“The treaty with the humans coming along well, I take it?” He raised an eyebrow. “Or is it Council business this time?”
Erlan looked up with a sigh. “Council business,” he said wearily, rubbing his eyes. “The Council of the Four Kingdoms has been instituted again after decades. There is a lot to decide, policies to be decided, treaties and laws to ratify…” He trailed off, sighing again.
“I could think of no one better suited for the task,” Ryu said, smiling. His uncle looked up with a tired but grateful smile.
“Thank you, Ryu-kun.”
As his uncle went back to his task, Ryu settled himself behind his desk and shuffled some papers around, listlessly looking through his correspondence. Lady Maya had not written back with a firm completion date for his commission, though she’d promised him in her last letter that she would be done in the next few weeks.
“What’s wrong?”
“Hmm?” Ryu looked up to see his uncle shooting him an annoyed glare.
“What’s bothering you?” Erlan said, shaking his head. “You’ve been shuffling those papers ever since you sat down.Something’s on your mind. What is it?”
“Uncle Erlan,” he finally burst out, “what does the mating bond feel like?”
His uncle blinked. “Ryu, what—?” He shook his head. “Have you found your mate? I thought you and Ella—” He clamped his lips shut, as if cutting himself off.
Ryu jumped up quickly at that. “Uncle Erlan, whatever bond lies between Ella and me...it’s overwhelming. Distracting.” He shook his head. “I don’t want it! Besides, a human cannot be my mate.”
His uncle frowned. “Why not?”
“What do you mean, why not? I can’t take a human as a mate! Just look what happened to me—to my father!”
“What happened to Kaito?” Erlan tilted his head, looking befuddled.
“I know about him sharing his essence with me,” Ryu said, pacing. “You don’t need to protect me any longer, Uncle Erlan. I know my father has shorted his lifespan for me.” He shook his head, his voice trembling when it came out again. “I know he’s killing himself for me.”
“What?” Erlan shot up from his seat, grabbing Ryu and holding him still. “Ryu-kun, who told you that?”
Ryu shrugged, unable to look at his uncle. “I learned it myself.”
His uncle shook him urgently. “I don’t know what you heard or where, Ryu, but you’re wrong,” he said. “Your father isn’t dying for you. He’s perfectly fine!”
“Stop lying,” Ryu snarled, furious that his uncle still thought him too young to know better. “Chichi uetold me the truth. And afterward, I read it in the scrolls myself.”
“Ryu-kun, please, listen to me,” his uncle Erlan said gently, waiting until Ryu met his gaze. “It’s true that your father’s life has been shortened because he shared his Elven essence with you. But we are speaking of afewyears, not centuries. Not even a decade.” He shrugged. “It would be the same as if an elderly Elf had fallen ill a few too many times in his youth.”
Ryu blinked, looking up at his uncle, silently looking to see if he was being lied to. “Truly?”
Unbidden, tears sprung into his eyes at the thought that he wasn’t responsible for his father’s decline.
“Of course, Ryu-kun.” His uncle placed a hand on the back of his neck and tugged him into a one-armed hug.
“My boy, why did you never tell us you thought this? Why keep it to yourself all these years?”
Ryu shrugged, unable to speak past the lump in his throat. He’d heard the truth from Azuma as a young Elfling, and when he’d asked his father,Chichi uehadn’t denied it…and after that, Ryu had been too scared, too guilty to ask any more.
Could he have saved himself a world of pain if he had just been a little braver?
Ryu shook his head, fighting the sniffles that wanted to break free. He laughed through his tears, his heart feeling lighter than it had in years.
After a long moment, when Ryu felt more like himself again, he drew away to wipe at his eyes.
“Now then,” his Uncle Erlan said, “coming back to the main point: do you truly think you and Ella are mates?”
Ryu shrugged, then looked away. “I never told you what happened the day I healed Ella.”
