Heir of Nothing (The Light-Bringer Trilogy, # 1)

Three

Matias looked ready to faint. His father wasn't a killer—he couldn't be.

"That's a lie," he muttered. "My father can't be a killer."

Malary shook her head. "He is. He executed my grandmother for associating with an accused 'witch'."

Cal's head was spinning. It would explain why he had the haunted look in his eyes. What baffled her most was why would her mother make a murderer her right Hand?

"I think we should go," said Cal.

Just as they made to leave, Malary gripped Cal's wrist. "I ask a simple favour of you. Avenge my grandmother, Heir of Nothing."

Cal wrenched her hand free, alarmed at the strength of Malary's grip. She turned and strode out of Roman Novels. She almost ran into Matias in her haste to get out.

"Careful," he said.

"Let's go," she told him, already walking back to the castle.

—

Matias rested his chin on the history book he had studied so often with his tutors as a child. "I have studied this book for the past thirteen years," he grumbled. "Why are we looking back into them?"

When she answered him, she sounded far away. "Because I want to find out if Malary Roman was speaking the truth."

Matias snorted. "She's probably just gone mad from her grief. It already happened to Olek Neigeson—it probably happened to her."

"Fannar's son and Aniera's nephew?" Cal asked.

"Yes, him. Rumour has it that he lost someone he loved, and, the night after the funeral, he disappeared and hasn't been seen since," he said, kicking back and putting his feet up on the table.

Cal came back from behind a bookcase, a stack of books in her hands. "Get your feet off of the table. We're in a castle, not the barracks!"

Matias pouted, removing his feet from the table. "Yes, mom."

Cal put the books down on the table and sat down. She pulled a book off the top, opened it, and started reading.

"It will go faster if we both read," she said without looking up.

He grudgingly opened the book, and stared down at the page he'd opened to. He'd studied it so often, and Cal had to study it relentlessly. He didn't know why Cal wanted him to look back into it.

Matias stared down at the book blankly, his head on his hand. His eyes trailed up until they rested on Cal. Her bright green eyes were turned down at the genealogy book in front of her, her red hair twisted idly around her fingers.

She looked up at him and said something that he couldn't hear. She frowned. Cal snapped her fingers in front of his face—just inches from his nose.

Matias blinked. "What?"

"Your family line isn't in this," Cal repeated.

His brows furrowed in confusion. "That can't be right."

She flipped the book around and gave it to Matias. "See for yourself."

He pulled it over the history book, and flipped through the pages. He saw the lineage for House Dragos, House Saki, and House Pyro. He saw the names of Dmitri and Andrei Dragos; saw the late Kings Santos and Jasiah Saki; he saw the names of every Pyro king.

But he didn't see his family name.

"It should be here," he muttered. "The names Miles Gomez and Matias Gomez should be here."

"My father isn't on the tree, either," she reassured him.

Matias leaned back. "You have the rest of your lineage, though. Mine is nowhere to be found."

Cal reached over, her hand brushing his as she took the book from him. "We'll figure this out, Matt. I promise."

Matias smiled sadly. "Alright, then. One mystery at a time."

They went back to looking through their books—Cal ditching the book with noble lineage for a different one. Matias sighed in exhaustion and pushed the book away from him. Cal ignored him.

"Do you remember that room our parents keep locked?" he asked.

Cal kept reading. "What about it?"

"What if we... broke into it?" he said with a mischievous grin.

Cal looked up at him, her eyebrow arched. "We need a key."

Matias shook his head. "No, we don't. I just need a few of your hair pins."