The Celestial King

by L Ward

  The urge to do something took him by surprise and he remembered what his mother taught him the Christmas Day Frances nearly choked to death as she laugh-swallowed a brussel sprout. They’d forced it from her windpipe but she still wasn’t breathing.

  “Try this,” he wrenched a sobbing Nath away, tilted Evan’s chin back and gave him mouth-to-mouth like it was an Olympic sport.

  Evan’s green eyes flashed open and he stared at Will in shock-horror.

  Nath shoved him out of the way and threw his arms around Evan. “I should’ve left you in the palace where you wouldn’t almost die.”

  Will had never seen Nath so hysterical. Nath. Always calm, composed, and in control going to pieces over this boy.

  “I’m burned out,” he said softly. “I used too much magic and almost couldn’t revive myself. I think I lost consciousness to give my body enough energy for the self-heal.”

  Nath blinked, tears glittering in his eyes. “A steel beam clipped you as it fell,” he said. “How did you survive that?”

  Evan blinked and confusion ruffled his brows. “My shield, I guess. I’m tired…” he remained limp in Nath's arms.

  Nath laughed and the air felt lighter again. “It’s fortunate I picked our base of operations somewhere with home comforts.” Shadows smudged beneath his huge pupils and salty track marks stained his cheeks.

  Evan looked even more confused.

  Will’s body ached with protest as he got up and turned to confront the medieval battlements of a small castle near the sea.

  “Do you think the palace staff know of all the properties the sovereign owns?” Nath smirked. “Some places have to be kept secret even from our closest allies.”

  “Except us,” Evan said.

  He could hear his smile.

  Nath lifted Evan into his arms with ease that had him glance at his biceps and, sure enough, they’d grown.

  The dragon relaxed with a groan near the cliff’s edge behind the rippling barrier of protection that concealed them from the rest of the world.

  “Nath I’ll break your back. What'll happen to the country if you can't complete more missions?” said Evan.

  Nath laughed and set him on his feet, supporting his waist when he wobbled. “If you can immortalise us for those moments, I’m sure a broken back won’t be a challenge.”

  Eventually they reached the grand front door nestled behind two stone pillars and up a flight of stairs on the other side of the monument. The wind whipped the towers and Nath placed a palm to the wooden door. A light sealed the cracks and it unlocked with a soft clack.

  It was nothing like the palace, more like castle of childhood fairy tales. Ancient wall torches burning traditional red-gold-amber illuminated paintings of royals long forgotten. It smelled of musty books and logs ready to split on an open fire.

  “It’s cleaner than I expected for a secret castle,” said Evan.

  “That’s because it’s enchanted. Before my grandmother passed away she committed her magic to this castle. No matter how much time passes or what happens inside, the castle will keep itself cosy and welcoming to any royal who needs home comfort and seclusion above all,” said Nath.

  Will could hardly remember Nath’s grandmother, she died when they were children, but he recalled an elderly dowager queen more than a hundred years old wearing a grandmotherly smile.

  A doorway led into a large dining hall and down the corridor they encountered a beautiful staircase. Evan didn’t look capable of this, and he eyed him with constant doubt until they reached the first floor. Nath unlocked a door and Evan stumbled inside and slumped heavily onto the bed.

  “You two can leave me here. I need to sleep,” he said, waving a lazy hand in their direction.

  “I’d rather not leave you alone when you almost died tonight,” said Nath.

  Evan nodded and made a kissing sound. Will watched Nath cross the room, kiss his lips and pull up a chair by the hearth which stoked itself into a beautiful log fire.

  He turned away from Evan as he wriggled out of his remaining shirt and trousers- their outer clothes and armour dumped at the front door- and took a seat by the fire. Nath summoned a bottle of wine and three crystal glasses, he poured two and offered one to Will.

  “You’re insane,” he said after a while.

  Nath looked him in the eye and drank slowly. “Why?”

  “That entire building is history and all of the monsters in it and now you’ve stopped their attack launch—”

  “Might have stopped it.”

