Page 24 of The Prince

He didn’t want to pull away from Braxton, but standing and hugging in the hallway wasn’t an option either. Caro only stepped back enough to grip Braxton’s hand, leading him down the secret passages yet again.

Caro’s bedroom was down a few floors, back in the direction where Braxton’s search party had been. The secret door didn’t have a lock; the room wasn’t nice enough to warrant one. Caro slid his fingertips into a groove and the door slid sideways into a pocket in the wall. The room itself was an inner room, so no windows, but there was very little in the way of furniture to impede Caro as he made the familiar trek across the room to the actual door where the switch to activate the mage lights was located.

With the lights on, the sparseness of the space was revealed. A small bed along one wall with a wooden box used for a side table. A set of drawers on the other wall, scratched but perfectly serviceable. And a closet that led to the shared bathing space between his room and the usually empty one next door. And that was it. No decorations, nothing to personalize it. Everything was covered in a layer of dust.

Caro dragged the blanket off the bed and took it into the hallway where he could shake it out. When he returned to the room, Caro finally found the courage to look at Braxton to gauge his reaction.

Braxton’s lips were set into a frown. “I know you said your father hated you, but you’re still a prince of Namin,” he said, turning slowly in a circle as if he thought he might have missed something.

“I’m lucky to have this much. But I spent most of my time away from the castle for one reason or another. This is still luxury compared to camping on the ground.” Caro shrugged and focused on spreading the blanket back across the bed. He turned around when he heard a thud, to see Braxton had removed his vambraces and dropped them onto the otherwise empty top of the chest of drawers. He was working on the buckles for the armor on his chest, twisting awkwardly to reach. Caro let theblanket go and hurried over to help. Between the two of them, they soon had all the pieces of Braxton’s armor off and scattered across the flat surface on top of the drawers in no time.

“Let’s get yours too,” Braxton said when he was down to the padded undershirt and pants worn underneath heavy armor. He didn’t wait for Caro to agree, already reaching for the buckles and straps.

The second the last piece of Caro’s armor was removed, Braxton wrapped his arms around Caro and hugged him close. Braxton let out a slow breath, his body relaxing beneath the fingers Caro pressed to his shoulders.

“Finally,” Braxton said, laying his cheek against the top of Caro’s head again.

Warmth, and the feel of Braxton’s heart pounding. Skin touching skin. Caro let out his own sigh as he relaxed into the comfort of being able to actually feel Braxton again. He buried his face into Braxton’s shoulder, wrapped his arms around Braxton’s neck, and shamelessly clung.

“My father hated me, and I hated him,” Caro forced out, his throat and chest tight. “I was glad to know we were traveling here to kill him, as terrible as that sounds. But…” He couldn’t finish, his breath hitching in his throat.

Braxton turned them and practically carried Caro the two steps across the room. He sat on the edge of the bed and Caro somehow ended up in his lap, still clinging.

“My Uncle Randolph used to bring me sugar candies. He’d go out to the market and come back with his pockets full of them. When I was a kid I thought he was the coolest man in the world. He threw a coup a few years later. Killed my aunt—his sister—and came really close to killing Ayer. He planned to kill my parents as well as Fen and me, and he fled when hefailed. When I found him again, you know what he said to me? ‘I used to dote on you to bring you to my side. You could be my heir,’ he told me as if cheap candies meant to entice a child was enough to offset the terrible things he did. And yet, after I killed him, I cried.” Braxton’s breath hitched and he gulped before he continued. “Try as I might, as much as I know how terrible he was, sometimes I still remember those brief moments when I thought he might be good and wish there could have been a different outcome for us all.”

Caro’s own tears wet Braxton’s shirt where his cheek was pressed. “My brother used me as his personal practice dummy, but aside from that, ignored my existence. I feltnothingwhen he died. An almost empty sort of relief filled me, but I was also distracted by my father getting away. Seeing my father die…” he trailed off again. “I guess I did feel some sort of relief. I’ll never have to look over my shoulder again, or spend every moment waiting to be murdered.”

