As soon as they were inside the room with the door shut, Maric picked up the plain, wooden chair that had been sitting next to a small table in the corner of the room, placed it in the middle of the floor, and sat down. He directed Dara to sit on the bed with a wave of his hand.

He’d closed himself off again, his face analytical, unreadable. He was a prince once more, not a man.

“Okay,” Maric breathed, and he didn’t sound angry like Dara had half been expecting. He didn’t really sound anything except maybe a little tired. “Now can you explain to me why you’re here?”

Dara let out a slow exhale as he felt his stomach sink, because no, he really couldn’t. He wasn’t even sure he could fully explain it to himself. He swallowed and looked down. “I’m sorry, your highness.”

Maric sighed. “That’s not what I asked for, Dara.”

Dara forced himself to look at Maric’s collarbone. “I don’t have a good explanation, your highness.”

“Shall I have someone take you back, then?”

Dara did his best to keep his feelings off his face, but the way he pressed his lips together and the pinching of his eyebrows probably only broadcast his distress more clearly. He let out a shaky breath. “If that’s what you want, your highness.”

“Dara,” Maric said, annoyance creeping into his tone. “You went to all the trouble of getting to us, put yourself in danger, made a scene. You did all of that and now you’re here, with me, and suddenly you don’t even have the nerve to tell me why?”

“I don’t know,” Dara said, and his voice sounded strange to his ears. “The way you made me feel when we talked… I hadn’t felt like that in a very long time, and I got scared that if I never saw you again, I might never feel that way again. But I know that’s stupid because it’s feelings, not logic, and it’s wrong because I can’t just override a decision you made because of what I want. But… that’s what I did.”

“Okay,” Maric said, and he didn’t sound annoyed anymore. He sounded… Dara wasn’t sure. “How did I make you feel?”

Dara hung his head and pressed his palms over his eyes as he thought. It was the feeling of his magic stirring inside of him that he’d latched onto, but what emotions had prompted that? What had Maric given him that he hadn’t had in so long? He dropped his hands but continued staring at his lap. “I suppose… you made me feel like a person.”

“You are a person.”

“I felt safe.”

“You won’t be safe with me, Dara. You’ll be safe at a horse ranch.”

“But what does safe mean for someone who’s as hard to kill or do any permanent harm to as I am? I’m not afraid of pain. I’m afraid of that empty feeling when I’m hurt and I have to sit with the fact that nobody cares. That how I feel isn’t something that even crosses anybody’s mind.”

“That’s why I left you with Paige. Because I do care and I want what’s best for you. That was supposed to be the one right thing I’ve ever done by you, and somehow it still seems to have gone wrong.”

“I’m sorry. She seemed nice and the horses and—it was all great.” Dara sniffled and used his sleeves to rub tears away from his eyes. “I just can’t lose this feeling again. Please, Maric.”

Maric leant his head back and groaned. “Gods, Dara. Do you know what it does to me when you say my name like that?”

“I don’t.”

“Mm.” Maric was silent for a long moment, then he stood, walked over to the bed, and lay down next to Dara. “Tell me how you feel.”

“Ah… about what?”

“I don’t know. Whatever.” He turned his head to look at Dara. “I was listening. That’s what you just said you wanted, wasn’t it? For someone to listen to you and care?”

Dara hesitated. “I know that’s an unreasonable thing to ask from you.”

Maric folded his arms on his stomach. “This isn’t a trap, Dara. Talk.”

“I feel…” Gods, what did he feel? So many things, but all of it so hard to nail down. “I feel worthless, but like I’m not even good at being worthless. I can’t commit to it no matter how hard I try. I want to be useful and important, but I don’t even know if it would matter because it’s not like I was happy when I was. Because I was still alone and I just… I just don’t want to be alone anymore.”

“You’re not alone. I’m here.”

“But you’ll leave me again if I don’t give you a good reason you shouldn’t, and I don’t have one. I just have a whole lot of feelings.”

“Well, perhaps I have some feelings of my own.”

Dara turned to look at Maric. He had his head cushioned on his palms and he was staring up at the ceiling. “What are your feelings?”

“That I don’t want to hurt you anymore and that I don’t want to say goodbye. And if it happens that I can cater to both of those… I would not complain.”

“I don’t understand why you care. I’m a slave, and I’m not even good at it.”

Maric turned his head and his eyes locked with Dara’s. “You are a person. I thought we’d established that. I am also a person. People can have all kinds of feelings about other people and they don’t need a logical justification for it.”

Dara moved his hand towards Maric, but it ended up bunching in the blanket between them. “That’s true. You deserve to be a person with feelings as well.”

“I honestly don’t know where we go from here, Dara. You’re a person, but you’re a person who is a slave and even I don’t have the power to change that.”

“I don’t expect you to. I know this is what my life is.”

“How can you accept that? You’re a slave. In theory, you can do nothing but what you’re told, yet you’re here instead of where I left you and I’m sure that wasn’t easy. How can you just accept it when I tell you I can’t do anything when I have so much more power than you?”

Dara continued to meet Maric’s gaze. The layer of intimidation had fallen away between them once more, and even the frustration in Maric’s voice couldn’t bring it back. The prince was a threat. Maric, the man, was not, and that was who Dara was having this conversation with.

“I made a big, impulsive decision without thinking, and maybe that wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but at the end of the day, there was only so much damage I could have done. But you?” Dara smiled sadly and shook his head. “Everything you do has consequences, and not just for yourself. Just because many things would be possible for you doesn’t mean that any of them would be a good idea.”

