Chapter One
Somewhere in Kaenys
Valentino awoke to darkness. He blinked his eyes open, but he still could not see. Paralyzing panic took him, and suddenly he could barely breathe, barely think. Had he gone blind? With a start, he realized something covered his face. Some sort of rough fabric. He could shift slightly, but a rope encased his wrists and ankles, bound tight.
What in the White Valleys of Hell?
A hand grabbed his shoulder, and he flinched.
“Don’t move,” Brand whispered urgently. “Just lie still and pretend to be unconscious.”
“What in the…?” Valentino groaned.
“Is he awake?” an unfamiliar voice asked, startling Valentino into silence.
“No, just moaning in his sleep, I suspect,” Brand answered. “Is it much farther?”
“Just a block or two off.”
Valentino held stock-still, but his mind raced. He focused on the faint sounds of a wagon creaking and shaking under him. They moved quickly through bumpy streets, each gap in the cobbles giving him a jolt, but the other occupants in the wagon were still and silent, just the faint sounds of breathing and horseshoes hitting stone coming to his straining ears. No light filtered through the bag over his head, so it must still be night or perhaps early morning. That left a considerable gap in his memory. The last thing he remembered was he and Brand standing in their room together, about to share a meal. Brand had just confessed everything, his lies, his hidden royal heritage, the suspected origin of the curse, and how none of that mattered, that Valentino was enough.
It had been terrible. And wonderful.
They were going to make a plan, a life, together. They were going to toast to new beginnings, and then… What? Valentino distinctly remembered removing his pants at some point, but his trousers and things appeared to be in place now, and for that, he was grateful. When had he gotten dressed? Had Brand dressed him? He couldn’t remember.
The clinking of chains and a crash resounded outside. A drawbridge falling? Valentino listened closely as the wagon rolled up a ramp and over uneven ground, the hollow sound of horseshoes clattering over planks muffled by the fabric over his head. Men called to one another, their voices echoing as if in a large space, water splashing in the distance. The wagon lurched forward again, a short sudden drop making his stomach churn. Had they crossed a moat?
Valentino continued to feign sleep, the sound of his own heart pounding in his ears so loud he couldn’t believe no one else had noticed it. What was going on? Had someone captured them? The only place in Remira he remembered with a moat was the castle. That would mean they were going into the Rock Keep, and that would mean terrible things.
After a lot of clank and clatter, the wagon came to a halt, and Valentino yelped as something struck him.
“Wake up, you!” a rough voice demanded. “If you can’t walk, we’ll drag you.”
“He’s still disoriented from the draught,” Brand said and roughly lifted Valentino up and onto his shoulder. “I’ll carry him in.”
The other man snorted. “Suit yourself, Your Highness.”
The address made Valentino’s blood run cold, and he could only allow himself to be hoisted like a sack of potatoes, his heart in his throat.
Right. Brand is a prince.
It still didn’t seem quite real. Brand, the man who had shoveled horse shit with him in a barn in the middle of nowhere, the man who had taken a bullet for him, had lain beside him, kissed him, fallen in love with him over the past two moons was actually bloody royalty.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” Brand said into Valentino’s ear. “Just go along, and I swear I’ll figure this out.”
Valentino squirmed slightly in acknowledgment, though he wanted to kick and scream. If Brand had brought him into the keep, what did that mean? Surely, he hadn’t really given him up to the crown after all? After everything they had been through together?
Other men gathered around them, barking orders and expressing excitement and amazement.
“Out of the way, out of the way you lot!” the other man yelled good-naturedly. “Cain’t you see the prince here has his hands full? Clear off!”
The crowd continued their barrage of questions, closing in on them, shouting and laughing. Valentino tried desperately not to vomit.
“Do you no longer follow orders?” a deep voice bellowed from off to the side, authority and stern command clear in her tone. “Get back to your duties this instant!”
The crowd grew silent and dispersed.
