Page 35 of Searching for the Prince
“You’re also not my keeper, and you overstepped earlier trying to stop me from going undercover. I don’t need you to fight my battles. Especially when it’s related to the vampire side of things.”
“I don’t want you hurt.”
“I won’t be. But it’s not just that, you’re still hung up over Solivatus, and I appreciate you’re trying not to overreact, and you know he’s my sire, I can’t change it.” He knocked back his blood. “Just like I have to accept you’re going to marry Metra.”
Hyax picked apart a bread roll filled with dried fruits and chewed slowly on small chunks, the silence sitting between them. He didn’t know what to say that would make things better. “I love you. I’m sorry for the Metra shit.”
“I love you, too. We’ll deal with it, but we need to work together. I’m not important to the likes of Robin Flint, but I can be useful and if we can get the support of those sorts of people it’ll help my reputation. Then maybe your mum might stop thinking I’m something she’d want to scrape off her shoe.”
“She isn’t that bad, and if she really wanted rid of you, you’d have disappeared into a fae portal, your vampire friends be damned.” He’d not told Gwil how she’d defended him.
“I don’t think that’s as reassuring as you think it should be.”
Hyax laughed. “Seriously, Gwil. She’s accepted you as the Prince’s Beloved, there’s never been a non-fae with the title before, and she even told Vaness you were here to stay and our involvement was non-negotiable. Now with all the suspicions relating to Elementa, I think we can capitalise on the situation.”
“If I were to be the one to find key evidence, that might help.”
Hyax had been thinking the same thing. “Half the rhetoric around you not being the right person for me is that I could be seen as being disloyal to my people, but helping uncover the ill intent of another tribe, that has to help them see you as a suitable partner.”
“I get your mum would know, but I doubt it’d ever be allowed to be public knowledge.”
“We’ll take what we can get.”
Gwil yawned, his nocturnal algorithm would be kicking in, whereas Hyax’s fae metabolism meant his need to sleep could be curtailed for much longer. “Why don’t you get some sleep? I’ll go and start working on whatever they’re cooking, and I’ll pop home and bring us back some things.”
“All right, there’s not much I can do to help with the hocus pocus unless there’s more of the dark stuff, especially if there’s blowjobs on offer.”
Hyax laughed. “I doubt it, balancing normal fae magic will be a challenge enough, adding in a vampire would release the chaos monkeys.”
“Heaven forbid.” Gwil stretched. Hyax loved the way Gwil’s body moved, but he wasn’t in the position to let his libido take charge. “I’m gonna have a shower and crash, wake me when you get back. I’m sure you’ll have a load of magic-fuelled sexual tension to work out if your reaction to Ashley was anything to go by.”
Hyax choked on the mouthful of ambrosia he chose that moment to drink. “What do you mean by that?”
“I could tell by the way you interacted that you were drawn to him. I don’t mind, I trust you not to act on any nice tingles, and I’m more than happy to pick up the strain.”
“It doesn’t work that way. I appreciate his magical prowess, nothing more.” Gwil was smirking, he didn’t understand. “Imean it. Don’t go confusing mutual respect for me wanting to jump someone’s bones.”
Gwil raised an eyebrow and Hyax got the distinct feeling he’d walked into a trap. “Same for my sire. I get we have a history, but my past is very much my past, and you’re my future.”
After a kiss to remind him he was Gwil’s and no one else’s, Hyax left him to get some rest and made his way downstairs to what he hoped wouldn’t be a day of magical mayhem. Given it would include an elf and a warlock, he could only hope it didn’t devolve into the punchline for a bad joke.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Hyax wrinkled his nose at the odour of the pervading dampness in the cellar. “Why are we down here?”
Ashley was reading from a book that must’ve been as old as the house. “The cellars are specifically warded for a high level of magical activity. There are dampening fields which are some of the strongest in the country, and given what we’re trying to achieve, we don’t want any rogue spells causing issues.”
“We could do this as safely outside, where there wasn’t a house that could fall on our head.”
“From a security stance, it’s far better to keep this inside,” Alex said. “The magic will transmit a unique signature and I don’t want to risk the work we’re doing being detected.”
This was going to be hard enough, but Hyax wasn’t used to being trapped underground without natural light. “While I agree for the initial work, we should move eventually to where the spells will be cast, as the environment can have an impact.”
“That’ll be in the brewing outhouses,” Ashley explained. “Partly because we will need to act quickly once the potion is ready, but also because they are heavily warded as well.”
“They’ll need tuning to Prince Hyax,” Alex said. “And Mr Webb.”
“I should probably explain that Jack is also a warlock, and we’ll need to adapt the spell to take his magic into account.”
