20. Hiero

Chapter twenty

Hiero

I was just finishing up an early dinner when there was a knock on my door. Only a few people had the security code to my private quarters and, expecting it to be Frito, I was pleasantly surprised to see Skylar standing on the other side wearing a midriff bejeweled with Diva and a pair of cutoffs that showed off his long, toned limbs.

“Frito let me in,” he said quietly. “I hope that’s okay?”

“Of course, it’s okay. Did you forget the code?”

“I did. I’m sorry. I’ve been a bit out of it today.”

His face was paler than usual, and he looked a little queasy too. “How are you feeling? A little under the weather?” I asked.

“Yes, I think so.”

“Want something to eat?”

“No, thank you. I ate already.”

“Care to join me then? ”

He nodded, so I led him over to the wooden table and two chairs. Gripping his stomach, he looked like he was going to be ill.

“Let me get you some ginger ale. Maybe that will help settle your stomach.”

“Thank you… Daddy ,” he said with a strange timidity. Why had he hesitated?

I poured some ginger ale over enchanted ice and served it to him with a twist of lime. I grabbed some crackers too in case he changed his mind about being hungry.

“I didn’t mean to disturb you, if you’d like to finish your meal.” He gestured toward my plate.

“I don’t mind. I’m always happy to see you.”

He fiddled with the end of his loose braid, looking everywhere but at me, so I reached for his hand and squeezed. “Hey, sweetheart, want to tell me what’s on your mind?”

He swallowed, eyes welling up with tears, then let out a tiny, helpless whimper before the waterworks began. I immediately scooped him into my arms and led him to the couch where I could set him on my lap. With his arms wrapped around my neck, he buried his face in my shoulder and quietly sobbed. I rubbed slow circles onto his back and waited for the tempest to pass, then gently wiped his face with the hem of my shirt. I’d need to stock up on tissues for my sensitive boy.

“You having a day?” I asked and he nodded, pressing his lips tightly together so he’d not be tempted to chew. “Want to talk about it?” I’d assumed that was why he came over, but maybe he just needed to be held.

“I don’t want to trap you,” he said, which was an odd thing to say. Of all my concerns about our relationship, that was probably the farthest from my mind. Trap me, please, I wanted to tell him, but I wasn’t so sure how he’d take it in his current state of mind.

“Is this about our conversation last night?” I asked, and he blinked as if just remembering that we’d spoken.

“I summoned you?” he said and then with more certainty, “I summoned you.”

“Yup.”

“You tucked me in,” he said as a fresh round of tears flooded his pretty eyes.

“Yes, I did. I could do that for you every night if you moved in here with me.”

Was it bold of me to suggest it outright? Too soon? We’d been together for a little over a month, but I honestly didn’t care if anyone (mainly my sister) thought we were moving too fast. For me, it wasn’t fast enough. I wanted him with me all the time, in my bed and at my table. He was my lover and my boy, and he belonged with his Daddy.

Skylar glanced around my apartment as if seeing it for the first time.

“I can go through my stuff and get rid of some things to make room for you,” I offered. “You can decorate the place however you want. ”

“That’s not…” He paused to gather himself. “That’s very generous of you, Hiero, but that’s not what this is about. Not exactly.”

“Okay. So, what is it about?”

“There’s something I need to tell you, and I’m not really sure how you’ll take it, but I think it’s important for you to know–”

The door to my apartment swung open and Frito barged in without even bothering to knock.

“What the fuck, Frito?” I asked, hackles raised, because my privacy was important to me, and Skylar’s too, especially when he was so clearly upset.

“Sorry to interrupt you, boss, but we’ve got a situation downstairs.”

“What kind of situation?” I growled.

“The fae prince is back and he’s brought reinforcements.”

The bar was still closed to the public, a small blessing, but that hadn’t stopped the prince and a dozen of his guards from strolling inside and cluttering up the place with their boots and their weapons. I assessed the potential damage to life and property. Before I could stop him, Skylar rushed around me to hammer the prince with some choice words .

“What the fuck are you doing here, Cedrych? Why can’t you stay in Emrallt Valley where you belong?”

“This is none of your concern, Skylar,” the prince said as he drew his steel. “And I’m not here for you anyway. I’m here for the minotaur.”

“The fuck you are. You can march your sorry ass right out of this bar before you get your butt kicked all the way back to Crystal Castle. And I’ll make sure the Daily Scrolls know all about it. I can just see the headlines now: Prince Cedrych Gets His Nose Broken at Borderlands Shifter Bar. Your family portraits will never look the same again.”

