“Fair enough. Give me a few hours to track down my brother and my cousin. If I can get them to agree, we can have lunch together, if that’s alright? Perhaps somewhere besides here in the room.”
“That would be nice,” Eiri admitted with a soft chuckle. “As nice as your rooms are, I’m thoroughly sick of them at the moment.”
“Alright. I’ll remind the guard at the door that you’re free to wander around the palace, if you’d like, but meet me back here at lunchtime.”
“I’ll see you then.”
Syrus stood, gathering up the empty tray to take with him. He paused before he left, though, dark eyes finding and catching his. “I’ll see you this afternoon.” He smiled tentatively, a warmer, softer smile than any Eiri had ever seen on the older man before. It hit with the force of a tsunami, knocking the breath right out of his lungs.
“See you then,” he managed. Syrus didn’t seem to notice, at least, just nodding and walking out of the room like he hadn’t just sent Eiri reeling with one smile.
It was one thing to create a truce with his husband. It was another thing entirely to entertain any sort of other feelings for the man. For once, he was grateful to be left alone in the room. He was going to need the time to get his head back on straight and figure out what he was going to do. The very last thing he needed was the complication of a real marriage.
He hadn’t even gotten up to change into regular clothes before there was another knock on the door. Syrus had only just left. Surely he couldn’t be back already? He couldn’t imagine who else it would be, though. The guards ignored him, he hadn’t officially met any of Syrus’ family yet, and he hadn’t seen Kien since their argument.
For a moment, Eiri considered ignoring it, but in the end, he pushed himself up from the cozy chair. He was almost uncomfortably full after that breakfast, but it was a feeling he could get used to.
Cinching the dressing robe tighter, he cracked open the door, fully expecting to see Syrus standing there saying he’d forgotten something. It wasn’t his husband, though.
“Kien?” He opened the door wider but didn’t invite the older man inside. “What are you doing here?”
“What are you wearing?” Kien asked instead of answering, raking a scathing glance over the too-big robe, from the sleeves that covered his hands to the bottom hem that exposed his ankle.
“It doesn’t matter what I’m wearing. What are you doing here? I told you to leave me alone.”
“And I told you I’d protect you, whether you liked it or not,” he snapped, his vehemence taking Eiri aback.
“Well, I don’t need protecting right now, so you’re welcome to leave.” Eiri crossed his arms over his chest, a move that would have had more impact if the robe hadn’t gotten tangled around itself, leaving him fumbling to arrange the fabric. In doing so, he inadvertently exposed his wrists, displaying the darkened bruises on his skin.
“Clearly you do, if you’ve learned nothing after he used violence against you,” Kien said, cold as the winter ocean. “Hebruised you, threatened to break you, and yet this morning I see him leaving your room with a breakfast tray and I find you wearing his dressing gown.”
“It’s not what it looks like,” he protested, tugging the collar closer. He caught movement from the corner of his eye and spotted the guard shifting. Her eyes were straight ahead, but it was clear she was listening to every word. He was loath to allow Kien into the room, but that was still better than letting a Vaetrean guard hear his business. Reluctantly, he stepped back, allowing Kien to come inside.
“You could have fooled me,” Kien said the moment the door was closed. If he noticed that Eiri didn’t lock it, he didn’t say anything. “Because to me, it looks like you gave in, whether of your own volition or by use of force, slept with the enemy, and appear to be falling for his tricks.”
“Don’t be fucking ridiculous, Kien!” he spat. When he’d first put it on, the soft fabric of the robe had whispered across his skin in a soft caress. Now it chafed at him, and all he wanted to do was rip it off and change, but he refused to give Kien that satisfaction.
“Then explain it to me.” Kien crossed his arms over his chest as Eiri had done earlier, though he was much smoother about it.
“First of all, this is his room. He has every right to be here. Second, we didn’t sleep together. He was down the hallway all night.”
“But you were seen leaving with him yesterday, you spent the entire day together, and now you’re having breakfast together?”
“We went down to the beach yesterday. Syrus thought I might miss the ocean.” He scowled when Kien’s eyebrows rose, clearly judging Eiri and finding him wanting. “He’s trying to make amends. Is thatso hard to believe?”
“Yes,” he said, blunt as a hammer to the chest. “You’re the one who told me how he pretended to be nice to you to gain your trust. It was a ruse then, just like it is now. You’re a smart man, Eiri, so it baffles me that you are falling for this.”
“It’s not a trick this time! Look…” He huffed out a breath, taking a second to organize his thoughts, rather than let himself be goaded into another confrontation. “Syrus and I talked a lot yesterday and this morning. We both agreed that we wanted to make peace. We don’t want to spend the rest of our lives fighting each other. Somehow, we’re going to make this work.”
“You truly believe that’s possible?”
“Maybe? I don’t know,” Eiri admitted. “But we have to try, because I can’t live the rest of my life like this.”
“The queen and her courtiers will never let you remain yourself. You know that. They despise our people. We’re lower than rats to them. Every single person I have met since arriving here has looked at me like I plan to steal the jewelry right off their soft, pampered hands. They whisper about you, too. I have heard the things they call us, and they don’t care that I hear them.”
Eiri leaned back, resting his weight against the back of the chair Syrus had only recently vacated. Kien was giving voice to every insecurity, every fear, everything he’d been trying to keep buried while he talked to Syrus.
“I know. I know, Kien,” he repeated when the older man tried to interrupt him. He quietly told him the tale of the vendor by the beach and the rancid food he’d been given.
