Page 135 of Hunt Me

Luka’s brows drew together. “A brothel worker?”

“No,” Daven said quickly. “She worked there, yes, but she wasn’t… she wasn’t what people assumed. She was kind and gentle, and she had a gift for healing. She didn’t belong in a place like that, and he knew it.”

Luka scoffed, but Draven wasn’t deterred.

“They fell deeply and recklessly in love. And when he realized he couldn’t live without her, he tried to find a way to bring her to Night Falls.”

“My mother would have killed her,” Luka replied tersely.

“Yes,” Draven answered. “Reynard knew that. So, he did the only thing he could. He hid her.”

“Where?”

Draven hesitated, then spoke the words that would change everything.

“Garden Ridge.”

Luka froze. The flames from the torches crackled, and the dungeon seemed to tilt. “Garden Ridge,” Luka repeated, voice haunted and hollow. “The summer cottage.”

Draven nodded. “He purchased it for her. It was their secret sanctuary where he visited whenever he could. That’s where I was born.”

Luka’s breath left him in a slow, stunned exhale.

Garden Ridge.

The place he loved most in the world.

The place he had taken Matilda for retreat.

The place he had considered hiding her and their child if she remained human.

Realization struck him like lightning. He had been repeating his father’s sins without even knowing it.

Draven watched the stricken king cautiously when Luka’s fingers curled around the bars.

“And your mother? What happened to her?”

Draven’s gaze dropped.

“Reynard was with us in Garden Ridge and was called back to the castle. He received word that you were gravely ill. He panicked and left immediately.”

Luka frowned.

“I was never sick.”

“I know,” Draven acknowledged. “It was a lie.”

Luka’s pulse hammered in his throat.

“My mother.”

Draven nodded. “She discovered the affair and acted swiftly. She sent assassins to Garden Ridge. My mother was killed in the cottage—the same cottage you love so much.” Draven’s voice softened. “She died on the floor, calling for Reynard. He never made it back in time. Queen Elowen ordered my death as well, not wanting any trace of Reynard’s betrayal to survive. But the assassin she sent… he couldn’t do it. He took pity on me and returned me to Moonshire and left me at an orphanage.”

Luka wanted to call Draven a liar, but his mother was jealous, and she would not be embarrassed by his father’s lies and deceit.

“Reynard returned to Garden Ridge and found her body. He knew Elowen had orchestrated it, and it anguished our father that he fell for her manipulation and abandoned my mother in her final moments.”

“Don’t you dare call him that!” Luka hissed, gripping the bars tighter.