by Jude Marquez
CONTENTS
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Epilogue
© 2018 Jude Marquez
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. For permissions contact:
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Chapter One
The front hall was clean.
The kitchen was spotless, the dishes tucked away where they belonged.
The bedrooms were sparkling.
Alyx sat on the bottom step, tapping his foot and humming a low song. He remembered a dog his father gave him before he rode off and never returned. Elewisa had it drowned when one of her shoes went missing. It later turned up in one of her daughter's rooms.
As far as Alyx's father was concerned, there wasn't any word about what happened. He was just... gone, into a battle against a neighboring country.
And Alyx was left in the care of his stepmother, Elewisa.
Elewisa hated Alyx. Maybe at some point, Elewisa loved Alyx's father and Alyx just looked too much like him; maybe it was a reminder of what she had lost.
Alyx had given her the benefit of the doubt for many years and now it was wearing thin. The lists and lists of rules, the constant cleaning, waiting on his stepsisters hand and foot. He slept in the attic where it was broiling in the summer and freezing in the winter. During autumn, the current season, it was comfortable, but it never lasted long enough. Alyx could already feel winter creeping up on them. When he woke up in the mornings, the two small blankets he had were wrapped tightly around him. It had been raining for the past two days and it was just a matter of time before the rain turned to snow.
Elewisa, Mariana, and Thea threw the door open just then and swept into the front hallway. They tracked in mud and leaves, bits of grass.
“Alyx, I told you to clean this front hall before we got home!” Elewisa screeched, her eyes on the floor where the mud and grass dotted the floor. “And you just sit there, like some-”
“Moron,” Mariana threw in and laughed. She dropped her jacket on the mud from her overpriced boots. “I'm going to need that clean and dry before tomorrow,” she said and turned on her heel and left, tracking the mud through the hall and on the carpet, up to her room.
“I ran out of perfume,” Thea said and threw the half full bottle at him and Alyx barely blinked when it bounced off his shoulder. “I need more before the morning,” she said and followed her sister up the stairs, pausing on each step to wipe her shoes on the carpet.
The stairs were the hardest thing to clean.
“All you do is sit on your ass and expect me to keep this house up and feed you and put clothes on your back. Forget it. You don't go to sleep until Mariana's coat is clean and you have found Thea's perfume,” Elewisa hissed and put a finger in his face. “And don't even think about dinner.”
As Elewisa went up the stairs Alyx finally spoke.
“Can I borrow a horse to go into town?”
“Walk,” Elewisa snapped.
Alyx looked out the windows. It was raining and he had heard the gardener say to expect it to continue through the day. He stood up and went to the closet. He pulled out his threadbare cloak, his boots that he had mended more times than he could count, and went out.
Alyx could have forgone the cloak. It didn't really help matters. Within minutes, it was soaked through. It was still another four miles to town. He trudged along for a few silent moments, until he heard hooves and shouting behind him. He stepped onto the side of the road and water rushed into his boots. It was ice cold and Alyx shivered even harder. He ducked his head when he saw the royal family's emblem on a dazzling white horse and hoped his soaked hood would hide him enough so that he wouldn't be noticed by the royal family.
Auelina, the second youngest and best rider of the family, passed him by with her trademark wild laughter. Cade, the youngest, followed her, yelling at his sister. He kicked up mud as he passed and Alyx, of course, got the brunt of it. Mud splattered his chest and Alyx stopped to wipe it off with his sleeve. He was too busy wiping it off to pay attention to the hooves coming up once again, not that it mattered. His head was bowed and he was clear of the road.
Everyone knew that the two youngest De Loughreys were followed either by their own guard or their older brothers.
And god help the idiot bandit that tried to take a younger De Loughrey.
If they were lucky, they would only be killed.
“Whoa!” A voice called and Alyx stepped back even further, trying to get even further out of the way and prayed that they would pass him by.
Not on this day, he prayed.
“Evander!”
Oh god.
Gael De Loughrey, adviser to the future king, Evander De Loughrey, stopped his horse right in front of Alyx.
Evander ran up behind Gael and pulled his horse, just as intimidating and black as all the rumors made her seem, to a cantering stop in front of Alyx.
Alyx, soaked through, his white tunic turned transparent, his cloak clinging to his shoulders, his trousers pulled low by all the water that was soaked into them, looked up at the two princes.
And immediately knelt.
“Hey, no,” Gael said and with an easy, identical move, both De Loughreys dismounted their horses and strode over to Alyx.
“How long have you been out here?” Prince Evander asked, pulling Alyx up by the hand. “Don't you have a better cloak? Gael, get my spare. Did my little brother and sister do this to you? Are you hungry? Gael and I were going to stop and eat, we have enough to share.”
