“Okay,” he said. He sounded unaffected, but his scent was soothing. My fear became bearable.
“No, you don’t understand. It’s bad.” I could not bear to feel his arms around me only for him to reject me moments later.
“Okay,” he repeated. “Tell me, omega.” I gathered some courage.
“It’s about my father,” I started. “I never met him, I swear.” A moment of silence. “He’s a druid, like me.”
“Obviously,” he said. He always waited a few seconds before gracing me with a response. He made everything feel simple when he used that tone of voice. Unimportant. As if I was just a child, needlessly worrying. It was as calming as it was frustrating.
“I don’t know why he left. I don’t know much about him,” I said. “But he is an enemy to you.”
His grip on me loosened. He looked at me, his hands holding my sides. He was no longer wrapped around me. He was looking at me. I wondered what he was thinking. I didn’t dare look into his eyes.
I felt the exact moment he realised what I was telling him. His hands gripped me tighter, suddenly. His scent grew more intense. I knew then, that he knew. That he understood what I was trying to tell him. It was a joke that I was expecting no one to find out about it. There was only one known druid in the empire other than myself. The truth was right in front of their noses. Because of the emperor's watchlist I could not even conceal our shared name. I spent my life trying not to consider him my father. His life, his choices. They were never supposed to be a part of mine. Yet in not acknowledging him, I had forgotten the ways in which we were linked. The ways in which it was apparent that he was my father, and I was his son.
“Victor’s court healer?” My lip tasted like blood when I bit it. I nodded slowly. Shame set my stomach aflame.
“There have been rumours for years about the emperor’s poor health. Some even say that the druid in his court is keeping him alive. I don’t think that’s true because Victor is still alive, while his healer is not.” He let go of me. “I assume my father has died. That the emperor wants me to replace him.” I was waiting for him to lose composure. For the mood to shift. For the tenderness to fade. Instead, he tucked my hair behind my left ear. I looked up at him in surprise.
“I hope he has not died,” he said, “as he is not my enemy.”
“What?”
“I have met him. He is not my enemy.”
“You met him?” I had never met anyone that had met my father. My father was somewhat like folklore. A story I knew happened before I existed, only because I was told after the fact. To think that Axel met my father. That he knew him as a being made of flesh and blood.
“Once. He was kind to me.” Axel stood still, his left hand on my neck. His frown was not angry as much as it was worried.And suddenly, I worried as well. How was my father at the imperial court, if he was not Axel’s enemy?
“Was-is he their prisoner?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“But you didn’t even know what a healer looked like when you saw me for the first time.”
“I never saw him.”
“We share the same name!”
“I did not know his name.”
“That doesn’t make sense!”
“No one was allowed near him. I met him when I was injured. I was not all there. But I remember his voice,” he said. “I remember he was kind to me.” Unsure whether the news was a relief or something of a nightmare, I felt my hands shake. Axel took my hands in his own. He came close enough to my neck to scent me. My distress lessened.
“Where?” I asked.
“At Tellevine castle. Where I grew up.” I might not have been all there, soothed by pheromones to the point of sedation, but I still processed Axel’s shocking admission. Why did the General grow up at someone else’s court? Did everyone know about it? More importantly, if Axelwaspart spellcaster-
“How did you end up at his court?”
Axel took a step back. I could tell I was overstepping. This was not about him. His gentle response to my admission was nothing short of a miracle, and it was better not to jinx it.
“You know who my father is,” he said. We looked at each other. We were seeing each other in another light. Perhaps we were looking in a distorted mirror when we gazed upon one another. We had more in common than I ever realised.
“You will stay here,” he said suddenly.
“Here?”
