by Toby Aden
When could this have happened? How could the man have been ill and it had not shown? Impossible. There had to be something more. Something else. It just did not make an iota of sense. How could a man who appeared very healthy suddenly become dead?
“Aaeren?”
“He’s dead.” Aaeren’s listless voice floated up to Radisq.
It was like his mate was in shock. Well, if something like this had happened to him, there was no doubt that he’d be in shock himself. But dead? Glancing down at his mate’s frail profile, Radisq was at a loss as to what to say. Already, he knew that Aaeren was not thinking rationally or he’d draw the same conclusion as he was beginning to suspect, but then he could not bring this to his mate’s attention.
He needed to show his support, and that was exactly what he did. Leaning forward, Radisq rested his cheek against Aaeren’s, offering all that he was for Aaeren’s comfort.
“I am so sorry, baby.” Radisq rocked Aaeren back and forth, trying to ease some of the man’s anguish.
“He’s dead,” Aaeren repeated, lost in his own mind.
Radisq began to vigorously rub warmth into his mate. It pained him to see Aaeren this way, knowing he was powerless to do anything except to let his mate be aware that he was there for him.
“Did you know what happened?”
“N-no. H-he’s just d-dead.”
There was no life in Aaeren’s voice or his expression. It was as though the man was frozen on only that word, and Radisq could understand the pain raking through Aaeren’s body, as he could feel it deep in his own bones.
“It’s okay, love. I’m here. Whatever you need, whatever you want, I’m here for you. Just let it out. Let it all out, love.”
Aaeren shuddered in his arms, shaking terribly as waves and waves of pain came pouring out of his body. Tears lingered in Radisq’s eyes, but for Aaeren’s sake, he could not let them fall. He tightened his arms around the other man’s shaking body, holding him securely in his embrace. He had to be strong for Aaeren, and because of that, he could not allow his own emotions out.
He wanted to scream at the world for causing Aaeren such pain, to lash out for his mate’s suffering, but he could do neither of those things. Slowly, he rocked Aaeren to sleep, hoping his mate found a small measure of peace in his dreams.
They lay together there for a while with Radisq never letting go and Aaeren soon fast asleep, his face smoothening out of his miseries. For hours, the only thing Radisq concentrated on was Aaeren, soothing his mate’s restless sleep with his touch and reassuring him even in sleep that he was still there.
His thoughts in turmoil, Radisq was still unsure as to exactly what message Aaeren had received, and he needed to know the full details if he was to be able to give his mate the full support he needed.
Radisq mulled over the information Aaeren had shared with him, but something prickled at the back of his mind that he could not let go of until his curiosity was satisfied. And on that note, he slid away from under Aaeren’s weight, making sure he was careful so as not to disturb the other man, who had finally settled enough to really rest.
Marching out of the house, Radisq went in search for answers. Strolling to the place he knew the guards and maids alike liked to relax, he moved, determined to find whoever it was who would give him the information he needed.
Spotting Dessan, one of the guards he had come to know over the past months, Radisq signaled for the man to meet him. Radisq kept a good distance between himself and the others, waiting for the guard’s approach.
“My prince,” Dessan said with a small bow.
“I take it you already know.” Radisq stated without preamble.
Dessan nodded. “I am sorry for Prince Aaeren’s loss.”
“Can you tell me what happened? What the news was?”
Dessan frowned. “The message was that the king had fallen ill and then suddenly died.”
Radisq frowned in confusion. “That makes no sense. When I met him at our mating ceremony, he looked and felt more than healthy to me. There was no indication of even the slightest of illnesses. How did a healthy man suddenly become ill and then die?”
“You suspect…” Dessan trailed off, not giving voice to the sudden suspicion he was harboring.
“Yes. It would have been a different case if the illness had long since been over him. But this is the case that there was no such thing. In fact, he was as healthy as a newborn babe. To suddenly die like that, there must have been a catalyst.”