“My father has gotten away with so much cruelty without challenge, yet I feel like one act of kindness could be my downfall.”

“Do you really want to help me?”

“Is that so hard to believe?”

Dara let out a slow breath. He wanted to say yes, because he was a slave, because he wasn’t even a useful one. Because Maric didn’t even know about the one thing that made him valuable. But it wasn’t about any of that, was it? The feelings that were growing between them weren’t about status or usefulness. “Nobody has cared about me for a very long time.”

“I know. I feel terrible that I’m a part of something that took you away from your family and put you through all of this suffering, you know. And I don’t know what to do about that. I don’t want to be a part of this any more, but if I’m not, I can’t change anything.”

“You should do what feels right to you, but keep in mind that if you step down, I won’t be your slave anymore. I’ll be given to someone else. Probably your father.”

“I mean no offense, but I don’t think he’d want you.”

Dara bit the inside of his cheek and looked away. “Trust me, okay? I’m doing my best to become a more useful slave, one he would want. One you will want for reasons beyond sentiment. But I need you for that.”

“Is this about being a bed slave or about being good at getting hurt? Either way, I’m not sure I like where this is going. I want you to be happy far more than I want you to be useful.”

Dara turned back to look at Maric. “You don’t want me to be a better bed slave?”

“Ah. So that was what you were referring to.”

“It wasn’t. Really. I just would have thought you would have seen me being better in that regard as a good thing.”

Maric sighed. “I don’t want a bed slave, Dara. I don’t think I ever really did. That’s not to say that I’m not attracted to you or sexually interested in you, of course. You know that’s not the case. But I only want what’s genuine.”

“Ah. Well, fortunately I’m not very good at being anything else.”

“Is sexual contact with me something you actually want? I’ve told myself it is, because you can be incredibly responsive, but you often look scared or unsure.”

“It’s nice. There’s just… a lot of fear. A lot of pressure to do a good job. And then I couldn’t do a good job because I was so nervous and it’s just a cycle, I suppose.”

“A cycle?”

“It’s like you’re just about to drift off to sleep when a man with a knife sits down next to you and tells you that if you’re not asleep by dawn, he’s going to stab you. And if he hadn’t said that, you would have been asleep before dawn because you always are, so now you’re scared so you can’t sleep even though you wouldn’t have a problem in the first place if you weren’t scared.”

Maric had been listening intently to Dara’s analogy, but he still looked confused. “And this is about… you not being able to edjaculate when we’re together?”

“I think it’s about a lot of things, and maybe they’re connected in a way. But yes, I suppose that’s one of them.”

“And in this analogy I’m the man with the knife?”

“I suppose. Or you’re the man who just switched shifts with the knife man and you also have a knife which you say you won’t stab me with, but. You know. You have it and you’re watching me try to sleep and no matter how nice you are, it’s not easy to just surrender and completely trust someone in that situation.”

“I’m watching over you and I’m going to stab the other knife man if he comes back.”

Dara couldn’t help but laugh at how sincere Maric sounded. “I like that.”

“Do you actually want to be able to ejaculate when we’re together? Is it important to you for reasons other than pleasing me or a perceived sense of doing a good job?”

“Yes, I think so. It would be nice, and…” Dara let out a sigh as he thought for a moment. “I think if I can find a way to break through that cycle of fear, it might help me in a broader sense.”

“So I need to be as different as possible from the knife man.”

Dara bit back a smile. He’d made the knife man analogy up on the spot and it was amusing him that Maric was taking it so seriously. “I suppose so.”

“And the knife man is someone who has expectations of you and will punish you if those expectations are not met.”

“Essentially, yes. Specifically expectations that I can’t simply choose to fulfil.”

“Okay,” Maric said, and then he sat up and began unbuttoning his shirt.

Dara’s fingers leapt to his own shirt buttons, and then released. Excitement and apprehension mingled in his gut. “What should I do?”

Maric tossed his shirt aside and climbed off the bed. “Nothing unless you want to do something. I have zero expectations of you.”

“Okay,” Dara said, but he still couldn’t relax as he watched Maric start to strip out of his pants. He watched him, searching for some hint of what was about to happen and what Maric wanted from him.

And then Maric was naked, and Maric was on his knees at the edge of the bed, beckoning Dara over. Dara shuffled towards him and Maric buried his face in the front of Dara’s pants, breathing in his scent and gently nudging with his nose.

But he took things no further. He waited, and Dara waited, until finally arousal gave Dara enough courage to unbutton his pants.

And then Maric’s lips were there, teasing gently at first and then fully engulfing him. Maric lifted Dara’s hand and placed it on the top of his head, guiding Dara to grip his hair, push him down, take control. As Maric let go, leaving Dara in complete control, something in Dara let go as well and he thrust up, using his grip on Maric’s hair to keep his head in place. Maric didn’t resist as he swallowed Dara down.

Maric wasn’t a prince and Dara wasn’t a slave. There was no past or future, just this moment and the warm mouth around him. Nothing mattered except driving himself forward, chasing that pleasure.

And then he found it, a raw energy that burnt its way through his gut and tore its way out of him, primal and powerful and unrelenting. It was dizzying and disorienting, like being struck in the head, but as the quivering of his body subsided, the burning in his gut remained.

Maric had found his magic.