by Dr. D
With everyone putting on their hypocritical smiles, Dezi stood behind the princess, clenching his teeth. He hated how the prince had to keep this collar on his neck, as if his position wasn’t already painfully obvious to everyone. This wasn’t even a leisure trip; it was a military expedition. The participants were all carefully selected through a contest; he was the only outlier. That was why he wasn’t expected to come along in the first place.
He didn’t want to, either. Ushuocia was so far away from the cities that he was familiar with; he would have no idea where to go even if he managed to escape.
He had never loved the capital city, but now the distance and uncertainty were even more unsettling.
As the speech was over, people started to get seated. Dezi was eager to leave this hall. Acheron didn’t let go of his hand, but followed his every step.
“Dezi.” The princess called out to him and pointed at the seat next to her. “Sit.”
“Your ... your highness?” Dezi swore the hall went quiet and he could hear his own quaking voice. This table was for the host, Duke Marcel, and the princess. Even other nobles such as Ronan was sitting further down.
“It is okay. Come sit down with Prince Acheron.” Tatiana smiled at him and turned to apologize to the host. “Please excuse our bad manners. Acheron always spoils his toy like this.”
Blood rushed into Dezi’s face. He bit the inside of his cheeks and took the few hardest steps in his life toward the princess.
Acheron actually tugged on his hand backward slightly. The prince always ate alone in his room in the royal palace, and was never invited to the formal dinners before.
But eventually, Dezi sagged into the chair with Acheron sat down next to him.
Once the conversation between the nobles resumed, Dezi heartbeat calmed down a little bit and he let out a sigh. He kept his eyes on the utensils, and he told himself that the occasional glance he felt on his skin couldn’t kill him.
The plate was pushed closer to him by the prince.
Dezi glanced up and met Acheron’s gaze on him. Acheron’s black hair and perfect features seemed to blend well into the stately decorations, but his dark eyes stared at him the same way he always did when they eat together. All these careful words of speculation around him seemed to mean nothing to him.
Dezi picked up the fork and did his best not to insult the host. But the elaborate dishes tasted like wax on his tongue, and he couldn’t bring himself to eat anything.
“I appreciate your kind words. It is true that Mother’s health hadn’t been well for years, but I am certain that she will recover from her cold soon.” Tatiana was sitting next to Dezi, continuing her conversation with the host.
Acheron glanced between the food and Dezi’s profile, eventually reaching over to touch Dezi.
Dezi slowly turned his head, but couldn’t do anything more to reject a prince in public.
“Yes. With Acheron and me being absent, Andrew is staying in the capital,” Dezi heard the princess say as Acheron’s warm hand brushed across his Adam’s apple and touched his bottom lips.
Dezi felt Acheron leaned in closer and his brows furrowed.
“Acheron indeed has an S rating,” Tatiana said.
Dezi’s fork dropped onto the table at those words, and he gaped at Acheron. Acheron apparently didn’t pay any attention to the conversation; he mistook Dezi’s reaction as permission and tasted his parted lips. Dezi almost jumped up and kicked Acheron between the legs. But he stopped himself quickly enough from causing a scene. He wouldn’t want to get dragged out and executed.
“An S rating hadn’t been witnessed in over a century. We weren't sure before, and Mother insisted on being modest,” the princess continued to explain, but Dezi could feel everyone’s attention was on them.
Unfortunately, all the questions were blocked because the prince was busy.
“Boys.” The princess looked at them and shook her head.
Dezi sneaked his hand in Acheron coat, pinched him hard where people couldn’t see, and finally got him to pull away.
Acheron blinked ignorantly at Dezi’s suppressed rage.
Tatiana had carried the conversation elsewhere. “You are very welcome. It is our duty to do our best to help you, Lord Marcel.”
Dezi clenched his jaws and picked up the fork. He almost wanted to conclude that the princess kept him here just to humiliate him, because she did it so damn well. But he knew that it was never about him. Letting Acheron seem like a spoiled prince was still better than the expressionless idiot that he was.