That headline sounded pretty accurate to me, and I appreciated my boy’s sass, but seeing the prince’s sword so near to my beloved rattled my nerves, so I grabbed hold of Skylar’s shoulders and steered him toward the bar where Monica was already on guard.

“Stay back here,” I told them both. “No matter what.”

“This is ridiculous,” Skylar said, climbing onto the bar to shout at the prince from across the room. “Do you really want to make an enemy of the Wolfsbane Clan, Cedrych? What will Mommie Dearest say when she finds out you’ve been causing trouble in the shifter realm? She’ll ship you off to the icy tundra of the Northern Realm where you’ll freeze your nuts off, and your dick will never get hard again.”

I had to hold back a chuckle at that colorful description .

“Actually, she’ll be shipping me off to elvish territory at the summer solstice, so it hardly matters to me anymore,” was the prince’s retort.

“You foolish, spoiled, selfish man. I seriously can’t believe I ever–” Skylar was interrupted when Monica clamped her hand over his mouth and forced him down from the bar. I nodded in appreciation. However true his words may be, I didn’t want the prince to take his ire out on Skylar.

“You’ve clearly come here for a reason,” I said to the prince. “What do you want?”

“I’ve come here to fight you, Minotaur, for the honor of the fae.”

Royals were known to be blowhards from time to time, but this seemed a tad ridiculous. “Fighting me will bring honor to your people?” I asked dubiously while scanning the faces of the guards and trying to gauge my own odds of success.

“You besmirched my good name during our last encounter, and I’ve come to settle the score.”

“Good name, huh?” I said with a deep sigh of resignation. The prince was spoiling for a fight, and I doubted diplomacy would dissuade him. Blades would only lead to one or both of our deaths, not to mention the dozen or more of my shifter kin who’d slowly filtered into the bar and were now hovering on the sidelines, waiting to see which way this thing went. My clan were not known for their restraint when it came to bar fights, not to mention the few wild wolves among us, and the fae were now in our territory. The guards positioned themselves around their prince in a loose semicircle, hands on their swords while glancing around nervously. If they got involved, then things were going to get real ugly, real quick.

“Let’s make this a fair fight, Your Highness,” I said while stretching out my arms and rolling my shoulders. I was getting on in years and the last thing I needed was to throw out my back. “Hand-to-hand combat, no swords or blades, just a good old-fashioned boxing match.”

“What about your horns?” he said, eyeing them with trepidation.

“I’ll keep my horns out of it, if you’ll call off your men.”

Cedrych glanced around and, seeing himself outnumbered, nodded tersely. With a flourish that he surely must have practiced in front of a mirror, he removed his emerald cloak and handed it off to one of his lackeys then did the same with his sword belt. I had no doubt this soldier would offer the blade right back to him at a moment’s notice, but I had to take whatever advantages I could get.

“I’m ready,” Cedrych said and raised his fists. “Come at me, Minotaur.”

I advanced on him slowly, noting his stance and posture. His form was good, and he seemed well-seasoned in combat. Hadn’t Skylar mentioned he liked to start fights? He must have won at least some of them with skill alone.

We circled the center, each of us testing the others’ reflexes with a few short jabs. The prince was agile and light on his feet, surely an advantage of the fae. I was slower, more ponderous, but I knew when to strike and when to pivot. After trading a few more light punches, my fist glanced his chin. The prince stumbled and was slow to regain his footing.

I gave him a beat to recover, dodging a vicious left-hook that came out of nowhere before socking him solidly in the solar plexus. A woosh of air escaped him and he staggered backward, arm raised to block my next blow. I wasn’t interested in humiliating the prince, only putting him in his place, which was far, far away from here.

“Had enough?” I asked with a sideways stance while still balancing on the balls of my feet.

“Not quite,” the prince said, and then he drew an ornate dagger from his deerskin boot. Fucking royals, I thought bitterly. Leading with the blade, he slashed through the air like lightning as he strode toward me.

My kin erupted at the sight of the prince’s steel. The sounds of bottles being broken and the scrape of swords being drawn echoed in the cavernous room. Distantly, I heard Skylar calling the prince every bad name in the book. The boy’s vocabulary was impressive.

I dodged the prince’s blade as he sliced the air to ribbons, hoping he’d hurry up and tire himself out. I may have been bigger and slower, but I was well-versed in defending myself. It was a matter of survival.

The chaos surrounding us shook the very foundation of the bar, but I kept my eyes trained on the prince’s movements, trying to anticipate his next move. Feinting to one side, I knocked his wrist heartily, trying to dislodge the dagger from his hand, but he pivoted lightly and jabbed again, aiming for my mid-section. I swiveled away, but the sudden searing pain just above my hip told me his blade had made contact.

