by Lola Gabriel
His father had thought his behavior was just part of growing up, because he’d believed there was time. Believed they both had time.
Boden placed the food on the table, and promptly turned to look at the fire. Crap, he was going to fucking cry. He never thought about his father…never! His tutor, old Richard, and Talia too, had many times advised him to move on. That the country couldn’t be ruled by someone in mourning. And they had been right, hadn’t they? They’d done half the work all these years.
Boden straightened up. When he felt Jane’s hand on him again, this time his elbow, he looked down at it. Her nails were jagged where she bit them, and he wanted to run his thumb along them. He didn’t.
“That came out wrong, outside. You were young. What do I know? I’m just here to help find the scroll. One thing at a time.”
Again, Boden fought the urge to touch her. He moved his arm away, went for the bread.
“Let’s just eat. That’s really one thing at a time.”
10
Jane
She’d made a few stupid mistakes since the morning, then. Now when she looked at Boden, she couldn’t help but think of his touch on her skin, his stubble on her neck, his smell, both the sweat and booze baked into his skin from whatever he had done the night before and the smell of his soap and cologne. She could almost smell him next to her. Almost feel the buzz from him. Possibly, after three centuries imprisoned, she had underestimated the power of chemistry.
And then she had blabbed that this was all probably part of some mad plot. It was, she was almost sure of it, and his inexperience as a leader, his youth when he took the throne, was part of that plot. But he barely knew her, he didn’t trust her yet.
Boden had roughly sliced the bread he’d brought from the larder. She grabbed a piece and buttered it, shoved it in her mouth.
“Oh my god,” she had to be spitting crumbs, but it was so good. “Is this fresh? Ah, and butter, I don’t think I’ve had butter in centuries.”
Jane realized she still had her mouth full, and tried to cover it with her arm. Boden, holding his own slice by his mouth, was looking at her in…amazement? Amusement? Maybe both?
“Well,” he said, “I suppose realizing you’re a starving monster lightens the mood.”
He had dimples she hadn’t noticed before, and long eyelashes. He sighed lightly, and it looked as though the anger from moments ago was slipping from his shoulders. He had these peaks of anger—sudden and scalding and, it seemed, hard for him to control. But that wasn’t really him, was it? It was something in him that he should try harder to fight. Learn to control.
Boden took an intentionally ridiculously large bite of his bread and butter, so that when he laughed afterwards, he spat crumbs too. He shook his head, and the curls his hair formed at the base of his skull and around his ears shook as he moved. His shirt was undone over his undershirt, and just a little dark blond chest hair peeked over its neckline. He had butter on his face. Jane lifted a hand and caught the butter with her thumb, rubbed it off, feeling that stubble on her skin again. Boden’s hand came to her elbow.
“Cozy!”
Both the eaters jumped half out of their skin. Boden spun around, and Jane looked past him. Drucilla was in the doorway, her hands in her pockets. Next to her, Aaron looked, if possible, more pale than he had before.
“We were hungry,” Jane said. “I mean, I have been living off reheated soup for several centuries, after all.”
Boden put his bread down on the table and dusted off his hands. “We were coming right up,” he said.
Dru shook her head. “Bo, now is not the time. Honestly. And this is not another woman to add to your list.”
“She’s a hero!” Aaron squeaked, and looked as though he might faint from the effort of it.
“Not yet,” Jane said. She wiped her hands on the anonymous sweatpants she had on. “But now that I’ve eaten, I’m ready to be one. What do we need to do?”
There was something passing between Dru and Boden she didn’t understand, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to. Every time she teetered on the brink of liking Boden, Jane felt some new part of him arrive to push her away. But maybe that was good. It’s just chemistry, Janie, she told herself.
“The past and future of all of our tribes, and must be taken care of and heeded if the mistakes of the past are to be avoided next time.” Aaron said this apropos of nothing. Everyone turned to look at him.
“Have you been possessed?” Dru asked, giving him serious side-eye.
