Octavia’s hands flutter by her chin. “My son, what are you doing?”
“You know damn well what I’m doing.” Lincoln re-slams Connor against the wall, only with more force this time around. “You find the strength and tell me, Father. Now.”
“Lin… Lincoln…” Connor’s face turns purple.
“What do you know?” Lincoln’s voice raises to a roar. “Stop being a weak, self-centered worm for once in your life. Find the strength to tell me what’s happening to my son!” Connor’s face turns a deeper shade of purple. His eyes roll back into his head.
“Lincoln, stop it,” I say. “You’re choking him.”
“I’m not choking him.”
Lincoln steps back and Connor crumples to the floor, gasping for breath. The purple hue stays on his face a few seconds too long to be natural.
Unholy Hell. I know what that means.
All the breath leaves my body. Lincoln was testing Connor for a certain kind of magic. And based on the results, there’s only one explanation for the odd purple hue on the face of the King Emeritus.
This is so bad.
“Connor’s under a magical compulsion,” I say quietly. “Whatever he knows, he can’t speak of it.”
Octavia sadly shakes her head. “Yes, that’s right. I’ve taken him to the best witches and warlocks in Striga. It’s unbreakable.” She grips her hands at her waist so hard, her knuckles turn white. “I wanted to tell you, but what could any of us do? And now, we have Hildy. Connor says that everything will be fine.”
Octavia’s mouth keeps moving, and I know she’s blathering on about something, but my attention’s consumed by her mismatched eyes. Something dark lurks in them that I’ve never seen there before. Fear. She knows her husband well enough to realize that whatever he’s hiding, it’s something life-changing. Maybe even relationship-stopping. Chilly tendrils of dread creep through my torso.
What could be so bad that it scares Octavia?
Lincoln pins his mother with a look of disgust. “You manipulated Father into giving up the crown. You were able to do that, but when you knew he was hiding something about Maxon, you did nothing?”
“There wasn’t anything I could do,” says Octavia, but her words sound more like a question. “The compulsion in unbreakable.”
My mind fixates on that one word.
“Unbreakable?” I repeat, my body turning numb with shock. “You know what that means, don’t you? Damn, I know hardly anything about Striga magic and I know what that means.”
Connor and Octavia stare at the floor, speechless. Silence, really? Fine, if they’re going to make me say, it, I’ll say it.
“It means that Connor agreed to the compulsion. Otherwise, almost anyone in Striga could break it.” I turn to Connor, my eyes blazing red with wrath. “Let me get this straight. You’ve known about some threat to Maxon from Hell for years, and you agreed to a compulsion so you couldn’t speak about it to anyone?”
Octavia steps in front of me, grabbing me by the upper arms. “You don’t know Connor like I do. There has to be an explanation for all of this.”
I break free from Octavia’s grip. “You’re talking crazy. Where is the Queen I used to know?”
Octavia’s shoulders slump. “You have to trust me on this. I know Connor.”
“Not happening,” I say, my voice deadly low.
“Look,” adds Lincoln. “Myla and I are not trusting your faith in Father when Maxon’s safety could be at stake.”
Connor leans against the wall, tears lining his eyes. “I’ve done all I could. There’s nothing left to say.”
“There’s everything left to say, Father.”
Connor straightens his tunic, an effort that only makes it more cockeyed. “We’ve covered as much on this topic as we can. Hildy’s good. More than enough to protect Maxon. There’s no better monopsyche in a thousand years. You’ve no idea how hard it was to hire her. Maxon’s safe now.”
“You see?” says Octavia. “You can trust your Father. He may not be able to tell us everything, but he knows the full story. If he says Maxon is more than protected, then he is.”
“Not good enough, Mother. Not by a long shot.”
Octavia leads Connor toward the door in slow, shuffling steps. “Children, I realize you’re worried about Maxon. Connor and I feel the same way. However, there’s no point causing family strife over something we can do nothing about. The compulsion is unbreakable, and that’s an end to it.”
She’s not getting away that easily. Even I know what we can try next. “This isn’t over,” I say firmly. “Connor’s going to the Striga Elders.”
“Agreed,” says Lincoln.
The Striga Elders are the most powerful witches and warlocks in Striga. Totally badass, especially their leader, Elder Faustina. If anyone can break the spell on Connor, they can.