“Um-” Alyx started and looked up into the prince's eyes which proved to be a mistake. They were green as the first spring leaves, green like the leaves deep in the forest, just like the tittering girls at the tavern said, but their tiny words and idiotic brains failed to convey the depth and the ease of them, the kindness that was written into the lines around his eyes and his mouth-
His mouth.
Alyx flinched when Gael approached him and threw the cape over his shoulders. Evander clasped it at his neck with a quick movement of his fingers.
“That's an impressive scar.” Evander murmured and then-
the prince's fingers were on his bare collarbone.
Alyx made a sound that wasn't any kind of language.
“Are you a traveler?” Gael asked, his eye taking in every ragged inch of Alyx.
“No,” Alyx breathed and looked down at his feet. It was a mistake. Even their boots showed the stark difference between the three of them. The princes boots were finely made, leather, waterproof. Alyx's were just soaking up the water. Alyx, despite freezing, felt his cheeks warm with shame.
“Ah, so he does speak,” Prince Evander said, his voice gentle and without the sting that most words spoken to Alyx held.
“I-” Alyx started and then stopped because Evander's fingers were warm against his collarbone. He had taken off his riding gloves to touch Alyx's bare skin.
“Gael! Evander! Mother, will be asking after you if you don't hurr
y,” Princess Auelina called from nearby.
“We'll just tell her that we were taking care of one of the citizens that you nearly ran over and splattered with mud,” Gael huffed.
And then Auelina was there, her blonde hair a crown piled regally on her head under a fine blue cloak, brown eyes wide and concerned.
“I did not!” She said and then stopped when she saw Alyx. “Did I?” She asked.
“No, Princess,” Alyx murmured and bowed his head. He had heard what the princes had done to the men who looked inappropriately at her. He didn't want to be join their ranks. “I stepped out of the way.”
“Still.” She said and pushed (pushed!) Gael out of the way and wiped a splatter of mud from his cheek with her sleeve. “I apologize.”
“There is nothing to apologize for. Only an accident.” Alyx said softly.
“Was this scar an accident?” Prince Evander asked.
A memory of Elewisa screeching over a burned dinner, a broken water glass and a large shard buried just above Alyx's collarbone flashed through his mind. It was certainly no accident.
“It was something different,” Alyx said softly, his eyes on his boots once more.
“I'm sure,” Gael murmured and when Alyx looked up, Gael and Evander were looking at each other.
“What is your name?” Gael asked.
“Alyx,” he murmured.
“And your parents?” Evander asked. He stepped back, slipped his riding gloves on.
Alyx missed his touch already, the first kind thing he had felt in more years than he wanted to think of.
“My father's name was Harrison Reimund.”
Evander looked over at Gael.
“Missing since the battle that took father. He was a devout man and by all reports, courageous,” Gael muttered.
So the rumors were true. Gael De Loughrey knew the men who went missing in battle by heart.
Evander nodded and looked over at Alyx as he swung himself back into the saddle. “Alyx, should you ever find yourself in need, for anything, come to the castle. Tell the guard at the front that the Eros brought you. They will bring you to me.”
Alyx opened his mouth, surprised. Evander smiled at him.
“Your cloak,” Alyx said and raised his hands to unfasten it.
The mare Evander sat on reared and Evander leaned with her. She spun around and Evander laughed. Gael was already riding away.
“Keep it. I have more.” With a nod and an easy smile, he was gone.
Alyx barely noticed the rest of the walk to the village, the subsequent haggling, and the walk home. All he could think of was the cloak on his shoulders and the warmth that was probably all in his mind. Even cleaning the front hall again was nothing after he hid the cloak in the attic.
Chapter Two
“You could have brought him home. Mother wouldn't have minded.” Auelina said.
She looked like a golden dream, the candlelight falling on her like it loved her above all things. His little sister had grown up dangerously beautiful.
But she had also grown up dangerous.
Evander smiled at his cup but didn't meet her eyes when she stared at him from across the table. Cade was already asleep, head cushioned on his arms. Gael sat quietly next to Evander, cutting neatly into the veal in front of him.
“Hm,” Evander said and took a drink from his cup. The wine was one of his favorites.
“Big brother, I saw how you were looking at him.” Auelina sighed. “He had beautiful eyes. The color of a blue bird.”
“You are such a romantic,” Evander teased her. “I could put the call out for suitors, if you'd like.”
“Your standards are too high,” Auelina replied and pouted.
“I was not the one who set them,” Evander pointed out and tipped his cup in her direction.
“I would lower them. They wouldn't have to beat all three of my brothers in battle...” She sighed, “How about if they could just keep up with them?”
Evander chuckled. “That might be more realistic.”
“Why didn't you bring him back?” Gael asked, sitting back and grabbed his own cup. He was the only one who could look Evander in the eye beside their mother with any kind of ease.
“We're going hunting tomorrow,” Evander said.
“That's never stopped you,” Gael smirked.
“He's not the type you leave in bed alone in the morning.”
Auelina sighed dreamily.