Aaron shook his head. “It’s the prophecy,” he said, “on the scroll. I thought it might be relevant, so I’ve been trying to remember it. Can I sit down? I feel a little sick after all the magic today.”
Boden nodded to one of the chairs around the table, and Aaron took it. Not wanting him to feel like the odd one out, Jane pulled a chair out too and sat down beside him. The others followed her lead. Then Boden reached into his pocket and pulled something out.
“I can just look it up,” Boden said. “Why didn’t you just look it up? It’s all online if you know where to look. Humans are weird.”
Aaron looked crestfallen. “I don’t need to,” he said, “I know it. It’s exactly how I just said it, I prom—”
“The past and future of all of our tribes, and must be taken care of and heeded if the mistakes of the past are to be avoided next time.” Boden nodded. “Mmm,” he said, “pretty much.”
Jane hadn’t meant to say anything, but unbidden, she found herself breaking in.
“For goodness’ sake, Boden. That’s what he said. Maybe he doesn’t have to rely on the… the what?”
Drucilla was grinning. “Damn,” she said, “guess I should have known you’d be feisty being a murderer—”
“Falsely accused!” Aaron near yelled. It was getting extremely strange and extremely tense in the room. “I had a point,” Aaron said. “I had a darned point! The holder of the scroll has some effect on the power of its prophecy, and so what the mistakes of the past are will vary accordingly, their mistakes are not our mistakes. You know magic is, and always has been, partially about possession. It’s a power we shouldn’t ever take lightly.”
Aaron had everyone’s attention. Even Boden’s eyes were on him. And held limply in his hand was one of the boxes! From her daydreams! One of the small ones. It was making colors and shining brightly. She felt a bit sick looking at it. Slowly, Jane reached down to the fat of her thigh and pinched. Hard. It hurt a lot. Tears came to her eyes.
“For them, the mistake was the regime ending! That was the mistake! They want two things, right? They want Boden to look bad, and they want one of their own lot, their own murderous, tyrannical lot in power! Stealing the scroll is perfect, and so is making it obvious.”
Drucilla opened her mouth in a theatrical kind of a way. “Bloody hell, Aaron, you’re brilliant! I’ve only heard bad things about you from Boden, but Boden must be more of an idiot than I thought.”
Boden sat up straight all of a sudden, shifting uncomfortably. “She’s joking,” he said, “she’s joking!”
The box was still in his hand, dark now. Jane tried not to stare. Aaron looked crestfallen, but was clearly trying his hardest to keep smiling.
“Boden,” Jane said, her heart whacking against the inside wall of her ribs, “I knew your father. Well, I knew him a little. I knew your uncle Elvar well, and I know that he would be proud of you. And I know that the people who venerated Singrid were plotting against him, and us. And, well, they want that again. They want the pain he brought. They want his regime. His slaughter of humans and laws against mixing. They think it’s wrong that Drucilla is here with us now! Our most important alliances mean nothing to them, and are dirty to them…” she began to trail off, and then cleared her throat. “What I’m saying is, we have to do this. You have to do this. And you’re brave for making the choice to do this. I think I speak for all of us; we’re here for it, and you. We will help all the way.”
Boden turn
ed to her, his face softened. And then, suddenly, he tensed up.
“Shit!” he said. “Shit, shit. Oh no!” He looked at the box of light and sucked in a breath. “There’s a banquet. A function with Alisdair and Niamh. Oh, damn it. How do I look?”
11
Boden
He took a breath before he opened the doors to his chambers. Not even Drucilla had been in here before, but it would be the only place they weren’t disturbed. He had long ago asked the palace staff to stop coming down and turning down the sheets, dusting the window seats, things like that. Truth was, Boden quite liked cleaning on a Sunday afternoon.
He stepped into the room first and immediately slipped off his shirt. He heard a laugh erupt behind him, and he couldn’t tell which of the women it was. Why did he have this habit of attracting derisive women? Smart women. Yeah. That was it. Smart women as friends, boring women as… Best not get into that thought spiral right now.
