Bravery

by Layla Heart

  Then Dad joins his twin and his niece, as Mum helps the next person through the door.

  “Ives, the third member of my court and my magical advisor.” It’s my magic instructor, for when I go home during the summers. When I’m not there to bother him, he also helps Mum with her magic and rituals and things like that. I stole the black magic spell I did over the summer from him... He’s dressed up similarly to my dad, though his swirls hold a tingle of purple in them, sign of a strong magic user. Simple silver bands around his arms, accentuating his slender muscles, a set of silver rings on his fingers and a chain going from around his hips to where it would attach to his cock ring, instead simply disappearing between his legs.

  Mum kisses his hand and he joins the rest, looking around the square a moment, meeting my gaze, before looking serious.

  “Peyton, fourth member of my court, in charge of training our troops.” Mum’s voice is clear, but I can hear the husky tones in it.

  The man stepping through the door is nearly as tall as Rune, which is really tall for an incubus, even my biological dad isn’t that tall and he’s plenty tall. His muscles bulge under his skin, making the swirls almost shine more than the others manage, and he’s decked out in jewellery. Necklaces with beads and hangers, bracelets, bars through his nipples, holding in place purple nipple shields, and even the piercing in the tip of his cock is over the top. I totally understand why Mum has the hots for him, and I pity anyone having to follow him through the door as everyone is staring at him long after he’s taken his place at Ives’ side.

  Rune touches my back and I feel his mixture of desire for the man and a tinge of jealousy over me looking at him. I reach behind me, taking his hand and weaving our fingers together, letting him know I’m not going anywhere, I’m happy right where I am, with them, with him.

  Then my Mum lets the rest of her court in, one by one, nine people in total, all of them important for governing some part of her kingdom. They’re all dressed their best, their swirls strategically placed, their jewellery shining bright, which may actually be done with magic, it’s a little too bright. They look impressive, standing side by side like that, very impressive. Apart from her court, Mum also has about fifteen or so others she has relationships with, but they tend not to join her for things like this, they’re either in charge of smaller parts of her ruling, or are simply there for their pleasure and not in any official ruling capacity.

  Mum starts walking up to Bane’s dad, my aunt and dad following her first, and then the rest of them, as my cousin waits at the doors until she gets the signal she can leave again.

  Bane’s dad introduces everyone on that side to Mum and her court, who keep attracting all sorts of looks, and I suspect that Mum has gone a little overboard today with their looks, now she knows the fae king won’t be here. The fae king tends to frown on so much nudity, but it’s also a show of strength, a show that they can’t bring her down, no matter what they try or how often they’re attacked.

  Then Bane’s dad walks them over to the werewolf king, introducing them, even though they know each other, but it’s a formality. The werewolf king eyes my aunt for a moment, before he catches Dad’s looks, and he quickly averts his eyes, probably misinterpreting the look he’s getting. He’s totally Dad’s type, not so much my aunt’s type...

  Then they come over to us and I can’t help but somehow relax a little. This is my family, this whole court is my family, bound by blood or not, they’ve all been there to raise me. They’re all doing their best and they’re all here because they want what’s best for our combined future.

  “—Next to Kit is Bane, my son and crown prince of the werewolves.” I totally missed anything Bane’s dad was saying, still enjoying how Dad is trying to give the werewolf king a sexy look, which he doesn’t seem to understand. “Behind them is Litha, prophesied future queen—”

  Before he can say more, Mum reaches between us and takes Litha in a tight hug. “You’re beautiful! What a beautiful queen you will be.” She quickly motions behind her and Dad hands her a small box, which they somehow brought here without getting any attention on it, and Mum offers it to Litha. “I brought you something from my culture. I know you didn’t grow up in this world so I hope you like it.”

  I glance around, finding the other adults glaring our way for the break in protocol. Mum isn’t so keen on boring official stuff. She’s got a mind of her own and she will do whatever she likes, most of the time.

  Litha carefully takes the box, meeting my eyes nervously, but I smile at her as I nod. I have no idea in it, but Mum wouldn’t give her anything that could hurt her. Litha opens the box, and inside is a slim silver strand, with rubies hanging from it.

  I try to hide my sudden blush as I realise what it is. Mum is not leaving anything to chance... That’s meant for my future wife. The stones would have been purple if she’d been a succubus, like my aunt wears, but since Litha’s family is known for their fire magic, these are red.

  “Can you...” Litha holds the box to me and I nod, carefully taking the jewellery, lifting it up to the light so the rubies almost look aflame. I can’t not help her put it on, since that would mean having to turn down my mum’s gift, but putting the strand on her also stakes Litha as my, or my mother’s, claim. Then I step closer and carefully place it around her waist, luckily bare in the outfit she’s wearing.

  I lean in, my lips close to her ear. “You do realise that she technically just made me propose to you, right? Or maybe she proposed to you, for me?” Not that there’s no need for something like this, but Mum doesn’t know that yet. Mum doesn’t know about the prophecy not stating one prince to become king, but all princes becoming kings to Litha, but she’ll find that out soon enough...