  “Okay. What are we gonna to do?”

  “That place was the first stop on our mission, when we’re fit again we’re going to move on Edinburgh and reclaim the city,” said Nath. “I’ll have Scotland safeguarded once more.”

  Will nodded slowly unable to deny his correctness. “What’s the plan?”

  “We make a direct attack on the government building. We have soldiers stationed near the border, it’s a small number but if we infiltrate with dragon fire they will rally to us.”

  “Wouldn’t an immediate ambush be better?”

  Nath shot him a skeptical look. “We’re in no condition for battle. Evan’s a new definition of exhausted and you can barely summon a spark.”

  “And what about you?” he challenged.

  “Twelve hours sleep and I’ll be fine.”

  “You used moonlight,” he said, watching Nath’s pupils flicker with joy. He sipped his wine to conceal a smile but Will knew him well enough to see through his masks. “Thought you wouldn’t risk it again.”

  “If we survived the blast the aftermath would have killed us. Thank the gods for Evan, he saved us.”

  “And he nearly killed himself doing it.”

  “And you wanted to help him,” Nath’s dimples popped into play.

  Will quickly put down his drink and averted his eyes to the fireplace. “Duty called and I owed him some loyalty after he helped us, I guess.”

  “Will you ever tell me the truth about that?” Nath asked lightly.

  He looked at Nath and for a brief, mad moment opened his mouth, the words dangling on the very tip of his tongue like a droplet ready to fall. He met Nath’s eyes and all the burning courage, that pulsating almost violent urge to speak the truth, died. He swallowed and felt the droplet trickle down into his darkest depths.

  Nath’s face washed with disappointment and he closed his eyes with a heavy sigh. “I’m only nineteen and I’m already bored with secrets.”

  “Unavoidable in our line of work.”

  Nath stared at him. “I’m too aware of it, but my father was not.”

  Will stared. It was the first time Nath had opened up to him about Elijah since his death. “There were spies within the Privy Council, Sir Odwyn, Sir Genevieve…”

  “Some noble families too, and Pricilla,” Nath added. “They fled with innocents who believed themselves in danger at the time and feigned mourning to cover their disloyalty. For that I cannot forgive, they betrayed my father!” he said angrily. “They were likely the ones who told the enemy about the flight trajectory; they gave away the location and told them how to force apart the enchantments protecting the carriage.”

  Will went cold.

  “I’ve received intelligence saying Sir Genevieve has been killed in a London riot.”

  Will didn’t disguise his surprise. “Well… he died a traitor’s death.”

  An uncomfortable silenced ensued and Nath finished his glass relaxing into the chair. They didn’t need to discuss what a traitor’s death would mean if the King’s soldiers caught them. Shadows pooled deeper beneath Nath’s eyes.

  Will drained his glass and forced himself to his feet. “I’m gonna call it a night.”

  “We’ll go over the plan in the morning,” said Nath, checking the time and looking genuinely shocked. “Or afternoon more likely.”

  Will managed a smile and shut the door as Nath crawled into bed with Evan. The corridor was pretty and welcoming, a beautiful pained win
dow gazed across woodlands and rocks for miles. On the horizon a village glittered, and when his gaze turned upward the sky exploded with stars.

  He took the next bedroom down and immediately threw back the velvet curtains to be bathed in skylight. He stripped and flopped back on the four poster bed, watching the sky sparkle. Memories flooded his senses of he and Nath and for the first time in a long time he let them embrace him. Nath toying with the stars, cupping them like gemstones in his hands while they glittered beneath his bidding. The times they snuck outside at night to run barefoot in the gardens; the weird phase in his mid-teens when Nath fainted at random every new moon. He remembered the kisses and all the laughs they’d shared. All the hours of tutoring followed by hours of boredom when Nath went to study alongside his father. And then the world shattered and their relationship was torn apart when he came to the infuriating realisation that there couldn’t be a better consort for Nath than Evan. He’d been close to hating Miriam for her determination to get the university back on track and finally put the royal family in the spotlight the country so desperately wanted. Nath was in his teens, had met countless nobles, aristocrats, foreign royals and many servant men but he’d shared no interest in any of them even with an enforced lack of media coverage guaranteeing his privacy. The pool of remaining royals receded like pattern baldness and he’d been fast approaching marriageable age; a monster with a deeply insecure future on the throne until he found a regent. Miriam, the sly fox, had known they weren’t looking for a noble husband, they were searching for a common one.

