Sighing over what a pathetic mess he was, Bastien set the napkin aside. “Who would have ever thought this would be our lives, huh? As a boy, I thought by now I’d be ruling, in complete bliss.” That was what his parents had planned for his future. A nice heiress in another empire.
But he’d wrecked that design the moment he met Ember.
“I never thought I’d live long enough to rule. Gods’ truth to that. Every day I woke alive in that palace, I counted it a miracle.”
Shocked by Jullien’s confession, Bastien set the tray aside. “Seriously?”
He nodded. “Once Nykyrian was gone, I figured it was just a matter of time until one of my cousins grew brazen enough to take the fatal shot.”
“That’s why you wanted to live with your father?”
“Why else?”
Bastien let out a bitter laugh. “Your father thought it was a ruse of your grandmother’s so that you could take his throne.”
Jullien rolled his eyes. “Of course he did. All he had to do was marry and screw another whore for a son. I wouldn’t have cared. I just wanted away from Andaria.”
Scowling, Bastien gaped at him. “You know why he never did, right?”
“No idea whatsoever.”
“Jullien… he loves your mother. I mean,lovesher. They were supposed to marry. Everything had been arranged, in spite of our grandfather. Uncle Aros was willing to give up his throne for her, then Nykyrian was killed and she went into an institution. After that, his father and the Triosan senate absolutely forbade it. They’d have imprisoned him as a traitor had he married her then.”
He gaped as if that was news to him. “What? When was this?”
“Before I was born. But I heard my mother and your father and our grandfather fight about this most of my life. Aros categorically refused to ever take another bride—that was his FU to his father and his people over what they did to him by banning his marriage to Cairistiona. He has been loyal to your mother all these years. Your mother is his heart and soul.”
Jullien scowled at him as if he couldn’t believe it. “Then why did he allow them to banish me and replace me as heir?”
“Truthfully? Aros thinks you hate him. He says that the first time he picked you up when you were an infant, you screamed like you were being murdered and didn’t stop until he put you down. That anytime he tried to touch you, you cringed and recoiled, or ran away to hide. So he learned to leave you alone and focused on Nyk. After Nyk was gone, he didn’t know what to do with you.” Judgments that had always seemed harsh.
But Bastien also remembered how things were during his childhood. “Every time you visited, you and Aros always ended up in a bitter fight. So he thought it would be best if you stayed on Andaria. It’s why he didn’t fight them when they removed you from the line of succession. He thought you’d be happier on Andaria. That it would be best for everyone.”
Jullien scoffed bitterly. “My father never bothered to get to know me at all.”
Fair enough. He’d witnessed enough of their interactions to know that as truth. “I’m sorry, Julie.”
“It doesn’t matter. My parents orphaned me the day I was born. I never expected much from them, and sadly, they never failed to meet my low expectations.” Jullien jerked his chin toward his closet. “Take whatever you need, brother. I’ll make sure and bring supplies here whenever I pass through.”
Jullien’s unexpected charity brought a lump to his throat. God knew that it’d been so seldom given to the man in front of him that Bastien had no idea when or how Jullien would have learned it.
More than that, it’d been so long since anyone had thrown anything other than pain and misery his way that he was finding it difficult to not be suspicious. “Why are you being so kind to me?”
“Because I know what it’s like to be left out in the cold. I don’t want to do that to you. If I can find a surgeon who can remove your tag, I’ll come back with him, too.”
Those words almost broke him. Tears welled in Bastien’s eyes before he pulled Jullien against him and hugged him. “Even if you leave and never think of me again, the fact that you offered… I love you, my cousin.”
Jullien pounded him on the back and released him. “I won’t forget. I put my hailing numbers in while I ran my searches. If you come under attack, get sick, or need anything, you call me. I mean that. I’ll return immediately. Anytime. Don’t hesitate.”
Bastien wiped at his eyes, despising the weakness he was showing. It really pissed him off that basic decency had come to be such a rare commodity in his life that it left him weeping like a baby.
Yet there you had it. And it’d come from the least likely source of all. His cousin they’d all written off.
Clearing his throat, he followed Jullien to the ramp where Thraix waited with extra ammunition and weapons.
The sight flabbergasted Bastien. No one gave up weapons without a fight, and this was a lot more than he could have ever hoped for. “I wasn’t expecting all this.”
Thraix grimaced. “Yeah, well, I wasn’t expecting to let it go, either. But after what I saw in that building… I reevaluated my opinion of you. It’s not often I’m wrong. But I’m man enough to admit when I make a mistake. I made sure to conceal you, so you should be left alone.”
