"Are you going to blame your father's death on Lady Vera?"
Ivy asked casually, as though she were asking about the evening's menu rather than the fate of a woman who had just publicly accused the Crown Prince of patricide.
Her hand was hooked through Damon's elbow, familiar in the way that she had long since stopped asking permission to touch him, and the corridor stretched before them.
"Although what she has done until now deserves it," Damon answered, "she is still my siblings' mother."
He did not look at Ivy as he spoke. His gaze remained fixed on some point ahead, as though he could see through the walls to the rooms where his younger brothers and sisters were being kept, guarded and watched. They had lost their father, so he wouldn't be the one who took their mother away.
"I will teach them how to deal with their mother once everything calms down."
Ivy hummed noncommittally.