“Dyana,” Brand said
stiffly.
Brand’s sister. Was she in on this too?
“I see you’ve had a change of heart,” she said evenly, and Valentino could almost feel her eyes crawling over his person. “You’ve brought in the Vicari mage, after all?”
That’s what I want to bloody know!
Brand went quiet. “Let’s speak of this matter inside,” he said finally, his normal country drawl completely absent. It was jarring to hear him speak so formally.
“As you will,” Dyana said slowly. “Father is waiting to meet you in the vestibule. Come this way.”
Valentino swallowed. Brand paused, the tension in his back buzzing against Valentino’s belly. He shifted, hesitating, before moving in the direction of Dyana’s voice as she barked orders to the guards. Brand’s shoulder pushed into his stomach with every step, but Valentino tried to stay limp and still as the sound of boots crunching on gravel changed suddenly to a more even rhythm of steps on stone. A heavy door closed behind them. They must be inside the castle now.
Suddenly there was a rush and a scuffle; loud voices shouted, and armored bodies descended upon them. Valentino didn’t have the time to react before someone wrested him from Brand’s hold and slammed him against a wall, knocking the air from his lungs. They ripped the bag off his head and snapped something around his neck before he could do so much as blink. He tried to scream but sputtered and retched instead.
It was as if they had stuffed cotton wool in his ears and nose, clogging his senses and filling his head until it became as heavy and dense as a brick. This was exponentially worse than any illness he’d ever endured, and the sudden shock of it sent him reeling. He gagged again, bile rising in his throat as they dragged him away through a long hallway, down a set of stairs, and threw him into a dark room. He looked around blearily, the walls shifting in his vision. It was like being drunk on the worst cheap liquor but remaining completely
self-aware and, therefore, deeply, horrendously terrifying.
Where did Brand go? Why had he allowed this to happen? Surely this was a mistake.
The guard reached for him again. Valentino jerked away and tripped, what he’d intended as a quick-footed dodge turning into a lead-footed stumble. The guard pushed him against the wall again and slapped heavy iron manacles on his arms and legs. The cold metal stung his skin.
“What is this? What have you done to me?” Valentino choked out.
The guard answered with a rough laugh. “This is a special bit of jewelry for talented little troublemakers like yourself.”
Valentino tried to reply but could only retch. The bastards must have put a mage collar on him—a magical dampener of the worst sort. Valentino knew the stories, but he’d always assumed they were simply fairytales meant to scare disobedient children from misusing their magic. They weren’t real. They couldn’t be. Desperately, he reached deep for his magical reserves, but it was like reaching into a pocket thought to be full, only to find it empty with a hole at the bottom.
His knees buckled and he slid to the ground, arms held in place above him by the chains. “Why are you doing this? I’m a guest of your prince!”
“You’re not a guest.” The guard laughed again. “You’re a prisoner.”
With that, he slammed the door, leaving Valentino alone in the darkness and unable to light so much as a matchstick.
Chapter Two
Several hours earlier…
Valentino’s mouth was very, very warm.
Brand didn’t know if he should curse his luck or count his blessings. He’d spent the last few seasons traveling across the Felideran countryside, hopping borders, working his ass off, lying, fighting, and sleeping in the mud, and for what? A bullet in his leg, a couple of singed eyebrows, and a pretty bit of fluff in his bed?
A very pretty, very dangerous bit of fluff who could immolate him at any second, but who was, instead, kissing him as if his life depended on it?
The same one his father had sent him off to spy on and murder two years ago? The one he, instead, fell ass-over-teakettle in love with, like a fucking idiot?
Yeah. That one.
Brand had fallen hard and fast and deep, as if stepping into quicksand. If that quicksand had a hair-trigger temper and a pair of fantastic legs.
