After the brutal killing of the Hinythian captives, the tournament went on break for lunch. Refreshments were served free of charge to all the citizens that had come to watch the event. There were however, seats reserved for the wealthy while the higher sits above without a good view were designated for those of the latter status.
Aleneo would have liked to laze around in the shade, safe away from the beating summer sun—it was bad for his youthful skin—but there were formalities he had to portake in. He put on his best smile for social sakes though he wanted to glare at each person that came up to him and tried to make conversation.
He and his mother walked around the lower seats of the arena, greeting all the Lords and Ladies and some of their children. The youngest so far was a two-year-old boy. Aleneo thought it was a bit young to see a dismemberment, but he had been around the same age when he'd been brought on his first Hunt so he wasn't sure what time was appropriate. He figured it wasn't anything he would need to decide. When he took a wife, she or the maids would be the ones raising their children.
He definitely wouldn't have time to spend on them. He barely had time to himself now.
His father was down in the arena. He was showing some of the Lords a close up of the contraptions used on the Hinythians. Some of them were his own creations, years in the making, and it showed on how proud he was of them. The bodies of the Hinythians were removed to be buried. It seemed funny to Aleneo that the captives were treated better dead than alive. Mocking of the dead was a huge taboo in the Kingdom.
"—don't you agree, Aleneo?"
Aleneo tuned back in to hear his mother speaking to him. He raised his brows as he looked around the circle of old and young women looking at him. "I'm sorry. What were you saying?"
Alette sighed with fondness and reached out to pinch his cheek. "I swear his beauty sucks out his brains. A ball, dear. The ladies here have suggested a ball in honor of your birthday."
"Ah," Aleneo said with a tense smile. All the women were looking at him like vultures. He loved the attention, but he didn't actually want to be devoured by them. They weren't at all beautiful enough to be wife material.
He couldn't marry someone who wasn't even as pretty as himself. That would be an embarrassment.
"I think that's a wonderful idea. As long as all of you attend, of course." He smirked while leaning forward as if he was sharing a secret with all of them.
The youngest of girls let out little giggles while the older women's faces flushed like he'd said the dirtiest joke. On the inside, he recoiled.
They chatted some more and Aleneo struggled to keep his charm up. He was a second away from shoving the girl attached to his arm when his mother seemed to get tired of the theatrics as well.
Alette said pleasantries goodbyes then hooked her arm in Aleneo's and lead them away from the salivating girls.
"Miss Esther is such a lovely girl," she commented while waving up at some of the citizens that could only dream of being closer to the queen. They were almost mauling each other to get a glimpse of her and the prince.
Aleneo waved as well though his mood had dropped significantly. "I'm sure she is. And she'll make a wonderful wife. For someone else."
Alette shook her head in disappointment. "You are so picky."
She broke out into a grin. "But it is expected from you. You have stardards that need to be met."
They walked back to the balcony. The shade gave him instant relief.
Alette pulled out a handkerchief from a hidden pocket in her dress and dabbed her face of the sweat. She paused a moment to look over Aleneo's clothes. She waved her handkerchief at the armor.
"These absolutely don't fit you. You look so much better in your velvet suits."
Aleneo sighed as he sat back down. "I know."
He much rather being wearing his normal clothes. The suits he wore daily had been made from the finest materials he could source and crafted by the best tailorsman.
"It's tournament season. I need to show my strength and not my fashion sense."
Alette frowned. "But you look so much prettier."
It was Alette who'd dressed Aleneo since he was young. Even when he turned eighteen, she dressed him until he was in his late twenties, always having an eye for what would go with his fair skin, blond hair, and blue eyes. She'd always commented how he was the perfect child for her and Tilen. She got a girl and Tilen got a boy to raise—Aleneo was like a doll that both of them could manipulate.
Before Aleneo had a chance to reply, horns from the gates of the arena sounded.
Aleneo jumped up from his seat and dashed toward the balcony.
King Tilen was quickly surrounded by guards to protect him from any threats. But when no threat came, the guards relaxed only a bit.
The gates to the arena opened. A dozen of the kingdom's soldiers entered in a hurried pace, some of them on foot and some of them on their horses.
The general of the sector greeted the king, bowing on his horse. He spoke hurriedly, so frantic to get his message out that he forgot that he was supposed to dismount from his horse when speaking to the king if he wasn't on his own horse.
Tilen didn't seem to notice the infraction as he listened to what the general said.
Aleneo couldn't stand to not know what was happening.
"Father! What is it?" He yelled over the balcony. His voice carried in the arena as no one had spoken a word or made a noise since the horns had sounded.
King Tilen stood still as he gazed up at the soldier. He didn't say a word as he slowly turned. When his eyes met Aleneo's, Aleneo knew what was happening. There was a glint of excitement and glee in Tilen's eyes that only appeared when death was near.
Someone was attacking.
Aleneo stepped away from the ledge. The tips of his fingers grazed across the marble. Numbness bit at his hands as he started toward the steps that would taken him down to the arena floor.
Alette didn't rise from her seat. She fanned herself as she watched Aleneo leave.
Aleneo pulled himself elegantly atop Angel. He steered her to the gates of the arena and was just about to pass through them when he heard a second set of hoofs trotting behind him.
