Chapter 2

IT HAD BEEN, Ash thought excitedly, a day of firsts. And it was still only mid-morning. There was almost nothing he liked more than a new adventure, so the carriage ride with the stuffy coachman and the tour through the public portion of the stone and marble castle with the peppy uniformed woman delighted him. Still, they paled in comparison to the thrill of his earlier meeting with the very pinnacle of loveliness.

Knowing himself, he wondered what his reaction would have been if the blonde had simply thanked him for his compliment, and perhaps given him what he imagined would be a very enchanting smile. Would he have left it at that? It was possible, but there wasn't much of a point in dwelling on it now. If there was anything he enjoyed more than unfamiliar adventure, it was conquering a challenge. Though the thought excited him, he filed it away for later contemplation as he was blatantly assessed by the crown prince of Ikronia. Nero Aracovin, the recently engaged Prince of Dragons.

"You don't look like I thought you would, from your letters," Nero said, frowning a little. "How old are you, again?"

"26."

"You look younger."

"Yeah, I know."

It was a little unnerving, but not a deal breaker, Nero decided. But he'd imagined someone with a little more… Grit. He'd need it to avoid getting chewed up and spit out by Laurel. But Ash's references were as impressive as they'd seemed on paper. He'd done his due diligence in researching them to be sure.

He'd helped to bring people out of catatonia, even comas. Long term phobias, behavioral disorders, mental disorders, cured with his unique strain of healing magic. It had seemed almost fantastical to Nero, until he'd reached out to some of the patients Ash had worked on. Their gratitude toward him had been too genuine, too joyfully sincere to be faked, in his opinion.

It all seemed perfect, but for the fact that to Nero's knowledge, Ash had never attempted treatment on another magic user. Would that change things? Particularly a sorcerer whose powers were as unpredictable as Laurel's.

"But you've never worked with another magic user, right?"

"If your friend's problem with his magic is rooted in some kind of trauma or PTSD like you say, then it should work the same way. I just have to, kind of, rewire the part of his brain that's being blocked by the bad stuff."

"You make it sound easy," Nero noted, unsure.

"Not at all," Ash admitted, shaking his head. "It can take time, even for way simpler stuff than this. You said he's pretty bad off, right?"

"Definitely," Nero murmured. It was uncomfortable discussing it, but he had a feeling they were all going to have to get pretty uncomfortable for Laurel to ever get better. "He's improving, mentally. But the magic situation hasn't changed."

"You said it hurts him to use it?"

"If he's trying to use it, yes. Otherwise, it just comes out, without him meaning it to."

"Which is dangerous, because he has a fairly high power level," Ash recalled, dragging a finger down the notes he'd scribbled out from the information in Nero's letters to him.

"Fairly high isn't how I'd describe it," Nero said. "He's incredibly powerful. Or, he was, I mean."

"I guess I'd need some kind of demonstration from him to really know," Ash mused. "But it doesn't sound like he'd be able to give me one."

"I'm sure you could get one, if you push him hard enough. But I don't think you'll want it as much as you're imagining."

"Temperamental?"

"Severely," Nero agreed. "But like I said, he's doing a lot better. It took me a long time to find you, so… He's had some time to make progress on that end."

"I can tell you're not completely sold," Ash stated bluntly, but without offense. "But I can do this. I haven't failed a patient yet. It's just a matter of cooperation from him, and a lot of patience."

"That's the other problem," Nero said, hesitant. "Laurel is… Difficult. I don't know how cooperative he's going to be for something like this."

"I can't help him if he doesn't let me."

"I understand. He's just a closed off sort of person. It's a defense mechanism."

Leaning back in his chair, Ash inhaled deeply. "It would be helpful for me to know what he's so traumatized from."

"It's not my place to say," Nero repeated. "I understand why you need to know, and I sympathize with you. But you're not going to hear it from me. You'll have to get him to tell you."

"Here's the way this works," Ash started, rubbing his palms together. "Once I start working on him, I'll see all of that stuff anyway. It's a really intimate process. Like, really intimate."

"You said you'll see his memories in your head," Nero remembered.

"See them, feel them, all that," Ash confirmed. He'd suffered through reliving some fairly gruesome injuries with his patients.

"Feel them," Nero repeated. Squeezing his eyes closed, he pressed his fingers to them, tormented by a moral dilemma. "You said the more difficult cases you've taken were because of illnesses, physical accidents, things like that."

"Right."

"This is… Not that."

"But you won't tell me what it is," Ash determined.

"I can't. Laurel has to tell you."

Finally sighing, Ash raised his hands. "We're going in circles here. I get it. He's been through a lot, and you don't want to tell his secrets. I'm fine hearing it from him, but I'm just letting you know that if he doesn't cooperate with me, then we won't make any progress."