Dessan frowned, nodding his head in agreement. “Of course, you are right, my prince. I will look into it directly.”
“Discreetly, Dessan. We don’t know who the culprit is and to avoid panic and the culprit escaping, proceed discreetly. Let no one but a trusted few handle the matter delicately and then report back to me.”
Dessan bowed. “As you wish, my prince.”
“Good. And gather everyone. We leave at first light.”
Dessan bowed slightly and moved quickly to carry out Radisq’s wishes.
Radisq ran into Llyano on his way back into the house. He had been walking in a daze and hadn’t really noticed anything around him.
“What…”
Llyano steadied Radisq on his feet before stepping back slightly. “What happened?”
“We need to cut this tour short. We will be leaving much sooner than planned,” Radisq rasped, throwing out the words as the plan formulated in his head.
“Take a deep breath, Radisq, and explain to me what happened,” Llyano said, noticing the pale look on Radisq’s face.
“There’s been a death in the family. We will be leaving on the morrow,” Radisq said, nodding his head as he shook Llyano’s hand. “Thank you so much for your hospitality. Please say our good-byes to everyone. I cannot say more for now.”
Llyano squeezed Radisq’s arm in sympathy. “I understand. I will send some of my men to see you off at least to the border. My sincerest apology.”
Radisq tried and failed to forced a smile on his face—no doubt it came off as a grimace—and then he continued back to the house to begin packing.
Radisq closed the door behind him and settled on the floor next to Aaeren, still asleep on the lounge. He could feel his heart hurt for what his mate must endure in the days to come, but as surely as he knew the man, he knew Aaeren would show his strength to the world and keep his hurt behind a masked façade.
In those times where his mate would struggle, he would not leave the man alone in the dark, nursing his pain. He would endeavor his best to offer comfort and love. It only pained him that he would not be able to share the good news with his mate. At least not yet, for it was not the right time.
Radisq moved his hand down to cradle his flat stomach, which he knew would not remain so for very long. But for now, he would not tell Aaeren, and it hurt him that he could not do so. He had to protect Aaeren and not give him something else to worry about until Aaeren was ready to hear about it.
Chapter Eleven
They had ridden hard for days, moving with a single-minded determination toward the Fire Kingdom. At long last, it was both a relief, to have finally arrived, and dire, knowing there was much that needed to be done.
Aaeren helped Radisq off the carriage, anxious to get into the palace that had been his home all his life. There were several men awaiting them and once the introduction was done, Aaeren asked no one in particular, demanding to know where his mother was.
Aaeren moved around the men and marched into the castle, pulling Radisq along with him as he went in the direction he had been directed. They found Aaeren’s mother seated in her room, staring blankly out the window.
Aaeren went to kneel beside his mother, taking the cool hand into his much warmer and larger one. “Mother.”
He continued to rub warmth into his mother’s arms and hands. But he quickly noticed that she never paid him any attention at all. It was as though she was stuck in a world of her own.
“Mother. I’m here.”
Still, there was no response, and to make matters worse, Arianna was not even looking in her son’s direction. Glancing around, Aaeren spotted a maid who was trying to make herself invisible, wringing her hands together.
“What is wrong with my mother?”
“I-I’m sorry, sir. We don’t know. She has been like this since the news,” the maid stammered.
Frowning, Aaeren narrowed his gaze on the maid. “And where is the doctor?”
“We… He… That is to say…” The maid licked suddenly dried lips.
“Get me the doctor, right this minute!” Aaeren thundered, long since over the edge of pissed that his mother had been in this condition and from the maid’s posturing, the doctor had not seen to her.
Terrified, the maid took flight, running from the room as she hastened to do his bidding. Turning back to his mother, Aaeren took her hands in his, bringing them to his lips.
The lines of grief etched onto Arianna’s face broke his heart but he knew that he could not let go of his emotions. He needed to be the stronger one, for his family as well as his kingdom.