  It was weird to remember Nath as he was back then, he’d always been handsome but he was very thin and pale. When he came out as gay Gerard had taken an instant disliking to it, privately criticising his private nature and gay stature; he lost his shit when Elijah told him about their kiss. He’d hated Elijah for months after that. He’d been forced to out himself as bi which earned him a second bloody beating, but fortunately that time his mother had diffused the situation. Why homosexuality was so upsetting to Gerard in an age of sexual freedom and equality was a mystery. His grandparents were of the old ways so he’d assumed it commonplace, but the more LGBTQ+ people he came across the more he realised his father was a fucking bigot. Elijah had never once chastised Nath for his sexuality, but his own had beaten him black and blue over a kiss- that was, however, until he realised the potential golden ticket in his son to the throne. Now that was gone there was no way he’d be allowed to bring a man home, he’d be forced to move in with a princess.

  And now there was Dante. Handsome, funny, intellectual Dante with blue eyes and cheeky smile. His mother’s word held true and she hadn’t breathed a word about their time together. His head swam with the weird and crazy feelings he’d developed that he had no idea how to express or even properly feel. Telling Dante right now was an impossibility, he’d only known him a few weeks, but despite this, he continuously wandered down daydream lane hand-in-hand with a beautiful Spanish boy.

  Chapter 32

  Hundreds of years vanished before Evan’s eyes, his mind was a corkscrew and he was on the rollercoaster to full consciousness. He sat up slowly on a four-poster bed centuries in the past. Greyish afternoon light fell through the paned window across Nath sitting in an armchair by the fire. He smiled brilliantly.

  “I was beginning to worry,” he said, rising to his feet wearing a long black hoodie over loose trousers tucked into his boots.

  “Did we go back in time?” he laughed.

  “Looks and feels that way, but no, it’s present day,” Nath moved across the room and sat down beside him. “How’re you feeling?”

  “Much better now,” he said and stretched his legs. They felt good as new. “Actually, I’m starving…”

  Nath laughed. “Me too. I’m not long up myself.”

  He went to check on Will while Evan washed and dressed in fresh clothes.

  The three of them gathered downstairs and Evan realised they were all wearing the same thing.

  “The castle can replenish and sustain its natural foods, but we have to prepare them if we plan to eat,” said Nath.

  Will stared at him in bewilderment. “I’ve never cooked before, with or without magic,” he said. “What about you?"

  Nath looked slightly embarrassed. “I can give it a go… although I’ve never had the time to try.”

  “You’re lucky I can or we’d starve,” said Evan.

  Nath led him to the downstairs dining chamber set in silver before a roaring fireplace. Plush ruby-red rugs sprawled across the floor and Evan looked up at the grand painting of the late Dowager Queen Renae. Elijah had borne remarkable resemblance to her, sharing her thick brown tresses and quick blue eyes, although he’d favoured his father’s jawline.

  The back door led to spacious modern kitchens. Evan was surprised, he’d half expected to find a fire pit from the Middle Ages and a few tons of salt poured in a cupboard stuffed with stinking meat, but everything was enchanted and glistened like new.

  He opened the sleek wooden cupboards and examined the sealed jars of dried herbs and flour. The kitchen was covered in windows letting in fresh air and afternoon light.

  Nath opened the door to a small courtyard with chickens going about their business and various herbs sprouting in glittering pots enchanted to keep the slugs off.

  “This place is incredible,” said Evan.

