It was impossible. Why was Syrus’ cousin standing outside his cell door? Where were the guards?
Xan cursed and Eiri realized the sound he’d heard was the keyring in Xan’s hands, the keys hitting the metal bars as the other man struggled to find the one that fit this door.
“What are you doing here?” he whispered.
“Something’s going on here. I don’t know what, but I know a political ploy when I see one.” Xan growled out the words, all traces of the easy-going man Eiri had come to know buried. Finally, Xan found the key and he unlocked the door, shoving it open and coming inside. He knelt in front of him, but Eiri didn’t move.
“What’s going on? Is he… really…?”
“I don’t know,” Xan breathed, and up close, Eiri could see his pain. Xan’s curls were disheveled, his eyes red-rimmed and raw. Faint streaks of kohl traced down his cheeks, the only surviving remnants of the artfully applied cosmetics he’d worn for the party.
“I don’t understand.”
“I don’t either. All I know is they’re saying you killed Syrus, but no one will give me any information and no one will let me see him. They won’t even let Ellis see him.”
“I didn’t, Xan.” Eiri forced himself to sit up, nearly falling into Xan when his legs gave out. “I swear I didn’t hurt him.”
Xan’s hands gripped his shoulders, steadying him. “I wouldn’t be here if I thought you had. Rumors are saying someone poisoned him. If you were going to hurt him, it’d be the two of you skewering each other during a fight. There’s something else going on. I don’t think he’s d-dead.” Xan stumbled over the word, clearing his throat before he could continue. “I don’t know what happened, but if they won’t let anyone seehim and they’re setting you up to take the fall for it, then something is going on.”
“We need to find him. I have to know…” Eiri drew a shuddering breath. Impossible hope surged in his chest, despite his best attempts to restrain it. “One way or the other, I have to know.”
“Believe me, we’ve been looking. We can talk about it after we get you somewhere safe, though.”
Xan got to his feet and helped Eiri up after him, keeping a hand on his arm when he saw how shaky Eiri was. He took one step and his knees buckled, sending him crashing into the hard stone with a sharp cry.
“Here.” Xan pulled him up, wrapping his arm around Eiri’s waist. “Lean on me, alright?”
Eiri stood a head taller than Xan, making it awkward, but if he wanted to get out of here, he didn’t have much of a choice. The cold had settled into his bones and hours sitting on a concrete floor left his muscles stiff and aching. With Xan’s help, he stumbled down the suspiciously empty corridor.
“Where are the guards?”
Xan smiled grimly. “I sent them away. It’s not an easy spell, and any mage who investigates will know it was me, but I didn’t have time for subtlety.”
A lone door stood at the end of the long, dark hall and Eiri vaguely remembered passing through it when he’d first come here. Xan tapped on it twice and it opened. Standing in the doorway was Ellis. Xan’s grief paled in comparison to the young man standing in front of Eiri now. His skin had gone ashen, his dark eyes swollen, his face blotchy from tears. He stood with his shoulders slumped, but he tried to stand up straighter when he faced them, closing the door behind him and leaving the three of them hidden.
“Do you know what happened to my brother?” he asked immediately, face falling when Eiri shook his head.
“I haven’t seen him since the party. I’m sorry. I was in our room when they arrested me.”
“We’ll get details in a minute. Right now, we have to find somewhere safe before we’re discovered,” Xan cut in. “We can’t use the main hallways. Eiri stands out too much. The smartest thing would be to leave the palace, but the queen locked down the gates.”
“Do we have any idea where Syrus might be?” Eiri asked. “I want to find him, no matter… no matter what.”
Xan sighed heavily. “This is one thing magic can’t help with now. I only know one tracking spell, but I’d need something of his. His hair, a drop of his blood, something like that.”
Blood.
A flash of a memory, something so little that he’d forgotten about it almost as soon as it happened.
Sitting in Syrus’ room early yesterday morning, his husband’s pristine white jacket spread across his lap. Crimson red thread on a spool beside him as he carefully embroidered thestaliflowers onto the collar. The prick of the needle biting into his skin when he lost his focus. A drop of blood pooling on his fingertip and absorbing into the thread before he could stop it.
Lost in the heat of Syrus’ lips and their urgent desire, he’d completely forgotten about the tiny injury, using that same thread to finish the embroidery.
“Could you find mine?” he asked, cutting off Xan mid-sentence. He didn’t even know what the other man was saying, too lost in the insane idea forming in his mind.
“Find your what?” Xan asked slowly, eyebrow raised.
“My blood.” Eiri stood up straighter, his exhaustion sloughing off as desperate energy coursed through his body. “I bled on Syrus’ jacket, the one he wore to the party last night. Ifhe’s still wearing it or it’s in the room with him, could you find him? It was only a drop.”
