Inari busied herself by pacing up and down the upper hallway, the one with row after row of ancestral paintings. She fidgeted restlessly as she walked, studying the portraits she now knew much more intimately.

The feel of Elias’s mouth on her own lingered.

It distracted her from thinking too hard about what conclusion Elias had come to down in Sander’s office. That a breakthrough had been made was obvious and, rather than be disappointed at the request for privacy, she was excited he finally had some answers. Or at least another big clue.

She knew, too, that Elias would share the information when he could.

The distinct features of a distant king drew her to a halt before an enormous gilt painting. As before, there was still something about the painting that seemed familiar somehow. And, as earlier, she could not place what exactly it was.

How frustrating.

She moved on to the next painting, gaze taking in the sturdy features of a man who looked more like a Viking than not. Dark blond hair, blue eyes, rugged build. Even the royal finery could not detract from the sense of wild warrior the man exuded.

Elias’s ancestors, by and large, were handsome men indeed.

She glanced back to the portrait before, then started to move on down the row.

With the suddenness of a lightning strike, Inari understood what seemed so familiar about the former painting.

She rushed back to stand before it and framed her hands in a way that blocked out most of the king’s hair and jawline. Not touching the canvas, of course, but at an angle that allowed her an unimpeded view of just the king’s eyes, nose, and mouth.

Inari gasped.

There was no mistaking it. Not when she focused in on specific features.

She turned from the painting and hurried down the hallway, intent on sharing her suspicion with Elias and Sander at the first possible opportunity.

---

“I’ll be damned,” Sander said.

“I believe the facts are indisputable,” Elias said, hands in his pockets as he made a slow circuit of his father’s office. He was too restless to sit still.

“I agree with you,” Sander said, standing before the desk.

Elias had spread out all the evidence and had explained, in detail, the connections he’d made. The more he outlined his theory, the more he believed they had stumbled upon the truth.

“Aleksi, Caspian—all of them. They’re our relatives. Our blood. Cousins, no matter how distant.” Elias wouldn’t have believed it if he’d not seen the proof for himself.

He still couldn’t believe it.

“All it will take is a DNA test,” Sander said. “I’m sure I can get Aleksi to agree to one.”

Elias hadn’t thought that far ahead into the scheme of things. His father was right. A simple test would give them an absolute answer. “How does this change things between countries? Or does it change anything at all?”

“It changes nothing,” Sander said. “No one has any claim to the other’s territory, but it does explain why my own father rarely ever discussed Imatra and discouraged close interaction. He’d no doubt received the same sort of ‘advice’ from generations before. I recall Aleksi saying once that our fathers, his and mine, did not get along well. Now we know why.”

“They didn’t understand what the real issue was, did they, all these years later?” Elias asked.

“I doubt it. The old grudges, suspicions, and outright hostility got passed down, but some of the details did not. On purpose, I’m sure. Some of our kings, as well as Imatra’s, chose to simply turn a cold shoulder to one another. My father was not hostile to Imatra so much as he completely ignored them. He did discourage us from interacting, discouraged friendship between Aleksi and me, but otherwise he pretended like they didn’t exist. It’s incredible that the chasm between countries lasted this long.”

Elias considered his father’s words and agreed with them. “A chasm that has been steadily closing, thanks to you and Aleksi.”

His father and King Aleksi’s friendship had paved the way for Elias and Caspian to become great friends early on.

“There’s no reason to go back to the way things were. Hasn’t been for more than two decades. What we need to do now is finish going through the papers and journals, see if we can find more information. I’d like to know just how the men, back in the beginning, were related. You mentioned cousins. I wonder if they were brothers instead,” Sander said.

“I should have the rest of it finished by tomorrow night. Think we’ll come across details about the dead man?” Elias asked.

“Probably not. I think we’ve been lucky to get what we’ve got. But we know that he was an Ahtissari, a royal at some point in his life, so he’ll get a proper burial. He could have died of natural causes, could have been a spy, could have even turned against his own side and joined ours after the obvious split.”

Elias grunted. He hadn’t considered burial rites yet. It made sense to lay the man to rest after all these centuries. “And what are we going to do about the public? Or Aleksi? Are you going to tell them? Can you imagine the media storm once word gets out?”

Sander tapped his fingertips on the desk. “I’ve already thought about it. I think it’s critical that we go public with the information, but I’ll have a private meeting with Aleksi first. You and Caspian should be there, since you’ll both be taking the throne in the future.”

“You think someone might find out if we try to keep it a secret?” he asked.

“Now that the papers are in the open, and we’ll be burying a strange body, people will start to dig for the real truth. It’s better to control the release of the information than have an insider break the story.” Sander stepped away from the table. “Let me know what else you find.”

“I will.” Elias tracked his father until Sander was gone from the office. He released a slow breath, dragged a hand through his hair, and quit the room himself.

He needed to find Inari, make his apologies, and finally get some sleep.

Tomorrow would be a long, long day of sifting through what papers and journals remained.