He shouldn’t have thanked the gods earlier. He should have been thankingher.
Serill looked away from Brela as she turned down the other hallway, still feeling the warmth in his cheeks, but it took the captain a few seconds to remember that the prince was standing there.
“I… uh…”
Shirtless. His friend wasn’t hiding that heavy ink on his chest. Four hells, what did Brela do to get Cason comfortable enough to not stress about his fire magic?
Wait, he didn’t want to know that.
“No explanation necessary,” Serill said with as much happiness as he could muster. “It’s nice to see you in a good mood,” he added.
A slow nod was all Cason took before whatever heat the fire wielder had still been radiating disappeared. “Which is why you are in a bad mood, standing outside my door with a letter from my father. You don’t want to ruin it.”
He let out a breath and stuck the seal forward. “It came yesterday, or the day before. Who knows how long my father held onto it.”
Cason took the letter and stared at it for a moment. “Conveniently remembered it this morning?” Serill nodded. “Do you think he was trying to get back at you, me, or Brela?”
“I think we both know it’s all three.”
The king’s first victory was to annoy Serill, reminding him that he didn’t support the prince’s Veil collections and that his ideas made him too soft to rule a kingdom. The second was to piss off Cason by bringing up a past relationship the captain despised and wanted no part of. The third was torturing Brela, who the king assumed would suffer the fire breather’s angry wrath.
Serill braced for the burn as Cason unfurled the letter and read.
It never came.
“My father is going to be in Rooke for business. He wants to meet,” Cason whispered, eyes scanning the parchment.
The prince swallowed. Waited for the rest of the fury as the Captain stared at the paper.
Muted crackling was the only reaction from his friend. Little flames danced at Cason’s fingertips, curling the edges of the letter as fire swallowed the paper until his fist smothered the last burning ember. Black ashes fluttered to the ground, but Cason didn’t look bothered at all as he looked back at Serill and sighed.
“All the more reason to avoid Rooke on this first leg to Valisea.”
Serill wasn’t sure how to react. “You’re handling this a lot better than I thought you would.”
Cason shrugged. “I haven’t talked to him in years, and I haven’t seen him for a lot longer than that. I have no intention of letting him waltz into my life whenever it’s convenient for him.”
The prince blinked, if only to keep his jaw from dropping at how calm Cason looked. “Good gods, you aren’t angry.”
More statement than question.
His friend huffed a breath. “I’m more surprised the king is making us go to Valisea instead of forcing me to exploit my connection to Anfroy. It wouldn’t surprise me if my father had something to do with the stationing of extra soldiers at the wall.”
Serill stared, apparently too long because Cason finally sighed and groaned, “Just say it.”
“Any other day, you’d be livid, but now?” The prince grinned. “You like her.”
Cason stiffened. “I’m not sure that’s a good thing.”
Not a denial. “Having feelings for someone isn’t a weakness.”
“It is when being around Brela quite literally weakens me,” he replied. “It is when I forget that the shard in her chest exists. The very thing that dulls my magic’s ability to anticipate danger and protect you.”
Serill frowned. “Do you think she’s going to betray us?”
“No,” Cason replied quickly. “But it worries me that Iwantto trust her when she can so easily snap. It’s what happened with the Wraturo and in Calcheth. She told me about losing her sense of self and getting lost. What if that happens when we reach Valisea?”
“Then we deal with it,” the prince said cooly. “She trusts Elias and Farrah to pull her out, and I doubt she’d do anything to put them in danger. That’s why she let them decide whether to trust us or not. To show us that her friends will anchor her and keep her from doing something stupid.”
