Page 16 of Mage of the Dragon Prince
When Auslin traveled for months, he still regularly sent Sephen letters updating him on everything. The thought of his younger brother waiting almost a year for a letter that would never come was devastating. He hated that there wasn’t a way for him to reach out to his brother to let him know he was okay.
Kio seeking Sephen out to find out where Auslin went was equally upsetting. Sephen was uncomfortable around Kio on a good day. It would be even worse if he had to face the half-shifter’s fiery temper over Auslin’s disappearance.
Auslin hoped Kio would keep his distance because he was uncomfortable on the temple’s sacred grounds, but he knew all too well what was likely to happen. Kio would try to seek him out there, ready to accuse Auslin of hiding, but now it would fall to Sephen tostand up to that anger. It made Auslin feel horribly guilty that he had put his younger brother in such an awful position. If only he had broken up with Kio sooner, his brother could have been spared.
It made Auslin realize he hoped Kio would go away quietly and not come back, whereas he should have been wanting the half-shifter to never give up hope he would return. But Auslin had to be honest with himself. Kio would most likely stay with Maseo for good. He couldn’t imagine a world where the impatient and mercurial Kio would wait around for almost a year for Auslin to return to his side.
At best, he’d stick around long enough to yell at Auslin for disappearing before he would return the favor and leave the mage’s life forever. On the one hand, that thought was painful. On the other, it didn’t seem as devastating as it once would have been.
Auslin knew his feelings had long been out of balance with Kio’s, but lately, it seemed like there was no love lost between them. Sure, Auslin felt hollow when Kio strayed to Maseo’s side, but he had stopped getting upset about it because it changed nothing. Kio always left, and Auslin took him back like a fool every time it happened. Whether it was out of stupidity or a misguided sense of loyalty, Auslin wondered how much longer they would have been able to keep up the same pattern.
All Auslin had ever wanted was to be loved by Kio the way he loved the half-shifter. However, if Auslinwas being truly honest with himself, he hadn’t felt that love for Kio in a long time. It made him feel guilty for accepting Tatsuki’s offer of support on the grounds of Auslin’s relationship with Kio, which had only grown increasingly strained.
Auslin idly wondered just how much longer he could have kept up the pretense of his relationship with Kio before it finally fell apart completely. Since staying was easier than leaving, Auslin suspected he would have stayed far longer than he should have. Then again, the fact that he only cared about Kio confronting Sephen and not about Kio missing him was proof enough that things had significantly deteriorated between them. Auslin was almost past the point of caring anymore, but it still stung.
Pushing Kio out of his mind, Auslin had a stray thought, wondering if Kitsuki would notice he was missing. Despite Kitsuki’s profuse hatred for his younger half brother, Auslin always seemed to run into the somber shifter monarch on his travels in Valzerna. Surely, he would realize Auslin was gone and ask, even if it was in a disparaging way about Kio driving away the only good thing that had ever happened to him.
Auslin didn’t know why, but some tiny part of him wanted to think Kitsuki would be concerned about his disappearance. Then he realized it would be one more sadness heaped upon several lifetimes’ worth of misery. He felt awful for thinking such a thing.
No, Auslin needed to be realistic. He was an insignificant enough presence that Kitsuki probably wouldn’t even think twice about the mage’s absence. For some unknown reason, that thought made Auslin’s heart hurt more than thinking about Kio abandoning him for Maseo. Why?
The more time Auslin spent around Kitaro, the less convinced he was that it was Kitsuki. Their talks earlier that afternoon had been friendly and good-natured, which was something Auslin didn’t honestly think Kitsuki could do. Kitaro was so much warmer than Kitsuki had ever been.
Auslin’s thoughts continued to drift. Because of Kio, Auslin had always assumed Tatsuki had a fondness for humans since he was obviously willing to have a child with one. Tatsuki’s vitriolic hatred of humans and mages had come as a total surprise to Auslin. It made him realize just how lucky he was that the ruler allowed him to stay. Truthfully, Tatsuki had terrified Auslin. He could only hope that the demands on the king’s time would keep him occupied enough to have very little to do with the human mage.
The heat started to get to Auslin. However, he was loath to give up the comfort and privacy, so he lingered a little longer while washing his hair. After dunking under several times to rinse all the suds out, Auslin grew light-headed. He forced himself to get out of the bath.
Drying himself off with the plush towel, Auslin thenwrapped it around his waist. Since he didn’t have clean clothes to change into, it left him with what he had worn earlier. The thought of putting on something so dirty from traveling was unappealing when he was finally clean.
That left Auslin with the option of going out in a towel, which was nerve-racking to do in front of a shifter. Kitaro was easily over seven feet tall, with a body that looked like it had been carved out of the finest marble into a statue of a deity. But Auslin’s need for clean clothes won over his embarrassment. After all, Kitaro had already seen him naked in the cave, right? How much worse could it be with a towel on?
He squared his shoulders and left the bathroom with more confidence than he felt, carrying his dirty clothes in a neatly folded pile.
Auslin had expected to return to the bedroom with only Kitaro for an audience, but there was an ancient shifter with salt-and-pepper gray hair pulled into a ponytail. He was impeccably dressed in a well-cut suit.
“Here he is,” Kitaro said, gesturing at Auslin. The human instinctively shrunk back a step out of nervousness. “Vanra, this is our tailor, Lito, who is here to ensure they make properly fitting clothing for you. Please come here so that he may measure you.”
“I’ll go put my clothes back on,” Auslin replied as he took a step back toward the bathroom, although he hated the thought of having to do so.
“There is no need, Lord Vanra,” Litosaid with a respectful bow. “I can get better measurements with you as you are.”
It threw Auslin for a loop that the tailor had referred to him as “Lord.” It was so strange that Auslin couldn’t say anything.
When he was close enough, Lito instructed Auslin to store his clothes in the first black lacquer armoire cabinet decorated with images of dragon spirits playing in the spring. “Please put your towel in there as well.”
Auslin blushed an even deeper scarlet. “I’d rather not, if that’s okay.”
Lito arched a judgmental eyebrow. “How else do you expect me to get accurate measurements?”
“When I’m actually wearing clothes?” Auslin glanced at Kitaro for support.
Rather than backing Auslin up as he had hoped, Kitaro radiated amusement at his predicament. “There is no need for such embarrassment, Vanra. Lito has lived many long years in the Living Realm. You are nothing he has not seen before.”
When Auslin still didn’t move, Kitaro took off his shirt.
“What are you doing?” Auslin asked in a scandalized voice.
“Clearly, you are feeling self-conscious about having to be the only one in the nude.” Kitaro slid his pants over his hips and kicked them aside when theyhit the floor. “I have decided to remedy that to move things along.”