"He wants to be helped," Nero promised. "But I need you to understand that you can't push him. That's the most important thing. Seriously," he reiterated, gaze flicking between each of Ash's eyes. "Laurel means a lot to me. I can't put him through this if it's going to make him worse."

Endeared to the concerned tone, Ash gave a slow nod. "I can be gentle. As long as everyone's okay if it takes some time getting him to open up."

"Absolutely," Nero said, mostly soothed by the assurance. "Nobody's expecting this to be a quick fix."

"Well, as long as you know." They sat in silence for a few moments before Ash spoke again. "You know, it's pretty selfless of you to try so hard to help him. Most people only do this kind of thing for their spouse or kid."

"Trust me, I'm not that selfless," the prince answered wryly. "It's a complicated situation. And I owe him." March was alive because of him, Nero thought.

Glancing around the room quickly to make sure no one was listening to them, Ash leaned in a bit. "I know you're getting married and everything, so don't get offended, but you're sure this guy is just a friend to you?"

Whirling around in his chair to make sure March wasn't in the room with them, Nero shook his head. "We have a… convoluted history, but he's just a friend. Do me a favor and contain your observations about that kind of thing. My fiancé's on the verge of a nervous breakdown as it is."

"Is that why he isn't here for this talk?" Ash wondered. "You think any extra stress might push him over the edge?"

"Wedding planning stress. You understand."

Ash shrugged a shoulder, satisfied with the answer. Nero was probably telling the truth, but at the end of the day, it didn't make much difference to him. He didn't need to approve of every aspect of this Laurel guy's life to help him.

"So what's our next step?"

"We'll all have to meet, and discuss the treatment. It would be better here," Nero decided. "It's more neutral. He's going to resist at first, so it's better if his sister is here, too. Is that okay with you?"

"Fine with me."

Wanting sooner rather than later, Nero opted for the very next day. Ash agreed, making it clear that his schedule was open to whatever the prince needed from him for the project. For the amount of money he was making, he could hardly complain about the time he'd be putting into it.

With everything wrapped up, Ash stood, preparing to head back to the nearby inn he'd booked for the foreseeable future. Before exiting the room, he turned back to Nero, remembering the earlier part of his morning.

"Actually, there is one more thing you can do for me. If you don't mind," he said, grinning a bit.

"Anything."

"It's just that I met someone on the way over here. He claimed to know you, and I was wondering if you could tell me who he is. His name, at least."

Humming, Nero tilted his head. "Sure, I suppose. Someone in the castle?"

"No, at a coffee shop in the city."

"What did he look like?"

Clearing his throat, Ash leaned his upper body onto the back of a chair, wondering how to describe the moody noble. "Hair like liquid sunshine, face to rival the gods, eyes like pools of…" Trailing off, he tilted his head as he took in the prince's own honey-colored eyes. "His eyes were light brown, like yours."

Feeling a particularly ominous feeling in the pit of his stomach, Nero forced a neutral expression onto his face. "I don't really know you well enough to know your humor yet. So I can't tell if you're joking."

"Joking?" Ash repeated, and shook his head. "Not at all. He was the most exquisite human being I've ever had the pleasure of seeing with my own eyes." Remembering the connection that the blonde male had claimed to have to the prince, Ash quickly clarified. "I mean that in the most respectful way possible, of course."

"Was he nice?"

"Oh, not at all. He despised me from the moment I walked up to him." But if he had been as sweet as he looked, Ash thought, he might have had to get down on one knee and propose that very moment. And that wouldn't have been good for anyone. So he supposed it was a blessing in disguise to have been verbally slapped at and unceremoniously rejected.

Nodding slowly, Nero winced, rubbing his chin. "That's… unfortunate."

"Is it?"

"What did he say about me?" Nero wasn't sure why he even bothered asking the question. It wasn't like he knew two irritable, brown-eyed blondes with a face to rival the gods.

"Actually," Ash said, tucking his thumbs in his pockets as a defense to the awkwardness. "He said you were his ex."

It had to be the sharpest irony he'd ever experienced. Wanting to laugh hysterically, Nero could only shake his head, pursing his lips. He hadn't thought the situation could possibly become any more complicated than it already was. Eventually giving up on finding a way to phrase it tactfully, Nero looked grim as he spoke. "That's Laurel."

"Am I safe in assuming you don't know two Laurels?"

"That would be correct."

Biting down on the wave of elation that rose within him, Ash only grinned, tapping his fingers in a cheerful little beat on the fabric of the chair. "I don't find it so very unfortunate at all."

"You said he despises you already. And that's before he knows what you'll be trying to do to him."

"He does, yes. But that's because he hasn't had time to get to know me yet."

Running a hand through his hair, Nero wondered which of them he felt more sorry for. "You're going to need that confidence going forward, or you'll find yourself in a world of hurt."

"Don't worry," Ash assured him cheerfully. "My confidence never falters."