S rating. The fork in Dezi’s hand paused.
No wonder the princess didn’t mind marrying…
Dezi suddenly looked up and saw Ronan staring back at him from several rows down at another table. Ronan took a glance at the gold collar on his neck, and Dezi felt like a cold snake had just sneaked in his shirt.
Why didn’t he stay with prince Andrew in the palace?
Dezi looked away and let that question go. He no longer cared about the scheme behind the palace. He only wanted to get away from it.
He wanted to run.
All the memories that he worked so hard to bury started to creep out one by one. They clung onto him like spiders and started to burrow under his skin. Dezi has this urge to pluck out all his hair and jump into boiling water just to get rid of the feeling of filth on his body.
Dezi shut his eyes, covered up his emotions, and lowered his gaze back to his plate.
After the dinner was over, a maid led them to the bedroom for the prince and closed the door behind them. Acheron tugged on Dezi’s hand to make him turn around and then took him into his arms.
Dezi’s eyebrows twisted together, but he didn’t shove the prince away. The heaviness in his chest lightened as Acheron ran his hands through his body. The desire for more sneaked under his skin, wiggled through his muscles, and made his bones itch.
“Not now ...” Dezi said breathily, but his knees got weak when Acheron held onto his half-hard member in his pants.
Acheron grabbed the back of his head and sucked on his tongue. Dezi’s mind went blank for a moment, his world spun around, and he found himself falling onto the bed.
But the heat in his body evaporated the next second when he saw there was another person in the room.
It was a very handsome young man with long dark hair and delicate features. His beautiful collar bones were visible from the long loose shirt he was wearing. Dezi couldn’t believe that he didn’t notice him until now.
The young man didn’t appreciate being ignored, either. He hid his discontent, forced out a smile and bowed to Acheron. “Your highness.”
It was rather obvious why he was here.
Dezi’s body became rigid, and he pushed away the prince, who was still on top of him. “I will wait outside …”
The prince looked up, finally saw the young man in the room, and slowly removed his hand from Dezi’s crotch.
The young man seemed pleased when Dezi actively asked to be excused, but Acheron wouldn’t let Dezi go. The young man’s smile faded. As a high-class escort, he mistook Acheron’s intention. “I am happy to serve you in any way you wish, your highness.”
Dezi knew what the escort meant and bit his lips.
Who sent him? Was this the princess’s wish?
Having been through all the obscenity in his childhood, Dezi never doubted that a threesome would happen in this room the next second. But some of Dezi’s most shameful memories came from threesomes. He wasn’t ready to relive them again.
Acheron stared down at Dezi’s troubled expression and ignored the escort entirely.
Without receiving any response, the young man tentatively approached the bed.
Acheron suddenly glared at him and lifted Dezi into his arms.
“My apologies.” The young man quivered and bowed deeply. He didn’t know how he had angered the prince.
Dezi observed Acheron’s tense profile and let out a breath. He didn’t think Acheron
was informed of this, so at least the young man wasn’t sent by the princess.
Dezi stood up, turn to the escort and said, “His highness doesn’t need you here …”
The young man’s beautiful face twitched a bit, but he forced it down at looked at Acheron with hope. “Your highness, I was sent here to please you. I will be punished if I can’t complete the task. Please give me a chance.” The young man stripped his shirt and revealed his naked figure and smooth skin underneath.
Dezi raised his brows slightly in surprise. Before he could think of something else to say, Acheron’s hand grabbed his jaw and pressed his face onto his shoulders, forcing the escort out of his view.
Acheron grabbed the blanket on the top of the bed and threw it at the naked young man.
He was hit in the face and wobbled backward.
Dezi turned his head to see. At the corner of his eyes, Dezi saw the young man blushing red with humiliation and rushing out of the door.
Dezi frowned when Acheron turned his head to look at him again. “You could have kept him.”