Boden turned. Well, it was both of them. Dru was pointing and Jane had a pale, long-fingered hand over her mouth, hiding a laugh.
“We’re at this important, life-or-death moment and you two fools are laughing at my late father’s choice in decor?” Boden asked.
Dru nodded. “Bo, at this point, it’s your choice. I mean, I know you don’t spend a lot of time here, but it has been three centuries.”
“Interior design hasn’t been a priority!”
Dru raised her eyebrows, “Yeah? You’ve had time for plenty else.”
Boden wanted to hit her, but obviously didn’t. Instead, he turned to look at the painting above the four-poster bed. His mother, a woman he had never known but looked just like, was beaming, her blue eyes radiant with happiness and her blonde curls gathered on her head. His father, beside her, was looking down at the baby in her arms, smiling too, though probably trying to look strong in a way befitting of an alpha.
The baby, him, baby Boden, had one arm out of his blankets. His hand reached up and his fingers were twisted in his father’s beard.
“I like it,” Aaron said quietly. “The love between your family is wonderful. Isn’t that what everyone is looking for? You can see they’re mates. And that they are so happy to have made a family.”
Where had Aaron been hiding all this wisdom for the past three months? Alright, maybe putting him on dating app duty hadn’t totally been using his skills and talents to their utmost potential.
The mood in the room palpably changed after Aaron spoke. Jane’s hand left her mouth and went to her side, fiddling with the sweatpants. “He’s right,” she said, “you come from a very loving home. And befitting of royalty, right? A king and queen ruling together. That’s how it’s supposed to be. Balance.”
Boden looked at his feet. “Well,” he said, “I haven’t found the right woman.”
Breaking the solemnity, Dru laughed now. “Fucking every human woman who stands still long enough is not exactly looking for the one, Boden,” Dru said.
Boden shot her a look. Jane was gazing blankly at the four-poster bed, inscrutable. Without expression, her face was young and soft—even after everything she had gone through.
“Talia sets me up on proper dates. And my tutor…he’s been gone a while now, but he always told me I had time and that—”
Jane was looking at him now, her deep forest eyes meeting his. It almost made him gasp.
“Talia is your privy council?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he said, “how did you know?”
“These dates, or whatever, how are they found?”
He shrugged. “What do I know? Other noble families, I guess.”
Jane’s forehead knotted. “Right. Okay. Well, I think Drucilla and I can do some work up here while you hobnob. Who knows, maybe the one is here tonight! Just…act normal, okay?”
Boden nodded. Though he was no longer sure what “normal” meant. He had not expected today to go like this.
And then Jane was beside him, and she laid a hand on his arm. “Your dad,” she said, “looks just like your uncle. He was a really great man, Boden. I miss him. I do. He was one of the smartest people I ever knew. The trial was tortuous for me. I was silent at my own trial because the idea that I could have killed him was too disgusting even to discuss. And he…well…he talked about you. He saw promise even when you were a boy.”
Boden was going to cry. He was actually going to cry. He wanted to kiss Jane, to pull her to him and tell her secrets and talk about his family and the pain she had been in all these years too. Their shared pain, in some ways. But he didn’t. Instead he moved away and turned his back. Lifted his overshirt over his head.
“Can someone find me my good suit? And my ceremonial sash?” There was another embarrassed squeak from Aaron, and, overshirt in his mouth a little, Boden managed, “I’m sure you’ve all seen a semi-dressed man before. I promise I won’t take my underwear off.”
He heard Drucilla say, “Don’t worry, it isn’t intimidating. Let’s go look for that expensive suit of his, though. I imagine there’s a room for clothes.” There was, indeed, a small room off his chambers that held his clothes. Still struggling out of his t-shirt, Boden pointed in its general direction.
Boden threw his t-shirt into the dirty clothes hamper. Jane’s cold fingers on his back shocked him. “Shit!” He spun around. “I didn’t know you were there,” he said. They were very close together. He couldn’t breathe. Breathe, you dope.
