“How would that have gone, knowing you were soulmates?” Maro asked, pausing to let both of them reflect on those troublesome years. “You both had a huge weight of responsibility on your shoulders. As it stands, you were both able to grow up, learn a little independence, and decide that in the end, you’d rather be friends. But if you’d known, back at that earlyage, that you were going to be forced to live with each other for the rest of your lives, how do you think you’d have reacted?”
“We’d have flatly refused,” Ryu said, finally seeing the wisdom of his parents’ decisions. “And we’d probably never have got around to seeing the positive side of it all.” He gave a wry chuckle. “It really sucks when your parents end up getting things right.”
Maro laughed, glad Ryu could see the funny side. “So you intend to announce your engagement to the public, then?” he asked. That was why they’d come here, after all.
“Yes. We do.”
“Well, I dare say it’ll cause a bit of a stir regardless, but I’m rather grateful that we get to announce that you’re marrying your soulmate, no matter how unusual a pairing that might be. After the number of shocks they’ve had recently, I think the masses would likely have started a riot if the new king announced he was throwing the Goddess’s blessing back in her face.”
Ryu smirked. “So this way, if anyone causes a fuss, I just fall back on the sturdy excuse that I’m obeying the Goddess’s wishes?”
“I’m well aware of the irony,” Maro agreed, “given that you came in here dead set on doing the exact opposite. But I doubt the Goddess will hold it against you. I’m told she has rather a dry sense of humour.”
“So, just to make sure we’re all clear on what’s going on,” Kentario interrupted suddenly, “are there any other secrets we should know about? Long lost members of the family? Secret identities? Hidden crimes from years ago?”
“Well, since you mention it,” Maro began, causing Ryu to curse softly.
“Seriously?” the young man asked. “Isn’t this enough yet?”
“Just one more thing,” Maro said, knowing he was trying Ryu’s patience. “Now that you both know you’re soulmates, I can finally tell you why you were taken off duty when Ryu’s kidnapping threat came in,” he said to Kentario. “And I assure you, it’s absolutely nothing to do with any doubts about your ability to keep him safe. The simple truth is that when intelligence confirmed the threat, you were two weeks out from Ryu’s eighteenth birthday. It was the first real threat you’d ever faced in your role as his bodyguard. King Sou couldn’t bear the thought that you might be killed without you two ever finding out you were soulmates and without having the chance to enjoy your time together, even for a little while.”
Kentario scowled. “I wasn’t aware the king particularly cared about my safety.”
“He didn’t,” Maro admitted. “But he cared very much about Ryu’s happiness. And it’s difficult to be happy when your soulmate is either maimed or dead. For what it’s worth, I strongly objected to his plan to send me instead. I warned him that it could cause a lot of resentment on yourpart and that it might even create a rift between you and Ryu, depending on how things panned out. But he insisted. And I couldn’t tell you the exact reason why until you’d found out about your soul marks.”
“Exactly how many people knew we were soulmates?” Ryu asked. “Because that has got to be the best kept secret this place has ever seen.”
“There have been seven, over the years. Both your parents, Ryu. Kentario, your mother and father knew, of course. And then there was me, Ryu’s nanny, when he was a baby, and Helbert, your steward.”
Helbert, thankfully, had survived the attack on the palace, though he’d now been given a month’s leave to recover from the ordeal. Apparently, he’d ended up huddled in a storage closet with two maids and a gardener, one of the maids bleeding profusely, and an armed man outside, threatening to shoot the lock if they didn’t open the door. One of Maro’s guards had arrived at that point, shooting the attacker, but the four staff had been quite traumatised by the whole event.
“Your parents tried to keep the number of people who knew to a minimum. Less chance of the truth slipping out that way.”
“So many things make sense now,” Ryu muttered, no doubt putting together a whole raft of puzzle pieces, things his parents had said and done over the years that only now were being given a context. “So now what? We just announce that we’re soulmates and get married?”
“For the sake of simplicity, it’s probably best that we make an appointment for you both with SoulWorks. They’ll scan both your soul marks, match you up and make it all official. It’s not much more than a formality but it makes the paperwork a lot easier down the track.”
“I’m already registered,” Kentario said. “My parents did mine when I was five. So it’s just Ryu who needs… What?” he asked suddenly, seeing the look on Maro’s face.
“Your soul mark was never registered,” Maro said, bracing himself for Kentario’s displeasure. “Your father told you it had been in order to keep you from running off and registering it yourself. Given that you were going to turn eighteen sooner than Ryu, it seemed the simpler option.”
“That’s bullshit,” Kentario told him. “My father signed the account over to me when I turned eighteen. I signed the paperwork and everything.”
“You might have signed it, but he never registered it with SoulWorks.”
“Goddess alive,” Ryu muttered, rubbing his eyes. “Are there anymoresecrets we should know about?”
“No, that’s the last one. At least, the last one that I know about,” Maro said. “But I do have just one more question.” He paused, wondering if he was going to regret what he was about to say, then decided to just say it and hang the consequences. “I just have to ask; how on earth did you two manage to have sex without seeing each other’s soul marks?”
Ryu’s cheeks turned red as he looked everywhere but at Maro’s face. He shrugged helplessly. “It was dark.”
“Well, that’s a good enough excuse, I suppose,” Maro said, relieved that the answer was both lacking in details and nothing overly misguided. “Moving right along, let’s talk about when you’d like to make this momentous announcement…”
CHAPTER THIRTY
“Excuse me, Your Majesty?”
Ryu looked up from his desk, experiencing a brief moment of confusion before he tamped down on the automatic impulse to correct the title. He’d been ‘Your Highness’ for so long, it was still quite jarring to hear the more elevated form of address. But he’d been in this job for over a month now, so it was about time he got used to it.
