Chapter Sixteen #2
“It is indeed,” Malachi said perhaps more loftily than he would have in Kadeesha’s absence. “Shionne will escort you elsewhere so she may speak with you in private,” he told the older fae woman.
“Wait!” the woman’s son called out when Shionne motioned for them to follow her out of the banner room. “If I may … may ask a favor of you, Your Grace?”
His mother cut her eyes at him, scolded him to be silent. He inclined his head in respect but kept on. “It is only a small request, and I am only brave enough to ask it because of how generous you have been with my mother.”
Malachi raised a curious brow. “I am entertained by your courage. You may ask away.”
The boy glanced between Malachi and his Cadre on the dais.
His Cadre was well-known for acting as the agents who dispensed Malachi’s wrath in certain cases.
The boy’s gumption faltered. He swallowed.
“I am not familiar with every observed custom that is expected when interacting with the crown and asking a boon to be granted,” the boy admitted.
Smart kid.
“In situations such as this you would bow to show proper reverence before asking a boon of your king,” Jakobi supplied, amused.
The boy nodded and knelt. When he rose, he said, “I’ve always wanted to train to be a soldier.
Not one of the warden’s,” he added hurriedly.
“I would like … I mean, is it possible to come back with you to the palace and train to be a royal guard?” He pushed back his shoulders and held his chin high.
“Among our kind, the reputation of your bloodline is the merit by which individuals get judged initially, is it not? Therefore, I would like it to speak to my merit and value as a royal guard-in-training. I am of age. Or, at least, I will be shortly. My seventeenth Naming Day is in five days’ time. ”
“No.”
The boy seemed stunned by the word. Malachi continued, flatly, “You will remain with your mother.” He shrugged off the hurt that flashed in the boy’s eyes.
Malachi admired his tenacity, but he was too young.
He’d become an obligation. Even a ward, of sorts.
And there was no way in hell Malachi was assuming that responsibility any sooner than he had to.
As it would be when he took a wife, he’d put off actually creating an heir—a youngling he’d then be responsible for looking after and keeping alive—for as long as he could.
Kadeesha, to no surprise, cleared her throat. She, evidently, couldn’t help herself when it came to inserting herself into business that wasn’t hers. “I think you should consider his request,” she said firmly.
Of course you do. “I don’t give a shit what you think,” snapped Malachi.
She was overstepping. She was here to play a role, not offer unsolicited opinions about how he ruled.
The reminder almost rolled off his tongue.
But with her people and his around, he then might have an incident on his hands because she’d surely try to filet him for it.
Then his Cadre would react, making her Nkita react.
Tempers flaring in private was fine. But such an episode in front of onlookers wouldn’t do because then he’d need to respond with violence.
His enemies would perceive anything less as weakness.
“Is the path you ask to pursue what you truly desire?” Kadeesha asked the boy, ignoring Malachi’s ire.
“It is,” the boy stated emphatically. His eyes shifted to Malachi. “However, only if my king allows it.”
Malachi thought he might’ve heard something about the boy’s king being an ass that the princess muttered under her breath. She was racking up quite the bill that she’d pay for later. But still he said nothing.
“If you owe me a debt for what happened back at the palace, then I’d like you to grant the boy’s request as part of your repayment,” Kadeesha told Malachi.
“That’s not how it works, love,” he returned. “We’ve already negotiated the terms of my repayment and you only asked that you and your Nkita accompany me here.”
“That isn’t how it works and you know it,” Kadeesha argued back. “I was the wronged party, so the debt is repaid when I say it is repaid.”
Malachi gnashed his teeth. He didn’t relish being beholden to anybody for anything. It was both a matter of pride and an unacceptable vulnerability. “If I grant this latest request, you will consider my debt repaid in full,” he told the princess.
“Fine,” Kadeesha said immovably. Dark amethyst flames flickered within the depths of her brown eyes—a tell he was learning meant that she was annoyed.
Malachi schooled his expression, didn’t show that it made his cock jump.
Revealing her actual—and maddeningly perpetual—effect on him was another unacceptable thing.
However, he couldn’t lie to himself; each time she challenged him, he enjoyed the dance.
“Your boon is granted,” he told the boy. “On one condition: Are you all right with his request?” he asked the stripling’s mother.
She gazed at her son with a mixture of worry and pride for an extended time before turning to face Malachi.
“I am,” she answered at last. She turned back to the boy.
“Make good choices. Do not forget who and where you come from. Make your father and I even prouder than we already are,” she impressed upon her son.
Once more, Malachi locked his expression down.
The woman’s words were eerily similar to the last sentences Malachi’s own mother had ever spoken to him.
He’d been a boy of seven—not nearly seventeen—when he’d heard them and his mother had then erected a rune ward around him that she’d prayed would hold even in her death.
Malachi scrubbed away the memory he tried very hard not to ever revisit.
He now apparently had a new soldier for his palace. More important, though, he now had names of soldiers in this stronghold that needed seeing to.
“You both should go—now,” he said to the mother and son. “Same for all of you,” he commanded to the other servants. Turning to his Cadre, he grinned viciously.
“Now we truly begin the hunt.”