Long-Awaited Conversation

The twenty-one-year-old's jaw dropped. 

He gaped rather unbecomingly.

What did she just say?

"Wait. Sorry. Let me process this for a moment," Mattheus said as he raised a palm to stop Brunilda if she wanted to speak more. His other hand covered his forehead as he did exactly as he said.

He quickly realized the shock was more from being told this rather than being surprised it was Illarion Snowe that had been the culprit that had been lurking in the shadows in the twenty-one-year-old's worries.

Honestly, rather than the assassin being some nameless and faceless entity that manage to splatter the original Mattheus Crown's skull across the forest floor, it being Illarion Snow—who had been around since practically the beginning—made sense.

In fact, it made so much sense, Mattheus was surprised he had never even contemplated the possibility it had been Illarion Snowe that had been the one who murdered the original Mattheus Crown in the woods.