A seamstress will soon find her way into the final Trial.
This signals the beginning of the end, or so the king thinks. Adena is little more than a pawn in his game, plucked from the castle and thrown into the Pit for something as fragile as his ego. Edric hates the daughter he believes to be his, and as punishment for killing the woman he loves, the king will take Paedyn’s only piece of comfort in this world.
From high above in his glass box, Edric enjoys watching the weakness emanate from Paedyn Gray. She screams, and cries, and begs for a God who is wholly uninterested in such a plight. It is, oddly enough, a gift that the Trials did not end the Ordinary’s life—for the king himself wants such a privilege.
But, in the end, it is that rose atop Iris’s jewelry box that foretells his doom. Hatred begins to fester in Edric’s heart the moment he believes an Ordinary to be born of him. Yet, they share no strength, no morals, no ounce of blood. Paedyn Gray belongs to the queen and her love for a Fatal. But that does not make her any less a princess. Nor does it lend her any more strength as an Ordinary.
King Edric’s last moments are spent spilling blood and spitting enmity at a girl he has spent eighteen years loathing. Even so, he mentions nothing of her lineage, because she is not worthy of knowing the truth. The king wishes her to die having never known of the royal blood in her veins. He will not allow Paedyn Gray the satisfaction of understanding how much she has haunted him.
So he carves a circle upon her heart, just as his wife has done countless times atop his own. Though, this is no gesture of love like Iris intended, but the marking of what was lost, all for the Ordinary squirming beneath his boot. The king ensures Paedyn Gray will wear that mark until her final breath, because it hurts to bear the weight of Iris’s touch alone. It is in the Ordinary’s skin that Edric writes the truth of her birth, of the great love that died, and the spark of hatred that was born. Atop that muddy ground, mangled flesh spells out his love for Iris Moyra as the king lays her to rest with this final act of justice.
Though, in the end, it is he who is buried beneath the weight of secrets and betrayal. For he never learns the truth of those he loved—and how they loved one another.