Then he caught me with that vicious left-hook, which sent me reeling to one side. I steadied myself on the bar top, knocking over a few upturned chairs in the process. I put a barstool between us, pretending to be more stunned than I was, and as Cedrych approached with his dagger drawn, I lowered my horns.

“Hiero, look out,” Skylar called, but I’d already seen it coming. Not only was the prince an asshole, but he was a dirty fighter too, more than willing to stab someone in the back. Cedrych’s blade swung in a wide arc, his attempt to land a killing blow, but I ducked his attack and countered with a mighty headbutt. My horns collided with Cedrych’s rib cage, hard enough to lift him off his feet and hopefully bruise a few of his ribs in the process. The prince fell back on his ass, gasping for breath, and his knife went skittering across the ground. His guards began to circle us, closing in on me with weapons drawn, when Skylar suddenly landed in the fray, plucked up the dagger, and placed the cutting edge of it against the prince’s throat.

“Stay back,” Skylar shouted while dragging Cedrych to his knees by his hair. The brawl in progress halted as all eyes turned toward the two of them. Though I hated that he’d put himself in danger, Skylar appeared to me then as an avenging angel, bathed in the prismatic colors of the stained-glass windows, absolutely breathtaking.

“I demand you stop this madness before the prince gets hurt, because I will hurt him,” Skylar warned with a mad glint in his eyes. He looked pretty convincing to me. “Tell your guards to back off,” he commanded the prince.

Still clutching his ribs and gasping for air, the prince held up one hand, signaling for his guardsmen to fall back. I gave my own clan a similar order and the warring factions slowly separated from each other.

“Enough of this, Cedrych,” Skylar said and rounded the prince’s kneeling form so they were facing each other, still with the knife at his throat. “Your fight is not with me or these people. It’s your mother who’s been manipulating you your entire life. You let her treat me like garbage, and you lied to me and cheated on me. You broke my heart and caused me so much pain that I had to flee my only home. I found sanctuary here and acceptance, and now you’ve chased me here to punish me further. Why, Cedrych? Why would you do this to me? After all we’ve been through?”

Skylar started crying. The prince reached out, perhaps to comfort him, and I swiftly placed myself between them. Carefully, I pried the jeweled dagger from Skylar’s fingers and passed it off to one of my kin, not trusting the prince nor his men to possess it. In the meantime, my clan had made quick work of surrounding the guards and forcing them back toward the exit .

“Skylar,” the prince said, clamoring up to stand, but he had no other words of comfort to offer. I waited for him to apologize, but none was forthcoming, so I intervened.

“You’ve upset him, Your Highness. Again. And I won’t stand for it. If you come back here again looking for trouble, it will mean your death. I don’t care if I hang for it.”

His stormy blue eyes met mine long enough for me to see that his thunderous rage had subsided. Shamefaced, he nodded tightly and then, with one last longing glance toward Skylar, he turned tail and stalked out of the bar. Thankfully, his guards followed suit. A few of my kin shifted in order to trail behind to ensure they’d not start any more trouble. It was at that point the burning pain in my side let itself be known. My shirt was stuck to the bloody wound so I stripped it off to get a better look at the damage. The gash was just above my hip bone on the right side. I had no chest pain or shortness of breath, which meant my lungs were probably fine, but the cut was deep and still bleeding.

“He cut you?” Skylar said with a gasp. “I’ll kill him.” My feisty fae made a motion to chase after the prince, but I grabbed him round the waist and pulled him back.

“I need you here with me, boy. Let the prince go on now, and you tend to your Daddy. That’s an order.”

He blew out his breath in a whoosh of ire. Wet eyes glanced up at me and he nodded contritely. “I’m sorry, Hiero. All I ever do is cause trouble. ”

“Good thing I like trouble,” I said, rubbing his cheek. “Now how about you get me some hot water and clean cloth, and we’ll see what can be done about this cut?”

“Yes, you sit.” He steered me toward one of the few chairs still standing, and I collapsed onto it. Glancing around, I took stock in my surroundings. Broken chairs and broken bottles. One of the wooden barrels had been split open, and there was a swamp of ale all over the floor. Several of my cousins and friends were battered and bruised, but none seemed injured too badly. Members of my clan came over to congratulate me on kicking the prince’s ass, and I thanked them for the back up.

“Don’t act so surprised, Hiero,” my second cousin Daylen said to me. “That’s what family is for.”