Brand didn’t understand how he could be simultaneously thrilled and terrified, but every day he spent with Valentino taught him something new about himself. It was astonishing how much a person could change when they took their lives into their own hands, how much he craved and valued open honesty in a partner, how deeply and utterly he’d fallen head over heels for someone who rose to that challenge in spades. Brand had enjoyed plenty of flings over the years with varying degrees of attachment, but he’d never had anything, anyone, quite like Valentino.
Valentino was more than a pretty face, that was for sure. He was quite possibly the key to unlocking Brand’s century-old curse.
He’d brought Valentino all the way to Kaenys with every intention of turning the mage over to his father, the king, but then he’d gone and confessed everything instead, his plans and his feelings. Valentino became incandescently angry at first, and rightly so; but somehow, Valentino remained beside him, despite it all. He’d run away from his old life but followed Brand to start a new one, willingly and openly.
And now, Valentino was in his arms, his mouth on his lips, his lithe figure pressing insistently against him.
Curses and family ties be damned.
Brand pulled away from the kiss reluctantly, hating the loss of heat from his lips, and gazed down at the man in front of him.
Valentino’s warm golden-brown eyes were full of tenderness and defiance. “Well, what now?”
Of course, he asks the hardest question first.
“We need to get out of here, and quickly. My sister wasn’t joking about my father. He’s got eyes everywhere, so we’ll need to get as far away as we can. Perhaps board a ship.”
Valentino gave him a look, half fondness, half annoyance. “On the road again so soon? We just arrived.” He glanced around the modest room they’d rented
for the evening, his eyes lingering on the bed. “Could this mad dash possibly wait until morning?”
Brand wanted nothing more than to pick him up, toss him on that bed, and stay there for hours, possibly days. “We should probably leave as soon as possible.”
Valentino sighed, looking up at him with a wicked gleam in his eyes. “Too bad. And here I was looking forward to the royal treatment tonight.”
What little resolve Brand had mustered quickly faltered. “Well, maybe we don’t have to rush that much.”
“Good.” Valentino stood up on his tiptoes to kiss him again.
Goddess, his mouth was so warm. Warm and insistent, teeth dragging on his lower lip and sending a shiver of need through his entire body. Brand returned the kiss, eager tongue slipping inside that hot, perfect mouth. Valentino groaned against him, then made a somewhat less sensual noise—the unmistakable rumble of an empty stomach.
Brand drew away with a laugh. “Hungry?”
Valentino’s face went pink. “I missed dinner. Have you eaten yet?”
Brand shook his head. “No, I was out looking for you.”
“Ah. Well, I suppose we should eat before we, um, retire.”
“Right. I’ll go down and see if the cook has anything we can bring up to the room. Stay here, and I’ll be right back.”
Valentino sighed again and sat on the bed, but he didn’t protest.
Brand left the room and stood in the hallway, catching his breath. He shook himself and then walked down to the common room. A sparse crowd had gathered by the fire, but a few patrons still drank cheap beer in the booths and at the bar. A rough and surly lot, mostly sailors and factory workers, stared glumly down at their drinks or playing cards held with greasy hands. Brand had chosen this spot for its proximity to the castle, not for any note of hospitality. He didn’t recognize anyone, but he kept his head down, nonetheless. He’d been no
more than a teenager when he left home, but he didn’t want to take any chances of being recognized. The exhausted barkeep didn’t meet his eyes, and Brand ordered bread, dark beer, and two bowls of thin stew. Not exactly the most romantic meal, but it would have to do. At least it was better than tinned beans and campfire coffee.
Brand carried the tray up to the room and kicked at the door with his boot to knock.
The door opened, and for a second, Brand could only stare. Valentino had taken off his trousers and stood there in the doorway in only his shirt, the loose front half-unbuttoned and not quite covering the pale expanse of his long, slender thighs.
He raised Brand’s chin with one finger. “Well, are you coming inside or not?”
Red Heavens above and White Valleys below, yes, I am.