  Litha flushes bright red and when I slide my fingers over her skin, making sure to position the strand correctly, I can feel her lust but also her nervousness running through her and I smile.

  “Thank you. It’s beautiful.” Litha has finally found her voice again, a little hoarse, and she smiles at Mum.

  “It’s my pleasure, it looks amazing on you, just as I’d hoped.” She looks Litha over and then steps back, eyeing Bane’s dad. “I presume this won’t be the only thing we’re doing today, right? This place is a little chillier than I’m used to, and while I’d love giving this beautiful girl more presents from my people, I think we were here for a different reason.”

  “You’re right. I guess we could move on to the next part.” Bane’s dad tries to stay calm, but even after having met Mum quite a couple of times over the years, I guess he’s still not used to her, or her blunt ways...

  Bane’s dad walks out of the square first, his wife at his side, then the werewolf king and queen, then my mother with her court, then us, and finally the professors and other people who were there with us. We make quite a colourful procession this way.

  I can hear the whispers behind us, from the professors, about what my mum has just done, how she dared to be so obvious about her wish for the future, but I put it out of my head. It’s not going to matter anyway. It’s not going to make a difference, because Litha won’t choose, she loves all of us. And we’re staying together, forever.

  12

  First that dress showcasing how I’ll be mother and queen, instead of letting me be a person now, and then a gift from the succubus queen, basically declaring me to be her son’s wife... All these people trying to control who I am, what I do... But with the princes and Phoenix at my side, I’m not going to let this bother me, at least not too much, because we will make our own future. We will make our own future together, and I’m not going to allow us to be forced into some ‘perfect ideal’ by people who have no idea who we are or what we’re capable of, what I’m capable of.

  When we get to the main hall, now set up totally differently from that first morning, with three tables on the platform at the front and the rest of the tables and chairs turned so everyone sees the people on the platform, we can finally sit down, and I do so as soon
as we can. Mum has joined Dad in the same section of the room as Bane’s mum and some professors and others, at the front on the right side. While Phoenix’ parents are sitting with the werewolf king and queen and Kit’s mum and her court, with all the really important people at the front. We’re sitting a little off to the back and I take Bane and Kit’s hands, wanting to touch them, needing to feel connected to them, because having been stared at like that at the square and on the way here... I’m over it now, I’m really over it.

  Something ceremonial is going on, people talking with important voices, as Bane’s dad keeps directing people from one place to another. I have no idea why, but it seems to be for some reason to do with official introductions or something...

  My eyes keep wandering to Kit’s family, to their outfits, to the way they’re dressed, the way they hold themselves. It’s like they have no problem with being naked, none at all.

  Bane leans to me. “Do you now understand why it was so hard for us to keep his clothes on him when he was little?” His voice is low, quiet, but when I glance at him, he’s grinning.

  “They normally wear even less, definitely not as much jewellery, unless they go into battle, then they’ll wear all the armour they can,” Kit whispers, also leaning close. “We have more conservative clothes, like I’m wearing now, but this tends to be the norm most of the time. Especially for official occasions.”

  I smile, though I find it hard to imagine, that’s probably because I’m not used to it. And when I look at Phoenix’ dress, or her mum’s, I suspect that quite a few races here are more used to nakedness or near-nakedness a lot of the time. I’d never considered that something like this could be the norm, so non-concerned about clothes. I lean closer to Kit, keeping my voice low. “How about in normal life?”

  Kit grins, opening his mouth, but then stops as someone from the campus guards rushes over to Bane’s dad, looking very serious. We glance at each other and then I look back at the others. That doesn’t seem like a good sign.

  After Bane’s dad and the guard exchange some words, the guard leaves again, his stride measured, but still at a high speed. Bane’s dad looks over the people in the room, raising his voice. “We’ve had a couple of complications with the fae soldiers who we caught earlier this week, but it should be resolved soon. For now, don’t worry about it, it’s all under control.” He turns back to some people who were speaking. “You can continue.”

  But as he steps back, to his wife and my parents, he quietly speaks with them and then both Bane’s mum and my dad sneak out of the room. Definitely not a good sign...

  Finn touches my shoulder, leaning close. “I’ll go take a look too. Let you know what’s going on.” And before I can turn around, he’s gone. I didn’t even hear him leave. Great... Really great...

  “You think someone escaped?” I look at Bane, who’s frowning now.

  “Maybe. Wouldn’t they be more worried if that happened, though?” He glances to his dad, who is obviously trying to look like nothing is going on and everything is fine, but the tension in the room is rising and everyone seems to get more on edge the longer this is going on...

  After a couple of minutes, the people who were speaking slowly quiet and finally, the werewolf king stands up, the whole room falling silent. “Everyone who has to attend the meeting is here. Things are obviously going on at your campus that require your attention, brother, can we move to the actual meeting that we came here for?”

  Bane lets out a slight gasp as he stares at his uncle. “That’s... That’s rare for him. Normally, he’s a stickler for rules and formalities... For him to disrupt something like this... I guess enough has gone off-script today that even he’s getting annoyed.” He slowly smiles. “But I don’t mind, I’m ready to do something totally different by now... I think my ass is going numb from sitting on these horrid chairs.” He squeezes my hand. “Maybe we even get lucky and we can leave, do something more fun, you know?” He wiggles his eyebrows and I smile.

