Children of Fallen Gods (The War of Lost Hearts Book 2) Carissa Broadbent (best book recommendations txt) 📖

no idea that I had committed a faux pas. Instead, the faintest glimpse of... something... flickered behind his expression.

“Thank you,” he said. “That is very kind.”

“Of course you, and the other of your kin, may stay here as long as you wish,” my father said. I blinked in surprise — even considering my inappropriate offer, it would be rare for my father to give indefinite shelter so easily.

“My kin,” Caduan repeated, quietly, as if to himself.

“There are eighteen others, all in the infirmary. Most are not yet conscious, but you may visit them as soon as you're well enough to walk.”

Caduan went a shade paler, the line between his brows deepening.

My father said, “I have been told that you are in line for the Stone Crown.”

Caduan’s gaze snapped to me, then slid back to his hands. “Thirteenth. Barely in line at all.”

“It appears that is not true anymore.”

“It doesn’t matter who stands at the dais of a nation that no longer exists. Ghosts and rubble do not need to be led.”

“There are eighteen souls in this infirmary that need a king more than ever.”

Caduan visibly flinched, as if the title stung.

“It never should have been me,” he said.

“Perhaps not,” my father said. “But it is.”

There was a long silence. And when Caduan finally lifted his chin, when his gaze finally met mine again, I saw it harden with a reluctant, unspoken decision — the kind that sent a chill running up my spine.

“This is dire.”

We went directly to my father’s study from the infirmary. When the door closed, there was a stark transition. Calm reassurance was left outside. Inside, there was only cold focus.

“We have no need to be paranoid,” Klein said. “The House of Stone is a smaller nation, and they were unprepared. We have no such—”

“You sound as if you are suggesting that it’s the Stoneheld’s own fault that they were slaughtered,” I said, before I could stop myself.

“I am merely looking at the situation rationally.”

Rational. How could one be rational about thousands of Fey deaths?

“We still lack so much information,” Siobhan said. “I don’t understand how they managed to do this. The numbers were on their side, but this level of destruction is extreme. Nor do we know why they did it.”

“I’m not certain that there are answers to those questions that would make me feel any better about this, Commander Ai’Reid.” My father paused at his window. The view looked out over the farming settlements that lay just beyond the edge of the Pales. Beyond them was the wall, and we were so high up that the lush sprawl of the forest was visible beyond it.

Somewhere out there were the remnants of the House of Stone. Not so very far away at all.

“I agree,” Siobhan said. “But we still need to make it a priority to get those answers, rather than acting on impulse. And while I have every sympathy for the House of Stone, we must remember that we uphold Sidnee interests, not Stoneheld interests.”

My eyebrows lurched. I whirled to her, my anger flaring so violently I had to choke back my response.

“And what would Sidnee interests be?” my father mused. He peered over his shoulder, and his gaze fell to me. “You look as if you have something to say, Aefe.”

Normally, I was so unaccustomed to speaking to my father that even his stare left me frozen — I wasn’t even sure why he had allowed me to come here. But now, when I thought of the grief on Caduan’s face, I felt the kind of fury that made my thinking sloppy and my words too-quick. I was answering before I could measure myself.

“It was a coward’s fight,” I said. “To overwhelm an outnumbered enemy. If the humans did it to the House of Stone, they’d do it to others. We cannot allow that.”

“We still don’t know why they attacked,” Siobhan said. “It is early to make that assumption. Their quarrel may have been with the Stoneheld specifically.”

“Do you think that they care about the borders of our houses any more than we care about the borders of theirs? It was Fey blood spilled in that slaughter. That deserves to be avenged, no matter what house it belongs to.” I paused at the wall, pressed my palm against the cold stone. “At least we have the Pales to protect us. But the other Houses do not. And if more houses meet the same fate as the House of Stone, if the population of Fey is smothered out until we’re among the only ones left… then we’ll just be like mice hiding in our tunnels.”

I couldn’t bring myself to meet my father’s gaze. It was several long seconds before I lifted my head to see him still staring out the window. Siobhan turned to the map on the wall, silver engravings seared directly into obsidian.

“The Houses furthest south, closest to the human lands, would be in the greatest danger, and would also hold the greatest chance at having more information,” she said. She pressed her finger to the little sigils denoting Houses closest to the sea and the islands. The House of Reeds. The House of Roiled Seas. The House of Nautilus. “But they are all aligned with the Titherie.”

“Iero did not address it, but even Stone is technically an informal member of the Titherie,” Klein added. He said the word Titherie the way one might say, “runny horse shit,” and everyone let their noses wrinkle appropriately.

Most Fey Houses fell into one of two alliances. The Titherie was led by the House of Wayward Winds, while the House of Obsidian headed the banner of the Caidre. The two were… not on good terms. It had been many years since the two alliances had warred with each other, but when they had, it had been horrific. No one had been quick to forget it.

“Aefe is correct,” my father said, at last.

I couldn’t help but blink in surprise, to hear those words.

“This may be larger