“He was skittish as a beaten and drowned cat. You didn't think he would come back with you, did you?” Gael said. Were it anyone else, Evander knew his temper would have gotten the best of him. But Evander knew that Gael loved him above all else.
“He resembled a drowned cat, that much is true. But-” Evander shook his head. “He has an iron will, that one. He argued to make sure that Auelina didn't get in trouble. God knows what a man like that is in bed.”
“I'm sure you would like to find out.” Gael replied.
“I have his name, Gael. I will find out, sooner rather than later. But tomorrow's hunt will be a long one. We might be busy for a time. I would like to spend more than just a night with this one.”
“At some point, you will have to settle down with someone,” Gia said from the door. She was in her sleeping gown, her long hair a cascade down her back. The light fell on her just as lovingly as it did Auelina. She signaled someone to come in and Jeanna strode in, two guards behind her. She woke Cade and the two guards guided him out, after he mumbled a sleepy goodnight to his mother. Gia sat on the bench next to Auelina and Auelina wrapped her arms around Gia's waist and leaned into Gia's neck.
“I would like to say, in my own defense, that the castle no longer has a constant stream of visitors,” Evander said.
“Be that as it may, the kingdom is growing more and more restless,” Her voice grew high and mocking and she put a hand to her throat and the other fanned her face, “When will Prince Evander take a wife? A husband? How will we ever be stable with just a woman on the throne?”
Gael snorted into his cup.
“You are the stable one. You can have the throne as long as you want it, mother,” Evander said.
“As fun as that sounds, no thank you, darling,” she said. Her fingers worked through Auelina's hair and undid the braids and curls that held her golden circlet in place. Gia pulled it off and placed it next to Auelina's cup. Auelina's eyes closed as Gia worked her fingers through Auelina's heavy hair, massaging her head. Evander could already hear Jeanna's gasp of shock at seeing Auelina's circlet on the table like it was cutlery. “I would like you to bring this young man to the castle so that Jeanna and I might meet him. Especially if it’s someone that you would like to spend time with.”
Evander nodded. “His father was lost in the last battle against Nigel. He's scarred and skittish and very much untouched, mother.”
Gael regarded him and his eyes looked much darker than normal. “Someone like that isn't the kind of person you leave at all.”
Evander nodded.
“Gael and I could go visit him. To his home,” Gia suggested and paused. “And Aldous.”
“Can I go too?” Auelina asked.
“And Auelina,” Gia said.
“You will need to take Elyes in that case. Gabrien too,” Evander said with a sigh. He could ask them not to, could ask them to wait until he had his own time with this Alyx. His words was as good as law, even if he hadn't officially ascended the throne. “That's fine,” he said with a wave of his cup. “But be kind to him, to those in his home.”
“Are you sure we should be?” Gael asked and Auelina opened one eye to peer at her brothers.
“Use your judgment,” Evander said after a moment.
“How long will you be hunting?” Gia asked.
“A week. We will be back next Thursday,” Evander said.
Gia nodded. “I'll have a new dress made for Auelina. A new cloak for Gael. Tell Aldous, Elyes, and Gabrien to shine their armor.”
“It's
a visit, mother, not a proposal,” Evander said.
Gia smiled. “We're going to bed. Don't stay up too late, boys. You have an early start.”
“Good night, mother,” Gael said and stood and kissed them both good night.
They were silent, Evander staring at the fire and Gael looking down at his glass.
“Your Highness?” Ely came in through the door.
Evander looked up at him.
“They are asleep.”
“Thank you,” Evander said.
“Your horses are at the front gate,” Ely said and left.
Evander drained his cup and looked to Gael. “You ready?”
“As ever,” Gael said and they stood.
Ely met them at the stables. They shed every piece of clothing that made them look like the princes they were born and bred as and mounted their horses. Ely led them out and then stopped.
Gia stood there, looking impatient and a little angry.
“Mom,” Evander said.
She sighed. “Your Siren,” she said and reached up to hand Evander his crossbow, inscribed and the most faithful weapon Evander had.
“And your knife,” she said to Gael who looked sheepish.
“Be careful,” she told them both.
“We will,” Evander promised.
Ely continued to lead them away.
“Boys?” Gia called out.
They turned to look over their shoulders and Gia marveled at how much they looked alike, at how two heirs to the throne were not only brothers who loved each but best friends above all else. It was rare to find in royal families such as theirs.
“Kill every single one of them.”
Their grins were a mirror image of each other and they turned and left.
Ely escorted her back inside.
Evander and Gael headed to an orphanage a few villages over. A girl had arrived, no more than twelve years old, at the castle earlier that day. She sought refuge within their walls and had told Ely a story of such horror, that he knew immediately to go to his Prince.
Auelina was there to comfort the girl and later testified to the fact that the scars on Annabelle’s back were reason enough for her brothers to go hunting.
To defend those that could not defend themselves.