“I am here, Mother, and I will bring back order,” Aaeren vowed, tuning to draw strength from his mate, who stood a short distance away.
Patting his mother’s hand, Aaeren stood and motioned for Radisq to follow him, ordering the guards outside the door to get his and Radisq’s things settled in his room for the time being. Once the guards left to do his bidding, Aaeren pulled his mate along, moving toward Yves’s studio in the palace.
His brother had always dealt with strenuous situations by losing himself in his art, and Aaeren could not blame him. However, he needed to see for himself that his brother was all right. Yves was not good with stress and he couldn’t help but feel sorry for what this must be doing to his kindhearted, fragile brother.
Aaeren pulled open the doors to the brightly lit studio, light penetrating through the floor-length glass windows all over the room. Paintings lay every which way throughout the room. A tall but slim man was standing with his back toward them, working on another piece. The man’s long, orange-red hair glinted in the sunlight that flitted into the room, showing off the man’s physique as he kept on working, obviously not hearing them enter the room.
“Yves,” Aaeren said, in a quiet voice.
Still, the man did not hear them and only jerked around with wide eyes when Aaeren moved forward and squeezed his shoulder. A wan smile, which came across more like a grimace, flirted across the man’s face as he pulled his brother into his arms. Suddenly, tears began to spill from the man’s eyes as he squeezed Aaeren tightly, holding on for dear life.
Radisq took in the scene of the brothers together, feeling their mingled pain and shock over the recent misfortune that had taken them all by surprise. Soon, Yves calmed down enough to pull away from Aaeren and wipe the tears away from his face with his paint-covered hands, smearing paint all over his face in the process.
“Still as careless as ever, brother,” Aaeren said with a small smile, trying to cheer his brother up a bit or at least bring him out of his devastation.
Things would move downhill fast with Yves moving into a breakdown if Aaeren could not at least hold them both up together. Striving to keep his brother from complete meltdown, Aaeren held back his own emotions, acting strong since he knew it was needed of him. Aaeren turned around and motioned for Radisq to step forward and when he did so, wrapped his arms around Radisq’s waist.
“Yves, I’d like you to meet my mate, Radisq the Fair, prince of the Water Kingdom.”
Radisq took Yves’s hand in his, squeezing to show his own support. “I am so sorry for your loss and that we had to meet under such dire circumstances.”
“Me, too.” Yves nodded, his voice soft and small.
They stayed and chatted together a bit, with Aaeren instructing Yves to get some rest before they finally left.
“How old is your brother?” Radisq asked, curious.
“He will hit his hundredth birthday in next year. Why do you ask?”
Radisq shook his head. “No particular reason. I was curious and his work is truly magnificent. Very beautiful.”
Aaeren nodded. “He is very talented but very fragile also. He finds peace in his work and I am glad for that.” At Radisq’s questioning look, Aaeren added, “He does not always do well with stress and I worry about him a lot.”
“And rightly so.”
As they walked on, they came across an older man, and Aaeren pulled him to a stop, moving forward to hug the man before turning to introduce them.
“Radisq, I’d like you to meet my uncle Rasputin. Uncle Rasputin, this is my mate, Prince Radisq the Fair of the Water Kingdom.”
“Nice to meet you, sire. I am sorry for your loss,” Radisq said when the man didn’t bulge from where he stood.
Rasputin nodded to him. “And so am I.” Turning to his nephew, Rasputin addressed him, “I am at your disposal should you ever need anything.”
“Thank you, Uncle,” Aaeren responded and watched as the man flounced away from them without a backward glance. Aaeren turned back to Radisq, a frown on his face. “I am sorry for his curt attitude. I am sure he is under duress from all that is going on.”
Radisq waved the explanation away. “It is no big deal. I understand his grief. I would like to rest now. Come with me?”
