“Those tutors have rearranged their entire schedules to teach you,” he ground out. He always sounded like he was chewing glass when addressing Eiri. At least when he wasn’t pretending to be nice anymore.
“I didn’t ask them to do that. You did.”
“For you. To help you learn about Vaetreas and our ways so you can fit in better.”
That got Eiri’s hackles up, and he crossed his arms over his chest. “What if I don’t want to fit in?”
“I’m not telling you to become Vaetrean,” Syrus snapped, likely remembering Eiri’s protest during their fight. “But you at least need to start acting more like you belong here.”
“Why? It’s been made very clear that I don’t belong, so why should I have to pretend otherwise? I’m perfectly happy to be myself. At least this way, your people belittle me to my face and not behind my back.”
“You are married to a prince of Vaetreas.” Syrus took a step forward on the sloped roof, his hands fisted at his sides. “There are rules and customs that come with that. The queen herself has ordered that you learn your place.”
“Learn my place?” Eiri repeated. He stood his ground, not that he had much choice. He was near enough to the edge of the roof that there wasn’t much space to back up. “I can imagine what you all think my place to be, and it’s certainly not sharing a table as equals.”
“I never said that!”
“Oh? So you regularly refer to your honored guests as ‘trash’?”
That brought Syrus up short, and he floundered. “We were arguing! You can’t hold that against me!”
“I most certainly can, because you meant it,” Eiri said. Only a bare thread of his control remained and he clung to it as tight as he could, reminding himself repeatedly that the first person to lose their temper would be the one who lost the fight. “You meant every single word you said.”
“So what if I did? That doesn’t change anything.”
Just like before, when they’d fought with fists and swords instead of words and insults, Syrus went on the offensewhen backed into a corner. It was so predictable that Eiri would have laughed, if only there wasn’t so much on the line for him this time.
“Exactly. It doesn’t change anything, including me. I will not change myself and try to bury the fact that I’m from Canjir. I’m stuck in this marriage just as much as you are. I’m not losing myself just to appease some stupid traditions.”
“The queen?—”
“I don’t give a fuck what the queen wants!” Eiri’s control finally snapped and he stepped forward until he and Syrus were nearly nose to nose. “What’s she going to do? Banish me? Please, that’s the best thing that could happen to me! Execute me? Good luck getting a single thing from my people if she does that. Rulers only have power over us when we let them. Your queen has nothing. I’m not going to change and there is absolutely nothing you can do it about it.”
Eiri stormed past Syrus, easily evading the other man when he grabbed for his arm to stop him. Fury ate away at him, burning in his chest and curdling in his stomach. He needed to get away before one of them said or did something truly stupid. He already had enough regrets in his life and he feared one more may just be the final drop that sank the ship.
Chapter 10
Eiri
“Excuse me?”
Eiri stood in the door of his bedroom, glaring at the man standing outside in the hallway. After his fight with Syrus yesterday, he’d wandered the grounds until he could regain control. By the time he’d returned, well after the dinner hour, he’d been calmer but still braced for another fight when he entered the bedroom he and Syrus shared. Instead, the room was empty and had remained that way all night. He’d lain awake as long as he could so he wouldn’t be caught off-guard, but Syrus never returned.
Now it was just after sunrise, Eiri had gotten less than three hours of sleep, and he hadn’t eaten since yesterday morning. He’d hoped to slip downstairs to the dining halls to eat before anyone else woke up, but the guard standing in the doorway was ruining his plan.
“You are not to leave your room.”
That’s what he’d thought the man had said. “Why not?”
“The queen orders you confined to your quarters until further notice.” The guard sounded insufferably smug about it, too.
“Does the queen intend for me to starve, then?”
“I didn’t ask. My orders were simply to make sure you stayed in your room.”
Scowling, Eiri shut the door in the asshole’s face.
So, apparently, therewassomething the queen could do to punish him. Realistically, though, she couldn’t keep this up for long. This was Syrus’ room, after all, so they couldn’t lock it and lose the key. There was also the treaty between Vaetreas and Canjir to consider. The moment his mother and the council learned he was being treated as a prisoner, rather than a guest, they had every right to nullify the arrangement. Honestly, Eiri admitted that he’d prefer that option.