Brand swallowed and nodded, and Valentino stepped aside. Brand set the food tray on the small dresser before scooping the other man into another embrace. Laughing, Valentino pushed him away and picked up a tankard instead. He tipped it back and took a long, gulping swallow. Brand watched him, entranced, as the beer quickly disappeared.
With a gasp and a cough, Valentino set the empty mug down with a clatter and wiped his mouth with the heel of his hand. “Goddess, that was absolutely vile.”
Brand wasn’t sure how he could fall even more in love, but it happened anyway. “Yeah.”
Valentino swayed a little, reaching forward to lean on him. “Oh, it’s a rather potent brew, though, isn’t it?”
Brand blinked in surprise. “Uh, just the normal stuff. Pretty weak usually.”
“Oh, really? I guess I haven’t eaten, but… Oh.” Valentino practically collapsed against him.
Brand jumped to catch him. “What the hells? You can’t be drunk already!”
But he was. Valentino had passed out from just one drink, limp as an eel in his arms. Brand stared down at him in astonishment. While Valentino was certainly no heavyweight, Brand had witnessed him deep in his cups before, and it typically took several rounds to get him there. This was entirely out of the ordinary. Brand looked at the empty tankard and had no time to form any suspicions before someone bashed in the door and royal guards swarmed the room.
Chapter Three
The present
Brand forced himself to turn away as the guards dragged Valentino down the hall, the memory of their fleeting happiness disappearing like dust in the rain. With dread growing in the pit of his stomach, he turned and faced his father.
It had been nearly two years since Brand had seen him last, and the man had not changed for the better. A beast of a man, His Majesty the King of Kaenys stood hugely tall and broad; his shoulders nearly filled the doorway as he entered the room. He dressed as usual without ornament in a thick, dark-green quilted doublet lined with fur. His black leather gloves and boots were plain, but his regal bearing was unmistakable. The scent of magic leaked from him like a cold, heavy fog.
“So, my wayward son has finally deigned to show his face before me again.”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” Brand said, voice clear as ice. “I have returned.”
The king stared at him, eyes narrowing. His hair had begun to gray even before Brand left, but now it was almost entirely white, only a few dark streaks at his temples and slashed through his beard. Age had caught up with him, and it hadn’t been kind, carving deep lines into his heavy brows and scowling mouth, craggy and grim. “I see you’ve brought me a gift.”
“Yes, Your Majesty. Valentino Vicari, the only son of the Vicari family and one of the last remaining Felideran fire mages. And much knowledge of their operations, besides. I learned a great deal living among them.”
He swallowed and cleared his throat. Goddess, talking like this was so odd now, so formal and stilted, like he was recalling a long-forgotten language.
The king gave him another slow, considering look, his eyes crawling over Brand, inspecting him, as though he could see the stain of failure all over him. Brand hadn’t expected a joyous reunion, of course, but this was worse somehow, this silence and hostility. His father’s eyes were never warm, but now they were cold and unforgiving as shards of ice. Brand steadfastly met his gaze, and the echo of their shared curse roiled between them, calling like a far-off echo. It was as if the shadow of the beast was there in the room with them, like calling out to like somewhere deep in his bones. Brand suppressed a shudder. His father must have felt it too, and when he smiled, his teeth were too sharp, canines as pointed as daggers. Brand’s face slipped despite his efforts and his father laughed.
“You hear it, don’t you boy? The call. Every moon it gets louder, doesn’t it? The beast grows stronger. And yet you stand before me with only excuses.”
“Sir, I…”
“When I caught your dear sister sneaking about last night, she told me of your return and what you had brought along with you. My son, consorting with a descendant of the Vicari witch herself? Well, I suppose I have underestimated
your abilities.”
Brand tensed at the implication, even if it was true. “I only ever wished to serve you, Your Majesty.”
The king made a noise like a rough growl deep in his throat. “Of course. I had grown impatient waiting for your service, but I imagine you expect praise now?”
“No, Your Majesty. I only wish to serve you. ...
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