Acheron’s brows knitted up slightly as if asking “What for?” He gripped onto Dezi tighter and said, “Dezi said never in front of other people.”
Dezi stared at Acheron for a while until he remembered that he told him that a long time ago, when the prince tried to undo his pants in the garden.
Acheron’s mood improved a bit from Dezi’s attention and he leaned in for another kiss.
As Dezi parted his teeth and let him in. Acheron let out an impatient sigh and stripped Dezi’s pants.
Chapter 35
Dezi held his breath and slowly cracked opened the window. The sound stood out in the quiet night.
Dezi tensed up and glanced at the bed.
The prince didn’t move.
Dezi let out a breath, then propped himself up and crossed his legs through the window.
The cool wind of the night breezed through him, and Dezi quivered a bit. The night obscured the view in front of him, Dezi looked down but saw mostly darkness beneath his hanging feet, like the hanging mouth of a monster called the unknown.
Dezi gripped tight onto the window frame and looked up to the large branchy shadows in front of him. He had noticed that there was a tree right by the window when he walked into the room, and Dezi knew that this might be his best chance to escape.
“I can make it,” Dezi whispered to himself again and again; in his mind, he was convinced that the tree was close enough, but his body still couldn’t make the jump.
Dezi glanced up at the horizon nervously, worried that it was a lot closer to morning that he initially hoped.
He did wake up earlier tonight, but Acheron pulled him closer when he tried to get up. Dezi didn’t dare to move for a long time, afraid the prince would remember to put him back on a chain. But eventually, he fell asleep again in the prince’s arms.
Dezi cursed himself for his mistake and felt his fingertips growing cold by the wind. A strong urge to give up rose from his stomach, pulling his body back into the warm and familiar comfort of the room.
But as soon as Dezi realized his own cowardliness, it stung him so bad that he immediately rose up from the window.
Dezi could hear his heart beating by his ear, but he bit his tongue and jumped toward the closest branch of the tree as if something that he feared a lot more than the darkness of the night was chasing behind him.
Rough tree barks rubbed through Dezi’s palm, and he felt the tree branch wobble as he managed to grab onto the trunk.
Dezi took a deep breath and crouched down to reach for the lower branch of the tree.
“Dezi?”
He heard the prince’s voice coming through the cool breeze and felt the tree shake again. Dezi cursed and hurried his feet down.
“Dezi.” The prince’s voice was right above him in seconds, and Dezi could almost feel him reaching down to touch him.
In a panic, he lost his footing in the dark. The moment Dezi felt himself falling, Acheron gripped onto his arm and pulled him up. Dezi climbed back up onto the stable branch and was pressed into a warm embrace.
Dezi’s heart pounded in his ears as he gasped for air. He opened his eyes and saw the first shaft of sunlight was emerging on the horizon.
He pursed his lips and glanced at the prince’s face but saw no sign of anger. Acheron took his hand and checked where the tree bark had cut his skin, and then just stared at his face like a dog waiting for his command.
Dezi’s fingers clasped onto Acheron shirt and he almost blurted out something before he bit his tongue. He had wanted to ask the prince to run away with him and was shocked at his own ridiculous thought.
Dezi bit his lips and looked up at Acheron. He stared into those deep black eyes and was surprised to find that color of darkness could also be so warm when it was from Acheron’s eyes.
A sudden wave of courage stroked Dezi, and he parted his lips. “Acheron …”
But a familiar voice from above came out first. “Where do you think you are going?”
Dezi flinched and shut his mouth.
He looked up and saw the princess glancing down, expressionless, from the window like a ghost suddenly showed its form.
“Since I plan to announce my engagement in Ushuocia, I reckon that it is better to start the gossip first.” Tatiana flipped the hair on her shoulder and explained why she came over this early in her nightgown.
“You should come up, Dezi.” Tatiana chuckled and said in a casual tone. “There is no point running away when you are such an easy target. If the Royal Knights want to look for a young man wearing a gold collar in the city, how long do you think that will take? And trust me, there is no amount of money that you can pay to get it off without being reported to the palace.”
