Page 56 of Prince of Ruin

My dreams are brief, entering my mind like scattered storms, and I struggle to stay in one long enough before it’s blown away, a new one taking its place.

But they all have something in common. They all have Tarsus in them.

Another dream blows in, and this time I cling to it the way one might toss open a sail to catch the wind on high seas. It whirls me away to some ancient time my mortal self struggles to remember.

Tarsus’ lips are sealed over mine as they pin me to the bed, the promise of love and loyalty and bright days ahead on his lips. My fingernails are clawing into their back as I lift my hips, allowing their cock full access to my asshole. A moan escapes me as they sink deeper in, poking my prostate and consuming me with blinding pleasure. Warm fluid coats my stomach as I cum all over myself, and I feel their dick swell as they find their own release inside me.

Pulling out, they collapse beside me, their breaths heavy as they cover their face with their hands. “You’re amazing, Clavicle,” they say, turning their head to look at me.

I link my fingers through theirs, my own breaths labored as I slowly come down from my high.

“If it weren’t for my father,” I say, “we wouldn’t have to sneak around like this. But he’d kill you if he knew I was sleeping with my step-sibling.”

Their lips curve up into a half-smile. “I don’t mind sneaking around with you, Clavicle. Someday you will be sovereign and we can express our love however we want. But that day will come in its own time—no sooner and no later than it’s supposed to be here.”

My teeth grit together. Tarsus is wise, always relying on the time of the gods and the universe. Tarsus is also a powerful bone witch, but even their power is no match for my father’s power as Spine Sovereign. Father is healthy and could see another five-hundred years ruling these lands. I shouldn’t have to keep my love for Tarsus a secret for that long. We’ve already been dating for a solid decade. Why should we hide our love for one another?

But while Father fell in love with and married Tarsus’ mother, Father never developed a father’s love for Tarsus, despite how much he loved their mother. After Tarsus’ mother passed on, it was only through mercy and his remaining love for his long lost wife that my father kept Tarsus in the palace, but he often referred to the bone witch as a power-hungry leech.

If he knew what we were doing, that I was fucking the son of the woman he loved…Father wouldn’t hesitate to put Tarsus’ head on a spike. I don’t have another five centuries of hiding my love for Tarsus in me.

I never cared for my father, beyond his distaste for Tarsus. Sovereign Elderberry, who rules the Solar Empire, has advanced technology far beyond our comprehension, and has already conquered and ruled the Terra Empire and the Lunar Empire. His forces are pushing against our own borders, and Father refuses to fight back, for fear of losing our entire armies against Elderberry, and then losing his own life for fighting back.

Father wants to roll over and keep his life, rather than risk his life to save our empire. He continues his loyal annual payments of human blood to Mother Terra, but that’s not enough. If we’re going to defeat Elderberry when that bastard decides to strike, then we need a hundred human sacrifices every full moon. We need to show her who her true followers are, so that when the time comes, she will help us fight back and defend our empire.

But Father won’t listen to my advice. Father won’t approve of my love for my step-sibling. Father is willing to hand our empire over to Elderberry and put my lover’s head on a spike.

Which means, when the first opportunity presents itself, I’ll kick my father into an early grave and take the throne.

It’s what has to be done to save my Spine Empire.

It’s what has to be done to salvage my relationship with Tarsus.

I look over at the bone witch, my step-sibling, my lover. I can’t tell them any of this. They’re too innocent, too trusting of the universe to unfold exactly as it’s supposed to. But when it’s all over, they’ll understand that this was a sacrifice that simply had to be made.

I’m going to kill my father. And then I’m going to take the throne and do what has to be done for the sake of my people.

It has to be done. For me. For Tarsus. For the empire.

Aden

I’m pacing the massive royal living room, stewing over what Tarsus is doing to Clav right now. Gray light infiltrates through the wall-length window, gray clouds churning above, a brutal reminder that we don’t have much time left before Mother Terra wipes us all out.

I should throw myself in.

I should march up the charred slopes of the Heart of Faerie and toss myself into the fiery depths.

I’ve thought about it hundreds of times. Imagined walking through the dark caves, thick with the stench of sulfur, thought about what it might feel like to be standing at the pit where the sacrifices are held, peering down the ledge at the orange and red abyss below.

I’ve pictured myself leaping into the pool of lava, and wondered how quick a death like that might last. There would be searing, blinding pain as the lava burned through my skin and muscle and bone. If I dovehead-first, the heat would literally boil my brain and the pain wouldn’t last more than a few seconds.

I’ve done my research.

I look out the window at the volcano as it puffs out a massive plume of smoke. Our month is almost up, and I’m not sure Clav is the savior we need. Not when he doesn’t even remember being a sovereign. He’s just a human who was taken from his lands to a world he knows nothing about. It’s not fair to expect him to confront an evil goddess.

Which leaves the salvation of the empire up to me.

“Aden.”

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