."

"Her husband died," I said. "If it weren’t for possibility of finding out who Sophia really is, I wouldn’t go near that death trap. Given that Jace Willowmarch is dead, she should inherit his estate. It’s not like we’ll be trespassing."

"I seem to recall a scandal at the governor’s mansion in the Capital." Scanderoon leaned forward. "Willowmarch and his mistress took a drug-induced swan dive off the roof. Is that true?"

"Yes," I said. "It was quite gory. I’m glad Sophia didn’t see it."

"You were at the Governor’s Ball with her? My, my. The two of you certainly don’t mind flaunting your affair."

"It’s not an affair. It’s a reclamation of what was mine to begin with. Sophia was betrothed to me when we were children. The Willowmarches usurped that while I was in the Western Realm."

"And Miss Sophia poured her heart and soul into Mr. Willowmarch, not that he was grateful," added Hune. "Him and that Penelope Shire went all about the Capital. Didn’t even care if they made Miss Sophia a laughingstock."

"It seems they got their comuppance," said Scanderoon. "From what I know the memorial service for Willowmarch was family only and the widow wasn’t mentioned at all. Penelope Shire’s remains were taken to the mass grave outside of the city. She had no one to claim her body."

"I don’t feel sorry for her," I said. I thought about my previous life, the one where Penelope had stabbed Sophia and pushed her into the lake. Sophia had died from drowning, but the knife wound would’ve killed her just the same.

When I found her body stretched out on the bank, pulled out by servants, she looked like a broken doll. Makeup smeared, dress wet and lumpy. The wig had come loose in the water, leaving her natural hair to gather leaves and dirt. Blood stained her waist. And I could still see the red floating in the lake where my beloved had breathed her last.

I don’t know how long I held her, weeping. Regret was like a dull blade digging my heart out of my chest.

Penelope and Jace stood on the bridge. By then, Penelope had already admitted that she pushed Sophia into the water. But she claimed it had been an accident. Jace had his arms around her, soothing that murderous bitch while his own wife’s body lay on the bank with no one to accompany her.

I couldn’t bear it.

Any of it.

So I took my sword and stabbed Penelope in the heart. I twisted the blade, too. Ravaged the cold heart that had ruined the only woman I had ever loved.

Once I’d taken revenge, I returned to Sophia. And killed myself so I could accompany her to the next life. But the gods must’ve felt pity for me. I had awakened three years earlier. In time to save Sophia.

It was too bad that it was three months after their marriage. I would’ve preferred to break their engagement so I could make her mine in front of the gods and the country.

After all, she had been mine to begin with.

It still rankled me that Jace Willowmarch not only walked my bride down the aisle, but that he also treated her so poorly. His parents wanted the marriage more than he did. Even though he had grown up with Sophia, he’d never had any love for her. In fact, he wasn’t nice to her as a child, either.

Then again, Jace had been a well known bully in Velvetleaf. As adult, he wasn’t any kinder.

Him meeting a bad end was justice as far as I was concerned. Now, he was dead, his mistress was dead, and Sophia was free.

"Are you going to tell us about the Rosebrights or not?" I asked.

"Rosebrights have a long and respected lineage in the Northern Realm. But they had an inherited condition that made it difficult for the males to have children. So any child born to a Rosebright was a miracle and treated as such. The Rosebrights were quite rich. Owned many businesses, included street-fuls in the Capital. Plus, they had a 100,000 man army at their disposal."

"The Emperor gave their son is sister as a bride," I said.

"Yes. The Grand Duchess married into the Rosebrights as a check against their power. Their numbers were dwindling already, though. The family was only Faye and Monty Rosebright, the eldest son Theodore, his wife Grand Princess Bellifer, and the younger son, an adopted brother named Garren. The only one left is Theo’s paternal grandmother, and she’s not well mentally."

"So she can’t be in charge of the Rosebright money or army."

"True."

"Scanderoon, do you know who has the power over the Rosebright assets?"