Page 52 of Pining for the Prince
“Don’t be so melodramatic. You have duties to perform, and as much as you like your fanged future consort, you like all the benefits having a royal title gives you.”
Gwil squeezed Hyax’s hand and Hyax appreciated his silent support.
“Maybe it would be better if I left,” Gwil suggested. “I can follow up a number of avenues back home with my sister and a few other contacts, and you can spend some time with your family.”
“Excellent idea.” Talia turned to Hyax. “Come with me, we need to discuss an important matter in private while Gwil packs.”
He didn’t like that Gwil was being sent away, but there wasn’t much he could do about it for now. Without allowing himself to overthink, he pressed his lips to Gwil’s in a whisper of a kiss, then smiled. “I will be home as soon as I can.”
Gwil licked his bottom lip and Hyax had a spike of hope that the kiss might not have been unwelcome. “Hurry back. I’ll miss you.”
Hyax followed Talia, glancing back at Gwil as he did. His smile was genuine and, not for the first time over the last few days, did he wish this wasn’t play-acting.
His brothers, Pawl and Wavel, were waiting for them in a small reception room. “Your sisters are travelling but I’ll inform them of this when they return,” Talia said, taking a seat.
“Mother, sending Gwil away will not help. Your actions could be seen as a slight to his family. His sister is married to a member of the Vampire Council.”
Talia huffed. “Your actions in taking a vampire as a future consort are a slight towards your own family.”
“Then you should punish me not him. I can’t help who I love—you taught me to be open and inclusive, I did not expect such treatment.” His mother’s actions had hurt, he’d not witnessed this side of her, and he wished he never had.
“I need to protect our people, Hyax. You must understand that.”
“Gwil has done nothing but try to help. We are not at danger from the vampires, it is the elves that we should be focusing on.”
“Then let us do so.”
Hyax had never seen her this rattled. Gwil was an easy target, something she could control and influence. Unknown elves were a different matter.
“While you were meeting with Gwil, Wavel and I spent some time trawling through the databases for recent elvish activity,” said Pawl. “It’ll take some time to cross-reference and narrow down potential suspects. We should probably consider asking Goya.”
“Since the Met are already involved it wouldn’t hurt to ask,” agreed Hyax. “The elves aren’t exactly popular, Gwil wasn’t wrong when he said there are several groups involved in various underground activities, so the Met will already have significant intelligence—which they might be willing to share.”
Talia sighed but stood. “I’ll contact him immediately. Hyax, I would appreciate it if you could assist your brother with the analysis before you return to the human realm.”
“Of course, Mother.”
She left and Hyax turned to his brother. “Is there really so much elvish activity?”
“There’s some direct hits, but there’s a lot of noise over whether they might be hiding their involvement more carefully,” Wavel said.
Hyax’s experience with elves had been limited—a few cases where an insidious bastard had double-crossed a client or turned nasty—but he was sure they were capable of things he’d not witnessed, for the right price. “Do you think they are working with someone else?”
“Mother already said it could be the vampires,” Pawl said.
“Her bias is showing. In all my years, I’ve never heard of an elf-vampire alliance.”
“Are you serious about attaching yourself to a vampire?” Pawl asked.
He’d been waiting for this line of questioning, and no doubt their mother had put Pawl up to it. “His name is Gwil, and yes. Do you think I would have brought all this condescension upon myself if I wasn’t serious?”
“I think there are worse things you could have done,” Wavel said, he’d always been Hyax’s favourite. “It’s not as if you didn’t know each other before.”
“I can’t believe you are in support of this. Hyax is a prince of the realm, he needs to marry for the benefit of his people not for his own selfish reasons.”
He didn’t need another lecture. “If I were next in line, or even in the top ten, I might agree with you. But I’m not. Besides, an alliance outside of the fae world is not necessarily a bad thing—and I wouldn’t be the first. It could help us open a door to engaging the Calanti.”
“We are not discussing that now,” snapped Pawl.
