I forced a smile. "The rumor is that you've gotten in trouble, but I doubt that's going to last. By tomorrow, everyone will know that Cadet Alar Tekum is actually Prince Alaranthus Tekumuton the Fifth."
Alar closed his eyes and sighed again. "If I could wave a magic wand and make it all go away, I would."
"I know." I squeezed his hand. "So would I." I rose to my feet and pulled him up with me. "Let's tell the others together."
In the living room, we found Shovia, Codric, and Morek still sitting at the table, but the stew had been abandoned in favor of the strong caff that Morek had brewed. The kind that could strip paint and keep me alert through a double watch. Three cups sat on the table, steam curling upward, and the aroma filled the apartment with a bitterness that matched the mood.
Morek saw us first and was on his feet immediately. "I'll get your caff." He rushed into the kitchen and returned with two more cups. "You look like you need this." He poured the dark brew from the pot.
"Thank you." Alar accepted the cup and wrapped both hands around it but didn't drink.
Codric watched Alar with a serious expression, the one he wore when the charming façade wasn't appropriate and the real person underneath needed to be present.
"What's going on?" Shovia asked, direct as always.
Alar set the cup down and looked at Codric first. Something passed between the cousins that didn't need words, and then Codric gave him a barely perceptible nod.
"I owe all of you the truth," Alar said. "I should have told you a long time ago, and I'm sorry that I didn't." He took a breath. "My full name is Prince Alaranthus Tekumuton the Fifth. I am the fifth son of King Alaranthus Tekumuton the Fourth, ruler of Catonia and head of the Elurian Federation Council."
The silence that followed was so thick I could feel it compressing my chest. Or maybe it wasn't the silence but what was about to happen. My prince was leaving, and I was giving him my blessing because his life mattered more to me than our relationship.
Our love would endure.
Morek's cup stopped halfway to his mouth. His eyes went wide, and for the first time since I'd known him, he seemed frozen, stuck in a moment that his accelerated processing couldn't fast-forward through.
Shovia went very still, every muscle controlled, and every thought shielded behind those impenetrable walls of hers.
Then she turned slowly toward Codric.
"And who are you?" she said.
Codric met her gaze without flinching. "Codric Teress. Cousin to the prince. My mother, Duchess Evelina, is his father's cousin, and my father is Duke Cordium Terassitan. I'm minor royalty. Barely deserving of the designation."
Shovia stared at him for a long, charged moment, then she turned to me with accusation in her eyes. "How long have you known?"
"For a while," I admitted. "Alar told me shortly after we arrived at the Citadel."
Shovia's jaw tightened, but she didn't explode, which was almost worse. Shovia's anger was loud and immediate and burned itself out quickly. This controlled stillness meant the wound went deep.
"The Elucian Dragon Force command has known as well," Alar said. "Shaman Saphir has known who I am since the Circle of Fate. The wing and section commanders were told as much, for security. General Lesten knows the rest. My identity had to remain confidential for diplomatic reasons and also for my safety."
"Diplomatic reasons," Shovia repeated flatly.
"If it became public knowledge that an Elurian prince had infiltrated the pilgrimage under an assumed name, it would have caused an international scandal. But more importantly, it would have revealed that the Catonian royal family has Elucian bloodin their lineage, which is something my father has gone to great lengths to conceal."
Morek finally lowered his cup. "You're a prince," he said, as if repeating it would help it make sense.
"I am."
"A prince. Of Catonia. The biggest and most powerful province in the Elurian Federation."
"Yes."
Morek looked at me. "And you've been sleeping with him this whole time knowing he was a prince?"
Trust Morek to cut straight to the most irrelevant detail.
"His title wasn't the reason I fell in love with him, Morek. It happened long before I knew who he was."