  “We need to get in on that meeting.” Finn appears behind us, his voice grim, making me jump a little.

  “Why? I just wanna go do something fun, not do boring stuff with the adults.” Bane sighs, but as he looks back at Finn, his face goes serious.

  I glance back at Finn, his eyes are dark and tight, a light frown on his face.

  Rune moves closer. “What did you see? Or hear?”

  Finn lets out a slow breath, looking at each of us. “They’ve not been telling us anything about the meetings, right? Because, supposedly, we shouldn’t get involved with ruling, or whatever, right? We should leave things to the adults? We shouldn’t, not anymore.” His jaw sets.

  “Because?” Kit glances at him.

  “Because they’ve been interrogating the fae soldiers and they’ve learned about a couple of interesting things. Like, they weren’t the ones who stole the prophecy, but they are worried about it.”

  “Then, why the attack?” Rune frowns.

  “Because there are quite a couple of valuable secrets and documents on this campus, and if those fell into the wrong hands...” He looks around. “My dad wants those for himself, or at least make sure others can’t get to them.”

  “How do you know?” Bane raises an eyebrow at him.

  Finn smirks, but it’s not a playful one. “Because it seems your mum doesn’t agree with keeping us out, especially not now we’re mostly recovered from the attack.” Then he looks at me. “It seems your dad agrees with her on that.”

  Ah... Well, I guess that we should know about what’s going on at the meetings. Especially if they affect us, like the attack, but also because the fae king may have attacked the campus over documents this time, it doesn’t mean he won’t try to attack us directly next time.

  My brain is spinning, trying to come up with a convincing enough argument that we should be allowed in the meeting, instead of being treated like kids and sent off on our way.

  Bane’s mum and my dad come back into the hall, going over to Bane’s dad, who listens to them and nods. He pulls himself up a little taller, making people focus on him. “It seems we can safely go to the meeting room now.” Then he turns to us. “And we’ll get someone to accompany you back to the house, you’ll be safe there.”

  I stand up. “We want to go to the meeting too. We were there when the attack started and without the spell done by Phoenix and Finn, you would have never known about the attack before it was too late. You need our information.”

  Bane’s dad’s face darkens and he lets out a slow breath. “We’ve got your statements. You really don’t need to exhaust yourself with things like this. It’s better if you focus on recovering at home.”

  “Statements aren’t the same thing as getting direct information from a source.” I keep his eyes, and I see a sliver of fear in them. Why are they trying to keep us out? Their ‘reasons’ from before are obviously not the real reason why.

  “We can manage.” He turns, but then the werewolf king looks our way, frowning.

  “You blew up the soldiers with your fire, valuable information was burned to a crisp, and then you passed out. What can you add to the meeting that we don’t already have?” I can feel the same energy from him as Bane sometimes uses, the same Bane used when he tried to get Rune to shift back into his human shape, this force of control.

  “You’re not curious why I could use magic like that in town when an earth dragon couldn’t use his earth magic just moments later? You don’t want to know what the students who did a protection spell on campus, who found out about the fae soldiers, actually saw? Or, maybe even, don’t you want to know exactly what some simple students did to fight off the soldiers as they were waiting for help?” I meet him straight-on.

  They probably have most of this information already, but I don’t want to play the ‘I’m the future queen’ card just yet. Not if I don’t have to.

  Phoenix’ mum stands up. “I agree with Litha. They should be there at the meetings. They have knowledge of what happened
, first-hand knowledge, that we can’t get any other way.”

  The werewolf king lets out a grumble, but then looks at Finn. “I guess that makes sense. Just not the fae, I don’t want the information we learn to get to his father some way.”

  I open my mouth to reply, but Finn stands up too, stepping in front of me. “They tried to kill me too. Those soldiers were ready and instructed to kill me if they saw me. I’m not their ally, haven’t been for years. My father sees me as a danger, not someone he confides in.”

  Then Bane steps next to him, putting his still partially blackened hand on his shoulder, showing how he was hurt by the fae soldiers but still trusts Finn. “He’s coming. You get all of us, or none of us. It was Phoenix and Finn who saw the warning in the protection circle. Without him, we wouldn’t be here, we’d be dead.”

  I don’t know what I expected, but the werewolf king nods, still not looking very happy about all of this. “Fine. I guess they can join.”

  Okay... How did that go so easy?

  13

  I know it was me who said that we had to get in on the meeting, but I didn’t expect it to be this easy. I don’t question it, as we make our way across campus, to a much heavier guarded building, where the meetings are taking place.

  At the door are multiple guards, and they ask each of our names and our rank and reason for being there. They’re keeping pretty tight control on who comes in. Which, I guess, with so many influential people in a single building is probably a good idea.

  We walk down a couple of hallways, deeper into the building, until we reach a big room with lots of tables. There are already people waiting in the room, probably people who have been part of the meetings. I recognise a couple of campus guards and also more staff from the academy from a range of subjects and specialities.