Dezi’s heart sunk to the bottom of his stomach and he climbed up toward the window. Acheron supported him and stayed right behind him in case he fell down.
Dezi pursed his lips and didn’t dare to look at the princess, praying that she didn’t notice that he even dared to think about bringing the prince with him.
Tatiana extended her arm as Dezi approached the window and helped to pull him back into the room.
“I like you, Dezi. So don’t do anything silly,” Dezi heard the princess whisper by his ear as he stumbled his foot onto the floor. “If you’re being good, I promise that I will let you go unharmed.”
Dezi looked up and saw the princess’s smile.
“When Acheron gets tired of you.”
Chapter 36
“We are almost there,” Tatiana said.
The team of flying bone crafts had been traveling with leisure for a week and finally crossed into Ushuocia.
“Watch out.” Tatiana abruptly lowered the Lavabreaker. “A fire dragon.”
Large bone crafts were easy targets in the sky; Tatiana was not surprised that a dragon would notice them. But she didn’t expect that it would come straight up to them.
Other young nobles clearly took it as an opportunity to get a head start on hunting. Four other bone craft had headed toward the charging fire dragon. Tatiana shoved a water stone into her bone craft weapon, eyed Acheron’s indifferent attitude, and stayed slightly behind.
Dezi eyed the princess and was somewhat comforted by her calmness. He let go a breath and popped his head up to look out the window.
The red dragon’s scales gleamed like fire in the sunlight. It flapped its massive wings of steel and faced the pompous bone crafts head on. Its sharp claws couldn’t really get near any of the bone crafts, but it also managed to veer out of the way of most attacks. Burning hot air steamed around the dragon, and any bone crafts that got too close risked catching on fire.
“Acheron!” Tatiana yelled as the Lavabreaker violently twisted around.
Dezi saw white steam burst in his vision as a sudden heat scorched his skin.
A dragon’s head poked through the white steam like a bloody skull. The sharp fangs opened straight toward him. The hot a
ir breathed out from the massive jaw hit his face and stung his eyes.
“There is another dragon.” Tatiana gazed the dragon that sneaked up from behind and shielded the Lavabreaker with more water. But the fire dragon’s heat turned it quickly into steam.
Dezi was pulled back from the window, fell down on the floor, and g8asped for air while his eyes burned. Acheron crouched over him and grabbed his face to examine it.
“Acheron!” The princess raised her voice. “Do something!”
Dezi grimaced at the heat surrounded him, opened his sore eyes, and flinched at the glimpse of the red dragon from the window. He saw Acheron get up, put one hand on the window frame, and reach half of his body out of the bone craft.
Dezi sat up and reflectively clasped the prince’s coat until lighting cracked open the air. The formidable dragon fluttered and yelped like it had been whipped in the eyes as it struggled to back away to a safe distance.
Dezi snatched his hands back and fell back down to the floor with a pallid face.
He could hear the dragon screeched again in agony. The second strike must have still ruptured through the air and tore through its solid flesh.
The wind brought up Acheron’s hair and tugged on his clothing, but his profile remained expressionless as he stared down at his opponent. The window framed his lean figure and perfect features like an oil painting of a king.
S rating. The weight of those words finally sunk in Dezi’s mind, and coldness ran down his spine amidst the hot air around him. The discrepancy between him and the prince had never been presented so vividly in front of him.
“Incredible!” Tatiana exclaimed. She stood up to look and swiftly rotated the Lavabreaker around. The bone craft tilted under Tatiana’s command. Dezi dropped his gaze and gripped onto the seats to secure himself in the spot. Being on the floor felt strangely right; he didn’t even bother to sit back into the seats.
The angry cry of the dragon soon ceased. Acheron went back to him promptly and dug his face out of his crossed arms. The prince’s fingers caressed his face, and then Dezi was brought back into the familiar embrace.
Dezi obeyed in silence, but the tension in his muscles never went away.