CROSS SUIT (#2 COURT OF SUITS series)

♠ FIFTEEN ♠

As I stared at Sinclair, I realized he did have Lady Ossenna's silky dark skin. And her color-shifting eyes, though his seemed stuck in a scary scarlet shade. He did have Sir Sym's sturdy shoulders and square jaw, and the same air of sternness about his expression and his posture.

Yet his claim puzzled me... how was it possible?

"But I..." I gulped, for the millionth time in minutes, which made my throat throb. "I thought they had no children?"

Arden—or should I have been calling him Sinclair?—snorted. "They have no children with other mages, my dear. You didn't ask your questions properly. Aces are evasive, or did you forget that?" He fidgeted as he tugged at the laces securing his gloves.

Otho, who had been examining his nails and rolling his eyes every few seconds, smirked at me. "It's true. We're experts."

"Fine." I stiffened, but my lower half braced to melt into the ground at the first sign of attack. I had no way to threaten them as their mere presence threatened me, and the realization constricted my lungs. The hilt of my sword was slipping. Slipping! I could feel it, but I couldn't show it.

"Then how did they conceive a child together, with no one else knowing? How did they hide you?"

Sinclair shrugged off his gloves. "How they did the deed is of no interest to me. But I'm aware they put a spell on me after I was born. Something to cloak my magic, to ensure I'd never be recognized as theirs. Never be connected to them." He tossed the leathery mittens across the clearing where they landed against the magical wall of vines, sizzling at the contact.

I cringed. Trying to force my way out of this predicament was out of the question, since this barrier could apparently burn me.

"And from what I understand, they put a spell on themselves, too. To forget they ever had me, and to protect their secrets if for any reason they were tortured." Sinclair unbuttoned his cloak, but didn't remove it. He flapped it about, as if airing it out, and I spotted his metallic breeches and knee-high boots coated with armor.

I needed to brainstorm. To think quickly, figure out how to extract myself from this impossible situation... but my curiosity devoured me on the inside. There were questions I wished I'd asked Lady Ossenna, lessons I wished I'd accepted from Sir Sym. I yearned to obtain answers, but their son Sinclair would have to be the one to satisfy my requests for now.

"But why? What is the big deal about them having kids? I realize they're not supposed to—"

"—oh, they are supposed to, to create a legacy. Just not with each other." Sinclair slid his hands into his pockets. "It's ill-viewed, if not forbidden, for mage-advisors—the four in a prime public position, assisting a monarch—to mate amongst themselves. Worse if they care for one another." He shifted side to side, kicking at a few roots near his shoes.

"To mate with a human or a lower-bred mage that isn't an advisor is recommended for the sake of reproduction, but not for pleasure. Aces aren't allowed to fall in love or marry. Their sole purpose is to serve, but Sym and Ossenna served themselves, oh yes, they did. They developed feelings and carried on their affections in secret, and never received punishment for it."

I wrinkled my nose, unsettled by how he spoke of his parents. He was so undisturbed by how he mentioned their disobedience. So nonchalant, as if chatting about the weather and current fashion trends, and not the mistakes that had brought him to life. So indifferent, his timbre flat as if he didn't care for the fate of the two mages who'd sired him.

"And that was dangerous. Illegal. Had anyone found out," he side-glanced at Otho and grinned, "it would have put them in prison for their actions. They'd be tried and hanged. So they reacted fast. They had to. To defend their positions, they had to discard their infant and pretend like it had never existed. So, the instant I was born, they blew a special spell on me and sent me off without a second thought. I grew up on a farm, in squalor and poverty, when I might have lived in a castle."