by H J Welch
And honestly, that was absolutely fine by Cas. Just because he was sure he’d do a decent job didn’t mean he wanted the crown in the slightest. In fact, what he was craving now was completely the opposite.
“I know,” said Valentina smugly. He really shouldn’t be surprised by her after all this time, but still, he raised his eyebrows ever so slightly.
“You do?”
She nodded. “I had your apartment cleaned this morning and a fresh delivery of groceries should be waiting for you when you get there.” She scanned the several sheets of paper inside the portfolio before sliding one out that Cas hadn’t signed yet, presenting it to him on the leather with the pen once more poised for his signature. “Your parents were delighted to hear you’re now a supporter of the Junior Archery Association. They completely understand that you’ll be very busy over the next couple of weeks.”
“I will?” Cas asked dubiously. Then he realized what she meant. “Of course. The anniversary ball.” There was no escaping the country’s celebrations for their five-hundredth anniversary in two weeks’ time. But Cas had honestly been hoping for a little break.
However, Valentina winked. “Oh, no, Your Highness. You’ve put in the lion’s share of work for the ball up until now. It’s time for other people to step up. Your parents have approved you taking some time to support this sporting organization and…” She took the signed slip of paper back with a sly smile. “…the Junior Archery Association is thrilled that you’ll be there to judge their graduation tournament in two weeks’ time, and have no need to see you until then.”
Cas exhaled, understanding, and flooded with gratitude. She was unofficially giving him a two-week vacation. He’d kiss her if a) she was his type and b) he wasn’t so scared of the pint-sized valet. God bless her.
“I’m always happy to be of service,” he said as she filed away the document.
Valentina snapped the portfolio closed and took back her pen, replacing the cap with a loud click. “That, Your Highness, is the whole problem.”
He watched with a faint smile as she clip-clopped away.
She was right. It was the whole problem. Cas liked being needed. He was good at being needed. There was a certain calmness like no other that came from knowing he’d solved a problem and eased another person’s burden. But a line had to be drawn.
His brothers – in fact, this whole household – was using him as a crutch. It wasn’t that Cas didn’t get satisfaction from problem-solving. But it wasn’t enough. He couldn’t explain exactly how, but it had become hollow in recent years.
Him jumping in and fixing every little hiccup wasn’t doing his brothers any favors. Especially Leo, who needed to stop playing up to this rebellious bad boy image he’d fashioned for himself and start acting like the heir of Rosavia. The only way Cas saw to make a clean break from this pattern of behavior was to remove himself from the vicinity for a little while.
He could have visited the Zasfer castle where the family vineyard had stood for centuries. It was peaceful there and only ran on a skeleton staff, but Cas needed more of a break than that.
He needed to be someone else, if only for a short time. Even though he really shouldn’t be indulging in this dangerous habit any more than he had been. The eyes of the country were on the palace in the runup to the ball, especially from the press and the likes of that vile reporter Ida von Tarr. She was always looking for any excuse to tear the royal family down, and Cas was being irresponsible by running off and playing commoner. He should be scaling back his secret trips into the city, not planning on a solid two weeks immersed in civilian life. But it was like a drug.
Here, he was Sander, the brother who had all the answers. To the people of Rosavia, he was Prince Cassander, currently second in line to the throne (until Leo started producing heirs, in any case). And to the world…he wasn’t really anyone. Their neighbors, like Grechzen and Thedes, knew who they were, but most other countries had barely heard of their small European state. They certainly wouldn’t recognize anyone from the royal family apart from King Alphonse, and even that would be a long shot.
It had been that realization that had first given Cas the confidence to go out into the city and see if he could get away with being just that – simply ‘Cas.’ Sure enough, he hardly ever got recognized in a hoodie and sneakers.
It was bliss.
But he kind of thought he’d been getting away with it. He suspected Valentina might have known, but they’d never actually discussed it until just now. Of course she knew about his secret apartment. He’d been foolish to think otherwise. Was it really sensible for him to go out like this?
Cas chewed his lip, but decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth. He’d been banking on having clothes at the apartment he rented in the city, but of course Valentina had suspected his plan, and now it was fully cleaned and stocked as well.
He was good to go on vacation.
Well, not really. He’d come back the second he was needed for anything, and with the country’s five-hundredth anniversary ball looming, he had no doubt he’d be pinging back and forth like a yo-yo. But for now, he was just like any other ordinary guy.
And he was going to make the most of it.
He had a little routine now. A secret series of rituals that helped him morph from Prince Cassander into plain old Cas. By the time he’d let himself into his moderately-sized but still very nice apartment, dropped off his bag, checked the place over, then taken a stroll around the block, he was starting to feel like a totally normal guy. He ordered his usual cappuccino with a blueberry muffin from his favorite café, thrilled when the server recognized him and called him Cas. He resisted the urge to say ‘That’s me!’ in response. Instead, he snuck a ten-Euro tip into the jar, then slipped outside to enjoy the sunshine.
He should have known better.
When scanning the small seating area outside the café, he did a double take at a guy sitting opposite a free chair at a two-person table. “Typical,” Cas muttered with a smile.
