Chapter 8
It was midafternoon by the time Vlash was able to leave the winery that doubled as the king’s palace and army training ground.
The king had enquired if he’d enjoyed the evening, to which he’d simply said that he had. His cousin had regarded him with narrowed eyes as if he wanted to say something.
“Don’t,” Vlash warned. He didn’t want well-meaning advice because he might take it. And then where would that leave him?
“We are all being forced to move on. We even have a human knight.”
Vlash clamped his teeth together. “I do not see you moving on.”
“I am older than you.”
“There are too few of us to be mixing bloodlines.”
“It’s not mixing bloodlines in a non-breeding pair.” The king smiled. That his cousin had noticed and enabled was going to be sand in Vlash’s socks for months.
Non-breeding pair. That was part of the problem. He should find a wife. Shouldn’t he? But he didn’t want that. It seemed too much like trying to replace what he’d lost.
All those thoughts churned as he drove home. His son sat silently next to him. He was mucking around with the human girl, Katie, who was Jordan’s sister.
He couldn’t bring himself to apologize for snapping at his son yesterday when Katie and he had been acting as a couple.
Had they spent the night together? Lekso had been granted a room, though not a permanent one like him, because he had no interest in joining and training in the army.
Lekso seemed happy to act human and go to college and become a lawyer.
Vlash’s fingers tapped the steering wheel in annoyance. In the palace, he could pretend nothing had changed. Now, he was returning to the life he hated.
Lekso cleared his throat. “You were dancing pretty close to Mason last night.”
Vlash shot him a glare. “I danced with a lot of people. I don’t know who you mean.”
“The man you left the party with.”
Vlash’s lips thinned.
“Mom would want you—"
“You barely remember her, so don’t tell me what she would want,” Vlash snapped.
Lekso glared at him. “I want you to be happy. Most of the time, you’re a prick.”
“Do not speak to me that way.”
“Or what? I’m not one of your soldiers. I’m your son.”
“Exactly. You are a child, so do as you’re told.”
“I’m an adult,” Lekso countered.
“Adult by human, not elvish, law.”
“News flash, we aren’t on Tariko.”
His knuckles whitened. “I’m the head archer. I can’t act out every whim.”
His soldiers would sneer and whisper, not because he was fucking a man, but because the man was human.
“You did last night.”
“That was an aberration.” And it couldn’t happen again. If it did, he might want more…he might become used to it. By his own admission, Mason was newly single. It had been rebound sex for both of them.
There’s been a lot of bounding and rebounding, and his ass was feeling rather well used and uncomfortable.
“Dad…”
Vlash shook his head. “I loved your mother.”
“And you’re allowed to move on. That’s all I’m saying.”
“You think if I date a human, I will relent?”
“I don’t care if you approve or not. But maybe if you had your own stuff going on, you wouldn’t care so much about who I’m seeing.”
“Your bloodline—"
“Jesus Christ, Dad. Look around. No one gives a fuck.”
“Then by the time you are my age—"
“If I reach your age—"
“Stop interrupting. By the time you reach my age, there may be no pure-blood elves or ogres or vampires. We will cease to exist.”
“And? You won’t be here to see it. You have no idea how much longer you have left. You’re two hundred and sixty-six.”
“And if I have my full lifespan?” No one knew how long elves would live.
There was so much unknown because of the collapse, and now magic was returning, and that changed everything again.
He didn’t want to think that his son may only have human years.
“I do not want to see another die.” He couldn’t.
It had hurt too much the first time. He’d only gone on because of Lekso.
“You’re afraid of getting hurt?” Lekso frowned.
Vlash didn’t answer. He couldn’t.
“All my life, you’ve been fearless. My friends were in awe and also terrified. Your position touched every part of my life. It’s why I can’t join the army the way you want. Your bow is too big for me to draw. I know you think I’m a disappointment—"
“I do not think that.” Lekso had adapted to the world in ways Vlash couldn’t.
“You act like you do.”
“If we were on Tariko—"
Lekso groaned. “We aren’t, and you can’t live as though we are. Perhaps you need to put down your bow.”
“When I do that, there will not be another.” There wouldn’t be another king, either. They were already vanishing. The scrap of the world they’d once held was fraying.
Lekso stared about the window.
Vlash let the silence grow for several minutes. “Your mother would be proud of the man you are becoming.”
“Are you?” his son asked without looking at him.
“Yes. You grew up in a world I didn’t understand. While I tried to bridge the old and new, you leaped ahead.” Vlash sighed. Like his cousin, he was aware he was irrelevant. A relic.
Lekso turned his head. “I’m sure you can find a way forward if you choose to.”
But he understood the past. He knew what was expected as head archer. The rules were clear, yet they also bound him in place. Lekso was right; moving on did scare him because he didn’t know what that looked like in this world.