  “Royals normally omit their magic to the palace, but some choose other places like the enchanted grottos around the world,” said Nath. “My grandmother’s generosity, kindness and loving nature is evident in her favourite castle.”

  “Are we ever gonna eat?” Of course Will had to be the one to interrupt.

  “Get us some eggs then,” said Evan, pointing to the chicken coop where he could see piles of freshly laid eggs snuggled in the nests.

  Will looked at him like he’d lost his mind.

  “What shall I do?” asked Nath.

  Evan smirked. He’d never ordered him around before. “Go get some onions in that greenhouse and if you like you can wash and chop them as well.”

  Will stared at Nath in shock as he went to do Evan’s bidding.

  Evan proudly produced a bowl lined with tissue. “Fill her up.”

  He took the basket and looked him in the eye. “Your sister? I sure did.”

  Laughter came with ease and kept going until Evan was back in the kitchen recalling all the spells his mother taught him. Will stared after him, confused.

  By the time Nath resurface with his arms full of onions, smelling of earth and salt air, Evan had magicked a block of cheddar to self-grate and set out the pans. He opened one of their medical packs and drew out a massive nug of weed, they could have more than one type of herb this afternoon.

  A cry from outside had every slicing, dicing and rinsing spell drop. He exchanged looks with Nath and they ran outside. They burst into laughter as a stressed-looking Will turned around clutching the back of his knee coming face-to-face with a big black cock.

  “Oh, this is brilliant,” Nath grinned, folding his arms and leaning on the wall.

  Will evaded another vicious peck and seized the last egg. He dashed out of the coop, slammed the pen in the cockerel’s face and brushed past their laughing asses into the kitchen with his bounty. “Don’t ever ask me to go in there again. Filthy fucking things.”

  “People do this every day, or they go and buy their food. Most don’t live like royalty,” said Evan.

  Will glared but it turned to a smirk when Evan asked if he’d light a fire.

  He was keenly aware of them watching him whisk the eggs and cast chunks of butter into three hot pans. It was just like the Sundays back home when he woke up to his father’s delicious concoctions. He smiled to himself and juggled the simplest smells that kept everything from going to shit. The smell of delicious ingredients filled the air and Evan inhaled the aroma, mouthwatering cheese, fresh herbs, fat onions and a touch of pepper.

  He served up to a pair of surprisin
gly eager faces. This would satisfy his family but Nath and Will had been brought up on the finest cuisine.

  “This is excellent,” said Nath. “Who taught you to cook?”

  “My parents. Everyone had a dinner night and mine was Monday,” Evan replied fighting the urge to shovel. “They weren’t really expecting me to become royalty.”

  “They would’ve known greatness would find you even if you didn’t seek it,” said Nath.

  “But they wanted me to have as much time as possible without the quip of my unique,” he said.

  They finished eating and he looked to Will.

  “I’ll admit it was decent food,” said Will, leaning back on his chair with a smile. “Didn’t realise cooking was so easy.”

  “It is. Maybe I should teach you and you can cook Dante dinner.”

  Will’s smile dropped and he became tense. “Don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Evan and Nath exchanged private glances. If Will’s cut-glass cheekbones weren’t glowing a soft peachy pink he might’ve gotten away with feigning innocence. “Alright,” he said, sipping his tea.

  “The next assault,” said Nath, sensing Will’s burning discomfort. “We need to prepare.”

  Evan set about healing Nath’s scrapes and bruises before moving on to Will’s. He glared at Evan the entire time and a small victory was his.

  “We move tonight on the city. The town hall will be heavily guarded, but with dragon fire and military back-up we have the favourable outcome,” Nath continued.

  “How are we getting the ambassador out?” asked Will. “Dragon fire is all well and good but it’s decimating.”

  “That’s where I come in. My powers are growing stronger every day. Under Lunara’s blessing every enemy we bring to justice, every abomination we vanquish, pushes me closer to a higher power and I’ll be able to summon the lunar light of the gods.”