His younger brother, Benedict, waggled his eyebrows as Cas took the seat opposite him. “Why hello, Cas,” he said, his voice amused. “Fancy seeing you here.”
Cas sighed, accepting his fate. Ben was the only one in his family as observant as he was, by a long shot. They were similar in a lot of ways, with their generally calm demeanor and fast-thinking problem solving. But where Cas had technically qualified as a child for the country’s spy agency, run by their aunt Geraldine, he’d been too valuable as the spare to the throne. Ben, on the other hand, had outdone Cas’s scores, and he’d been set early on for a thrilling life of espionage.
As much as Cas worried for him, he also knew Ben loved his work. At least, he usually did. There had been a sadness in his eyes these past few months that Cas couldn’t quite figure out.
He shook himself mentally and smiled at Ben. The fact that his brother had called him Cas and not Sander meant he knew exactly what Cas was doing; hiding out in the real world for a short spell.
It also meant he supported it.
Cas smiled fondly at Ben. Not quite the baby of the family, but Ben being seven years younger than him meant that Cas still felt a protective urge stir through him, despite the fact his little brother dodged bullets for a living.
Not that anyone else in the family knew that, of course. Aside from Aunt Geraldine, who ran the damn agency. God, this family had so many secrets. Cas wished he didn’t know quite so many of them.
At least it meant he and Ben were close. It stopped Cas from going out of his mind some days, worrying about all and sunder.
“How long are you on leave this time?” he asked, taking a sip from his coffee. He watched his brother take a toothpick from a rose-shaped pot on the wrought iron table, slipping it between his lips to delicately chew on.
“You know how it goes,” Ben replied. “They say two weeks, then call me back up without a moment’s notice like there’s some kind of emergency.”
“Almost like you�
��re in the Army,” Cas said dryly.
The rest of their brothers genuinely thought Ben was in the armed forces. Cas didn’t know much more than that he wasn’t, but he liked to give Ben the chance to talk as much as he was able to when he was on leave. If he was honest, he kind of loved that the two of them had this exciting little secret about his double life. Cas spent so much time fussing over Leo, Jules, and Wren, he didn’t always feel so close with them. With Ben, even though his life was shrouded in mystery, Cas actually felt their relationship was closer and more authentic than he had with almost anyone else at the palace.
“How about you?” Benedict deflected, discarding the toothpick on an empty plate. “It’s not like we’re having lunch in the palace. Why are we out here doing this?”
Cas narrowed his eyes. So, Ben knew that Cas liked to slip out and play commoner, but did he really not know why? Or did he have an inkling and was fishing for more?
“It’s important to understand what life is like for the people of our country,” Cas said, repeating the stock answer he’d composed long ago in case anyone ever caught on to what he was doing. “How can we do that from inside the palace?”
However, like Valentina, Cas was pretty sure Ben was not only aware of what he’d been up to, but supportive of it. It was funny they should both approach him on the same day about it.
Perhaps his brothers were finally starting to listen to him and his vow not to save their asses all the damn time.
“I’m never going to be Head Kitty,” Cas said, using the ridiculous codename they’d come up with a while back for their father, the current reigning king of Rosavia. Their baby brother, Wren, had a thing about cats, and one day it had just stuck. “I don’t want to be Head Kitty. It’s kinder to let Leo flounder on his own now and work things out.” He bit his lip and absently pushed some sugar packets around. “I should have done it years ago.”
He looked up to see Ben staring into the middle distance.
Cas arched an eyebrow, mostly in amusement, but also in slight annoyance. This was kind of a big deal for him, forcing himself to stop enabling his other brothers’ behavior.
“Are you even listening?” he asked with a sigh.
“I’m always listening,” Ben said wryly, just as his phone buzzed from his pants pocket. “Hold on.”
Cas took a sip of coffee, then tried to quash the sliver of dread that snaked through his guts. Benedict was a grown man and fully trained spy. Cas had to let him do his job and trust him not to get in serious trouble.
Much like Cas was asking Ben to do for him, in a different way.
Still, he was allowed to worry, just a little.
“Let me guess,” said Cas. “They want to cancel your leave? What even do you do in the Army that’s so important?” They both knew when he said ‘the Army,’ he meant the intelligence agency. But Cas genuinely was curious as to what Ben was doing already. He was only twenty-two, after all.
Ben’s expression was pure devilment. “Oh, you know. Suck the brass. Their egos are very fragile. They need a lot of sucking.”
“Up,” Cas corrected, despite knowing his brother wouldn’t listen.
Sure enough, Ben just smirked as he read the message and typed out a quick response. Then he made a spectacle of rolling his eyes and letting out a big sigh. “Sorry,” he said, not sounding the least bit sorry as he pushed his chair back and stood up. “It looks like you’re right about my leave being cancelled. Apparently I have more sucking to do.”
“Up,” Cas insisted, feeling his mouth twitch in amusement. Ben knew teasing him would make Cas worry a little less as to why Ben was suddenly being recalled. “Sucking up.”
“Sure. If you insist.” Ben blew a kiss, but his flippant attitude hadn’t squashed Cas’s fears entirely. He couldn’t help but stand up to embrace his little brother tightly, silently urging him to keep safe.