He didn't have to turn his head to know who was following him. The doors of the arena closed and the person moved beside him.
"Cousin," Aleneo said with a jerky nod. "I'm sorry, but I don't have the time to socialize."
Teryn's upper lip twitched. "As if I would want to talk to you."
His leather covered hands tightened on his reigns.
Aleneo rolled his eyes. "Then why are you bothering me? Unlike you, I have important things to do like rounding up men to fight the attack on the border."
Aleneo kicked up speed. He was racing toward the castle, but Teryn came right after him.
"That's what I want to speak to you about!" He shouted.
Aleneo kept going. He didn't need advice from a man that had never set foot out into battle. While Teryn was a great swordsman and fighter on horse, he'd never been in action. Aleneo folded him on that one. He was the best fighter in the kingdom and he'd lead many attacks on the Hinythians in his young forty-five-years.
"I'm warning you Aleneo! The Dark Prince is back!"
Aleneo jerked the reigns so hard Angel let out a high-pitched neigh and kicked her back legs. His heart stopped beating for a second. His ears closed up and his muscles tightened.
He swiveled in the saddle. "You lie!"
He could feel how out of place his hair was. It fell from the beneath the helmet, having come undone from the tight pins. It looked as frazzled as he looked. For the first time, he didn't care how uncivilized he looked. Because for the first time, something that could not be solved by his looks, his strength, and his intelligence was happening.
Teryn didn't look at all like he was playing a joke on Aleneo. In fact, the look on his face said he was worried and pissed.
He trotted closer on his horse so that he and Aleneo were facing each other. There would be no hiding faces, no misheard words. For another first time, Aleneo wanted to hear what Teryn had to say.
"Your mother knew before it happened. She expecting him."
Aleneo's brows furrowed. "What? How would she know? How do you know?"
Teryn's look went darker. "Alette has her own soldiers, remember? The Queen's army has taken root east of the forest. They noticed the change in the wall first and delivered the information yesterday."
Aleneo digested the revelation. He wished he could say that he couldn't believe his mother would hide something like this from him, but he couldn't. She had her own secret agendas that were vastly different than Tilen's and Aleneo's.
"And you?" Aleneo didn't know how Teryn could know this. He didn't even live in the castle.
Teryn smirked. "I have my ways, cousin. Don't you remember how could I was at Knights and Spies?"
Aleneo frowned. "You were a cheating scoundrel."
Teryn laughed. "I think that's the first time you've given me a compliment."
Aleneo resisted the urge to punch Teryn. He clenched his fist against his thigh instead.
Teryn's laugh died off. "Don't go. You have to leave now."
Aleneo scoffed. "I'm not running away. I'm not a fucking coward."
He started off toward the castle again, but this time at a slower pace. This changed things. If the Dark Prince was back...what did this mean for Aleneo?
He swallowed back the first signs of anxiety that arose in him. He was the beloved prince. Alette and Tilen had chosen to raise him and not their biological son. They wanted him. And even if the Dark Prince somehow made it through the forest and to the kingdom, he wouldn't be acknowledged. He would be cast aside because how could he be better than Aleneo when he'd been raised in the human world by humans?
Teryn grabbed Aleneo's reigns and forced him to stay when he tried to move Angel further up the road.
"He will be your destruction." Teryn's warning was a known fact Aleneo had to hear since he was a child.
Tilen and Alette had traded their son away for a human baby when they were under seige with the Hinythians for safety. Aleneo had been used as a decoy, but it hadn't been needed. Aleneo had been stuck here for the next forty-five years as the ripple between human land and fairy land only opened for a sliver of time.
Today was the day the ripple was open. A few hours was all the Dark Prince needed to enter and be locked here.
The Dark Prince would always be called back to his home. Tilen and Alette had planned on it, but it had never been a guarantee. Aleneo had wanted it to end badly for the Dark Prince, his somewhat brother. Or at least, he wished the Dark Prince would never be called here and be forever stuck in the human world.
Aleneo gazed down at Teryn's gloved hand. "What does it matter to you? You'd love to watch him cut me down."
Images of his bloody murder flashed in his mind. The faceless Dark Prince drove his blade into Aleneo's throat as he kneeled on the ground surrounded by piles of bodies. Aleneo's men massacred in front of him and too late to stop it.
Teryn's hand relaxed on the reign's, but he didn't let go. Not yet.
"That prince is not my cousin. He's nothing to me. You're my cousin and I don't wish death upon you no matter how much you annoy me."
Aleneo was taken back by the honesty. He could only gape, floundering for a reason behind Teryn's unexpected kindness.
Teryn finally pulled his hand away. "He'd also have me killed for the things I've done. You might think you're hardened like the rest of us, but you're as soft as dough."
The second of peace between them rotted. Aleneo glowered. "I knew it! You're only saying this to delay me!"
He kicked his feet and Angel jolted into high speed.
"Aleneo! I didn't mean it like that!"
Aleneo didn't care to hear anymore excuses. He should have known that Teryn could only lie out of his ass. He was a snake that couldn't be trusted.
All the way to the castle, Aleneo shamed himself for even believing that he could trust another person.
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