Page 114 of The Wild Prince's Favorite
“This one is mine. Kassein’s.”
Alezya frowned and turned to the small bed.
“Kassein?”
“Yes. My bed. Baby Kassein’s bed.”
To his surprise, she smiled softly and walked to the bed, sitting on it. Alezya wasn’t a particularly small woman, but the fact that she spread her arms to check that she could touch each end of the bed with her fingertips made it look charmingly smaller.
She glanced back at him, clearly amused that he had once been small enough to fit in this bed. He walked over and sat next to her, and with the two of them sitting side by side, they covered most of the bed.
He pointed at two large baskets in the opposite corners of the room, on either side of the door.
“This was Kein’s bed.”
“Kein’s bed?” Alezya repeated, surprised once again by the size of it. ”Dragon Kein bed?”
“Baby dragon Kein’s bed.”
Alezya looked absolutely shocked. Kein was now gigantic, but back when Kassein slept in that bedroom, his dragon hadn’t been bigger than a large dog. She pointed at the other basket.
“Sepheus dragon. Seus bed.”
“Sepheus?” she repeated.
He pointed at the crib again.
“Baby Sepheus bed. Like Kiera is my sister, Sepheus is my brother.”
“...Three children?” Alezya frowned, using the few words she knew.
Kassein snorted, his first hint at a smile since he’d entered this place.
“Eight children.”
Alezya gave him a suspicious glance, so he held his fingers for her to confirm. Her jaw dropped, and he chuckled, amused.
“Come.”
It felt much easier to show Alezya around than if he had been alone. With him holding her hand more than she held his, he took her to each bedroom, teaching her the names of his siblings and their dragons. Their bedrooms still retained some of the personality of their last occupants; Darsan’s bedroom was a chaotic mess, with a ripped rug, the remains of furniture he had accidentally broken and fixed multiple times over, and his dragon’s very chewed-on basket. He had been the only one allowed his own room because no one could endure his snores or the constant chaos that surrounded him and Dran’s antics.
Kassian had shared his room with his nine-years-younger brother Shenan for a while, and it was the tidiest of all, with books perfectly lined up, many quills on the desk, and stacks of paper. Even their beds were made as if they would return the next day.
Next was the girls’ room. Cessilia, Sadara, and Kiera had shared the biggest room of the Onyx Castle, with their beds spread unevenly but in a gentle harmony. Cessilia had the bed by the window with a desk next to it, Sadara’s was in the middle of a wall with a trunk full of fabrics at its foot and some embroidery work lying on her bedside table, while Kiera’s was in a corner, an unapologetic mess with a half-charted map of the continent lying above it. Their room was also full of plants the sisters hadcared for in turns over the years, and surprisingly, some of them were still growing along the walls or in their hanging pots.
Alezya seemed to like this room the most, for she toured it curiously, inspecting the plants, Sadara’s piles of fabrics, and Cessilia’s desk until she stopped in front of the map above Kiera’s bed.
Kassein’s eyes had stopped on his oldest sister’s bed. Cessilia’s. The vines that surrounded the window were the same vines that led back down to the garden on the other side.
“...Kassein?”
Alezya seemed worried about his suddenly dark expression. She glanced at the window, and walked up to him, gently grabbing his clenched fists in her hands.
“My older sister, Cessilia,” he muttered after a while.
Alezya turned her eyes to Cessilia’s bed, having been introduced to the name seconds ago. Kassein swallowed the knot in his throat and kept talking.
“One night... she left her room to find her lover.”
