A Heart Wrapped in Thorns #7
Just moments later, Pip came bounding up and ran right to him, yipping excitedly.
Right behind him came heavy footsteps, and then Keone was before him, even more beautiful than he was six months ago, and this close, it was easy to see he was dressed in clothes and armor of the highest quality.
Combined with that jewel on his forehead, a tradition Aurélien had never seen…
He squashed all his questions, no matter how badly they wanted to be voiced.
Keone prowled slowly across the room toward him, and Aurélien hated he was happy to see the stupid bastard.
He didn't want to be happy. He wanted to shove Keone over the balcony railing, though it would be better if there was a giant mud puddle at the bottom.
"What do you want?"
His heart seized in his chest as Keone knelt, going down to one knee and bowing his head low. "To apologize, Your Highness. I acted like a coward and a fool, ran away like a child, instead of accepting the fate I very much wanted to embrace. Apologies are not enough, I know, but you have them."
Damn this stupid, infuriating, confounding bastard. Hands fisted tightly in his lap, Aurélien asked bitingly, "Accepting what fate?"
Smiling softly, wry and fond all at once, Keone replied, "That I would find myself happily tangled in thorns."
"Well, you burned them away quite thoroughly, though I don't know why you bothered, so I don't see what you have to be concerned about.
" He wouldn't be moved, he wouldn't. Keone had snuck out on him six months ago.
Aurélien didn't give a damn about his stupid apology, no matter how sincere it seemed or how prettily it was delivered.
Keone lowered his head, then slowly lifted it again.
"I am sorry I took so long to return, Your Highness.
As I said, I fled initially because I was avoiding my fate.
I was stubbornly determined not to do what some ambiguous, lofty fate told me to do.
But I regretted it immediately. I think that's why I left one of my scales, because I knew I was being stupid and would return. "
"So you did leave it on purpose." Aurélien hated that made him feel a little better. He didn't want to feel better, damn it. He wanted Keone to go away again and stop being so stupidly infuriating.
"Yes. I was already on my way back when I was notified of a family emergency and had to return home to address it.
My family did not want me to leave again, but I could not remain without you by my side.
If you will forgive my gross stupidity and give me a second chance.
" He smiled fleetingly, teasingly. "I was told any who could breach your thorns and climb the tower had the right to your hand in marriage.
I figured that might be my only chance to get you to talk to me again, even if it was just to tell me to fuck off before you threw me off the balcony. "
Damn it all.
"What was the family emergency?" Aurélien asked quietly. "Is everyone all right?"
"My eldest sister fell deathly ill. She is recovering, thankfully, but it will be some time before she can resume her full duties.
The healers say it's highly possible she won't be able to, that she will remain weak and sickly the rest of her life.
So I am very likely to be named crown prince next year.
" He reached up to lightly touch the jewel on his forehead—no, this close, it was easy to see it had somehow been embedded.
"Until she is able to resume her duties, I am Acting Crown Prince.
My parents and younger siblings are managing for me until I return, but I must do so soon. "
"Crown Prince? Of where?"
"Anshara."
"Anshara?" Aurélien repeated incredulously. Anshara was a nation composed of a remote chain of islands. They weren't cut off from the world, per se, but they didn't go out of their way to invite foreigners and weren't seen often around the rest of the world. "Do all of you turn into dragons?"
Keone laughed. "No, only the royal family can do that. It's one of our deepest secrets. Probably wasn't smart to shift out in the open the way I did, but I wasn't getting through your thorns otherwise."
"Have you, then?" Aurélien asked, so beyond annoyed with himself. "Gotten through my thorns?"
Smile softening, eyes warm and fond and filled with remorse, damn the man, Keone replied, "That's not for me to say, Your Highness."
"Oh, stand up, you're getting on my nerves pretending to be humble," Aurélien said, standing and going over to add wood to the stove and set the kettle for tea.
When he turned back around, Keone had removed all but his shirt and breeches, setting the rest of his clothes and gear neatly aside. "Make yourself at home, I guess."
Keone grinned. "I brought you apology presents, if that matters. I already gave Pip hers."
"My dog is easily swayed."
"I know, that's why I started with her," Keone replied, still grinning. Aurélien had never wanted to punch and kiss one person so badly. "Shall I fetch your gifts?"
"Do whatever you want. I can't stop you."
Laughing, clearly pleased for no good reason Aurélien could find, Keone headed out and returned just a few minutes later carrying a large bag and his saddles bags. He set them down on a stack of empty crates and started going through the large bag.
Before he could hand over the boxes and bags he took out, though, shouts and exclamations came from outside. "Damn it," Aurélien muttered. Why couldn't they have left him alone for just another hour? Even half an hour.