“This sounds mad,” Jane half whispered, “but I’ve been here before. I’ve seen this bed and, well, the little boxes. Just like the ones you carry in your pockets.”
The…what? Was this the real twist in today’s tale? Jane was a murderous nutter, after all. And now she was going to kill him. God, he wanted to stroke her face. Her eyes were so intent, so serious, trying to get her point across.
“Oh,” Boden said, “phones? My phone?”
Jane shrugged, half shook her head. “Sure, if that’s what you call them. It doesn’t matter. And the big ones too and, last time, a weird bar, a bar for geniuses…”
Boden was open-mouthed. “The bar for geniuses? Oh! That’s a store for phones and computers and stuff. There’s a huge one near where Dru… I mean you’re right, the details don’t matter much. What is happening?”
Jane shrugged. “I have no idea at all. Really, no idea, but apparently, I’m a seer and I didn’t know it. I just have no idea what I have been seeing. I guess I have seen you sleeping. Why? What on earth could…”
Okay, that was some intense murderer shit right there. But Boden wasn’t scared. He just wasn’t. As if on autopilot, he put out a hand and touched Jane’s hip. “We’ll work it out,” he said in a gentler than he knew he possessed. “I promise, we’re going to work it out.”
The door to the dressing room banged, and Jane stepped quickly and neatly away from Boden. She nodded. “We will,” she said, “but first you need to go to this banquet.”
12
Jane
Things were beginning to come together in Jane’s head. Her rusty, rusty head, clouded with lust that had been canned up for centuries and eroded by having nothing to do all that time but be enraged. She couldn’t quite understand all of the information coursing through her brain. She knew she had the pieces, but she needed to think. Just then, Drucilla entered the room loudly.
“Boden! What the actual hell!”
Boden turned at this, his face blank, with no idea what the witch was talking about. His back was gorgeous, lightly muscled, and thin enough that the knobs of his spine were largely visible. The curve of it, and the backs of his arms. The way he held his body made her center clench almost instinctively as lust undulated through every nerve of her body.
She tried not to look. Instead, concentrated on Drucilla and, behind her, lugging a suit and sash, Aaron.
“What?” Boden asked with an edge in his voice.
“I get you need to keep the important robes and shit from your dad, but your mum’s dresses? Isn’t that creepy?” Drucilla
asked with wide eyes.
Boden shrugged. Earlier, when they had talked about the painting, he had looked so full of pain. Jane had felt bad for laughing and getting carried away in the atmosphere of friends ribbing one another. She had things she could tell him about from when he had been too young to remember. She hoped she would get a chance. Rooting himself would be good for him. Help him avoid those infamous mistakes of the past.
“What am I supposed to do?” Boden asked, pulling off his sweatpants. God, not looking was becoming a challenge. “Do I throw them out? That’s weird. And anyway, some of those are ceremonial, too.”
Dru smiled, crossed her arms. “For when you meet your mate?” she asked wryly.
“Well, yeah,” Boden said, “that’s how it works for us, Dru. I know witches don’t have exactly the same system, but we soul-bond. It’s big. Well, I imagine it is.”
Dru blew air out of her mouth in an over-the-top impression of a sigh. “Guess so,” she said, “guess so. The fairytale.”
Jane spoke without meaning to. “I’ve seen it,” she said. “It’s very real. It’s just that it gets harder in a more human-heavy, faster world, I guess.”
Dru rolled her eyes. “Okay, mother time. You’ve been locked away for centuries. What would you know?”
Jane scoffed. She was around the same age as Drucilla, and besides, Jane had the visions. But she wasn’t about to get into that weirdness.
She brought her attention back to the situation at hand. The room felt familiar, homey even. It was intense. Aaron was still struggling with the suit. Jane walked over to help him lay it flat on the bed. Boden looked over his shoulder at them.
“Thanks,” he said, and he began digging in a chest of drawers. “I keep most of my clothes in here anyway…”
He was bent over. His boxers tight over—
Drucilla was watching her watch. She winked. Winked. Were they all teenagers now? Teenagers saving the damn world?