So Ben’s words to him were slightly unexpected as he actually returned Cas’s hug for once. “Be careful, okay?”
Cas leaned back and frowned. “About what?”
“Everything.” Ben winked at him as he stepped away, infuriatingly vague as usual, then vanished into the crowd of people wandering down the street, enjoying Rosavia’s summer sunshine.
Cas sighed and sat himself back down. By the time he’d finished his coffee, he was less rattled. The whole point of this little ‘real-world’ sabbatical was to stop fretting over his brothers. So, what would he have done if he hadn’t run into Ben?
He tapped his fingernail on the side of his empty cup, a smile creeping onto his face.
Typical Valentina.
Cas had not once expressed an interest in archery, let alone a children’s program. But now he was enthralled by the idea. Rosavia was so goddamned obsessed with lacrosse, Cas had long grown weary of it. He’d been forced to play at school, and everything else seemed to stop for lacrosse season over the summer. The streets would be packed with celebrations for the Grand Championships come October, but Cas could never seem to muster the enthusiasm he had as a child.
But archery? That was romantic, noble. He’d had no idea that Rosavia was hosting this elite training program.
He found himself wanting to know more.
Dutifully, he picked up the empty crockery and took it back inside. The server smiled fondly when she caught him doing it. “I told you, you don’t have to do that, Cas,” she said with only a slight sigh.
Cas saluted her as he left. “I can’t help it, Elina. Have a nice day!”
With his sunglasses on he felt like he was on another planet as he strolled down Alpina’s bustling streets. He was invisible, and it was glorious.
It wasn’t until he’d gotten older and learned to become a different version of himself that he’d been able to appreciate the beauty of his country and home city. Official duties had brought him to many nations over the years, but there was definitely something that made Alpina Alpina. As Rosavia was so small, and this was its biggest city, for Cas it showed off the best of his homeland.
Since becoming Cas, rather than Sander, he’d been able to appreciate all the beauty around him through fresh eyes. The mountains rising inland to the north, the gorgeous alpine lake to the south, and wild roses in the rugged, green heathland in between. Cas breathed deep and smiled to himself, pretending he was a tourist, out for his first exploration of a brand-new city.
After wandering for a while (and getting an ice cream to follow up his muffin lunch, because he was an adult), he found himself on Coniston Street, Alpina’s premier shopping district. Ordinarily, Cas would think of this place as hell on earth during a hot summer’s day. But he was free, master of his own time, with nowhere to be and no one to please. So he strolled along, rolling up the sleeves of his hoodie, but keeping it on just for that added layer of anonymity. He nimbly sidestepped families of tourists, friends with dozens of box-shaped bags walking arm-in-arm, and harassed-looking suited people, no doubt office workers, most of them frantically talking or texting on their phones.
This was living. Not being pampered in a palace. Cas felt giddy, talking in all the sights like a kid in a candy store.
Then he spotted it. A sporting goods store on the corner of Coniston and Lowther.
And they had an archery sale on.
Not questioning it and following his feet, Cas sauntered into one of the only stores he’d purposely avoided since beginning his secret jaunts into the city. He touched his nose in phantom pain just looking at the lacrosse supplies. But almost immediately, he was drawn to an archery section that looked suspiciously new and shiny. There were posters for the graduation tournament that he was going to be attending, and advice pamphlets on beginner’s technique and local classes.
But Cas only took those details in superficially. Because he wasn’t the only one currently examining the mechanical-looking bows hanging from the wall.
“Can you see anything that looks any good, honey?” a man around Cas’s age asked a small girl by his side. The guy
might have been a few years younger than Cas, actually, and Cas used his extensive knowledge of children to put the kid somewhere between five and fifteen years old. They both had jet-black hair, pale skin, and the man had spoken English with an American accent.
Something immediately drew Cas closer, but not so close he was intruding. At least he hoped not. Really, he should keep walking, as these two were clearly having a slightly stressful moment, judging by their tense body language and the way the guy’s eyes kept darting over the price tags of the half-sized bows. But Cas’s heart sped up, and he pretended to inspect a set of arrows.
The little girl gave a shaky sigh. “Uncle Matty,” she said, sounding very close to tears. “I think…I’ve been thinking we should just go home. I need my bow. I can’t…”
A lump rose in Cas’s throat as this girl almost started sobbing right there and then. Cas glanced over and saw the guy – had she said ‘Matty’? – look down at the girl as if he was going to bawl too. Then he plastered a big smile on his face, blinked a couple of times, and scooped the kid up in his arms even though she was almost half his size.
“Hey, kiddo. No way, all right?” Cas was trying not to obviously stare, but he tried to keep watching them out of the corner of his eye. He could sense people’s upset a mile off, and these two were radiating it. “You earned your place at that fancy-schmancy academy. The airline spoke to Heathrow Airport – you remember, where we changed planes in London? They definitely have our stuff. It’s just gonna take a little while to get it back to us, as they have a lot of other people’s stuff, too, and we all flew off to different countries. We just need something to get you through tomorrow, and um…”
His gaze lingered on what Cas had already surmised was the cheapest bow available…and his whole body visibly trembled.