"They won't bother us," Keone said. "I did not travel alone this time, and my people will keep your mother and everyone else at bay. They can stand outside and gawk if they must, but that's it, until you choose to leave the tower and speak with them."
Aurélien stared at him, warm with affection and thorny with frustration. "You left. I trusted you. I brought you up here and let you into my bed and you left."
Bowing low, so elegant and beautiful it was unfair, Keone replied, "I was a fool.
I didn't even want to leave. I was just panicked and stubborn about all the wrong things.
I am sorry, from the very bottom of my heart.
" He looked up, not lifting from his bow.
"Is there anything I can do to earn your forgiveness, my love? "
"I really, truly, sincerely, and utterly hate you," Aurélien said.
Keone smiled softly as he rose and held out his arms. "Come here. Please?"
Aurélien went, wrapping his arms around Keone's waist as those strong, solid arms he'd missed so much held him tightly. The first human touch he'd felt in six long months, the only touch in the world that he had ever missed. "You're a jerk," he said against Keone's chest.
"I know," Keone said, kissing the top of his head. "Would you be willing to keep putting up with me anyway? Come home with me and be my prince consort?"
"I don't know anything about Anshara, not even the language. I don't know that I'm the best fit, especially as your sister…" He scowled as Keone put a finger to his lips.
"Yes or no?"
"Yes, of course, I was simply pointing out maybe you should reconsider."
Keone cupped his face and kissed him, soft and sweet and burning like fire.
"No. I walked away from you once, and the agony of it nearly destroyed me, and when that wasn't killing me, the shame of my behavior, of my terrible mistake, haunted me.
I came prepared to do whatever was demanded of me to earn your forgiveness. "
"As long as you've learned your lesson," Aurélien whispered, happily letting Keone kiss him again.
Sweeping him up, Keone carried him over to the bed and set him on the edge of it, then gathered up all the gifts from before and brought them over, sitting down next to him and dropping the pile in his lap.
Aurélien opened them slowly, admiring beautifully illustrated books, jewels more beautiful than anything even his mother owned, an entire box of thread in vivid colors he'd never have been able to make himself, clothes, and more.
"Thank you," he said when he finally finished.
"They're all so thoughtful. I've never had such gifts.
" He ran his thumb over the opal pendant that was his favorite, then looked up at the jewel embedded in Keone's forehead.
"Will I get a jewel like that, as your spouse? "
"Yes, it's necessary for connecting to the oceanic magic that protects Anshara. I will tell you everything on the voyage home, and by the time we arrive, you'll be able to speak the language well enough to please even my impossible father. I promise."
"I believe you. First, though, you'll have to face my mother."
Keone scoffed. "Earning your forgiveness was the only challenge I feared failing. Your mother does not trouble me. If all else fails, I'll eat her." He winked.
Aurélien laughed. "Oh, to see the look on her face as she thinks that is precisely what is about to happen. Do not change into a dragon, though, then we'll never be rid of her."
The encounter would be predictable and tedious.
His mother would rant and rave when he said he was leaving, about how the magic was meant to serve the kingdom, which really meant her.
Then she would learn Keone was from Anshara, which would put that hungry gleam in her eye, and she'd all but throw him on the ship herself with gifts aplenty to please her new allies that she'd be able to brag about for the rest of her life.
Or maybe Keone's companions had already told her where they were from, and she was already selecting and packing up the gifts and the carriage was ready and waiting to take him to the harbor.
However it happened, he didn't care. He was free.
Keone lifted his hand and kissed the palm.
Aurélien frowned. "I still have my thorns. If you're here, and burned away the ones around the tower…" But they were lighter, as they'd been the morning he'd woken alone.
"Why should they disappear? The only thorns you wanted burned were the ones outside.
They're part of you, my prince of thorns who reminds people that closeness of any sort must be earned.
" Keone kissed his palm again, then his wrist, then leaned in to kiss his throat.
"The flowers are new. Back home we call them Crown of Thorns. "
"Flowers?" Aurélien pulled away, fumbled for the small mirror on his bedside crate, and stared in shock at the cluster of flowers on his throat, right where the vine ended, where he'd long ago thought it seemed like a flower should grow.
They were dark pink with yellow centers, soft and pretty. Crown of Thorns.
Smiling, he set the mirror aside, along with all the gifts, then turned back to Keone, pulling him down onto the bed. "Want to ignore the world for a few more hours?"
"Yes, I definitely want to do that," Keone said, a faint growl in his voice as he leaned in for the first of many kisses.
End