Rationalizing wasn’t helping assuage the twisted sort of sadness mixed with anger roiling inside. Caro shifted, trying to press more of himself into Braxton’s warmth. Braxton tightened his arms obligingly.

“You can miss the concept of someone, the idealization of what they were supposed to be, without missing the person himself,” Braxton said. “If I can miss the doting uncle despite now knowing what was really under that facade, you can miss your father too.”

“He didn’t even try for a facade with me,” Caro got out, his voice thick with tears he was struggling not to shed. “He was my father in blood only. And— And I—”

The dam burst. Caro clung to Braxton as the tears flowed. Braxton clung back, holding him close and rocking gently, andallowing Caro to mourn for what could have been, safe in the arms of what Caro knew his future would hold.

Interlude

AMA WATCHED AUNTMillie walk down the center aisle of the throne room, going between the rows and rows of seated courtiers and other important guests. While Prince Fen had returned home with the majority of the Tovalian soldiers not long after the battle cleanup ended, Prince Braxton was seated in the front row along with the handful of representatives other nearby countries had sent—mostly the ambassadors who had already been in Namin. Of course, Braxton might have remained behind more because of Prince Caro than because he was the emissary from the kingdom of Toval; Ama was fairly certain Captain Grall was going to be left behind as ambassador rather than Toval choosing Braxton. Prince Caro was standing on the dais, to the left of the priest wearing ceremonial coronation robes. Behind him was his half-sister Cybil, who had survived their father’s murderous attentions by running away from home. Aunt Millie had found her working as a servant in the castle, so she hadn’t gone far. To the priest’s right stood Cassie, Aunt Millie’s oldest child. Cassiopeia was Carmillian’s heir, with the brilliant blonde hair and blue eyes of all those who inherited the magical power of the Namin throne. She had arrived without needing an invitation a few days ago along with a number of people from their home village in Toval, which was populatedentirely by the descendants of those who had fled Namin all those years ago. The village wasn’t empty—not everyone had been interested in returning to Namin—but Aunt Millie had plenty of support behind her.

In an unfortunate coincidence, the location of their village in Toval was almost exactly at the end of the new path Namin had been carving through the mountains toward Toval. Prince Fen had promised Aunt Millie to speak with King Aurelius about fortifying the village and turning it into a trading destination ready for the surplus of travelers who would no doubt use the better road through the Spikehorn Mountains rather than the dangerous path farther north.

All that was left was actually crowning Carmillian as queen.

Thankfully, no one had actively protested her taking control. Ama was certain there were rumblings behind the scenes, but the ruler of Namin had to have the royal magic, so the alternate options for those rumblers were limited to the three people with power currently standing on the dais. Cybill didn’t have enough power to rule, Caro wasn’t interested and wouldn’t be given the respect the position demanded, and Cassie was perfectly happy to let her mother live a long and fruitful life before she took the throne. Ama knew there were a scant handful more people with Namin’s royal magic out there, but none with any interest in sitting on a throne, nor did they have any interest in making their existence public, himself included.

“Namin has the unique domain over past, present, and future,” the priest called, his voice ringing through the room. “Claimant to our throne, prove your dominion over the past!”

Aunt Millie paused in the aisle and her eyes suddenly started to glow golden as she called on her magic.

“Namin was once the continent’s largest exporter of wheat and oats, before the false king stole the throne. Our fields were vast and fruitful, using techniques unique to our lands. When I am queen, I will use my dominion over the past to bring those techniques back into use so our fields return to the prosperous state of before!”

The glow faded from her eyes, and she started walking again.

“Claimant to our throne,” the priest called again. “Prove your dominion over the present!”

Aunt Millie paused, now a little past halfway down the aisle, and the glow returned.

“I see starvation and desperation, children crying, and adults grieving. And I see our salvation, mere days away in a caravan sent from our friends in Toval. Grain, tubers, late autumn vegetables. Seeds to store for our spring planting. Enough that, with care, all the people of Namin may survive the coming winter and thrive with the arrival of spring.”

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