Aaeren sighed. “Always mate, always,” Aaeren whispered, taking Radisq’s outstretched hand as they walked to Aaeren’s chambers.
* * * *
In the month that followed, they had been very busy burying Aaeren’s father and restoring order back into the kingdom. In that time, several attempts had been made on Radisq’s life and only his heightened sense of smell had kept him from ingesting poison meant to kill him on several occasions.
It had been difficult, but Radisq had managed to keep this from Aaeren, sharing the news only with his guard, Dessan. The guard had taken it upon himself to tighten security around Radisq with the explanation that, since Radisq was an outsider and the mate of their soon-to-be king, he needed the added security.
Only Dessan and Radisq had known the truth behind the added security even while still trying to find out who was behind these attempts and the death of the former king. Meanwhile, Aaeren had been busy putting the affairs of the kingdom back into order.
In everything, Radisq had been very understanding and supportive, but it still weighed on his mind that he hadn’t spoken to Aaeren regarding their babe. Even though he was beginning to show, his emotions had been all over the place. Sometimes, he felt relieved that Aaeren had not picked up on the truth, yet sometimes annoyed that his mate could not sense such a significant difference in him.
His emotions had been giving him whiplash over the month, but still he could do nothing but act normal. Dessan had become very dear to him in that time, in that he had someone to talk to regarding the most worrisome aspect of his life, but the pregnancy he kept a secret from everyone.
One night, he had been taking a stroll in the garden, sorting himself out, when he had been attacked from behind. The heavy blow to the back of his head had sent him tumbling onto the floor and only an adrenaline burst of surprisingly quick reflex had saved him from falling onto his stomach, thus harming the babe.
Luckily for him, his cry as he fell had alerted the guards, who he’d asked to give him distance. The guards had come running to his aid but had narrowly missed the would-be assassin. Fear for his child had had him immediately calling for the doctor, the consequences be damned.
And that had been how Aaeren had found out about his soon-to-be parenthood. The news had quickly snapped Aaeren out of his self-absorbed, month-long daze. He had paced like a caged animal inside the room as he watched the doctor treat his injured mate.
If the guards had not been somewhere around, Aaeren feared to think what might have become of his mate and it angered him that Radisq had kept a huge secret like this from him. More than that, it angered him that he had been so s
elfish, not to realize just how much his mate had endured while supporting him.
Even when he had threatened to end Dessan, the man had refused to bulge in answering his questions, preferring to keep his mouth shut. He admired the loyalty the guard had for his mate, but he was dying to pull his hair out if he didn’t get every single information he could to be able to protect his mate better.
He had thought the man would never budge but when he had finally broken down, scared and willing to do whatever it took for his mate, the guard had finally been moved to started talking. As Aaeren listened to the guard recall the numerous attempts on his mate’s life and the suspicion as well as investigation his mate was carrying out on the death of his father, he felt like kicking himself severely.
How could he have missed such details about the man he loved more than life itself? He blamed himself for the several attempts on Radisq’s life, blamed his obliviousness. Even though he had heaps to worry about, his number one priority was supposed to be his mate and, now, his unborn babe.
When the doctor straightened from the bed and began packing his things, Aaeren immediately moved to join Radisq on the bed.
“Doctor, how are they?”
“Lucky,” the doctor said, succinctly. “It could have been much worse, but luckily there was only a minimal injury. I am concerned about your mate’s health, though. It appears your mate has been under a lot of stress lately, and that is not good for the babe or advisable under his condition. I advise eliminating anything that spikes up his blood pressure and rest, lots of it.”
Aaeren nodded. “I will see to it.” He then pulled his sleeping mate’s body closer to his, offering warmth as his fears began to subside at the doctor’s advice.
The doctor nodded and then took his leave of them, shutting the door behind him.
“I am so sorry I’ve been so ignorant, Radisq. I would understand if you blamed me for all of this.”
“I don’t.” A quiet voice interrupted Aaeren’s rambling.