Page 26 of His Realm

“Yeah.”

“How can you be so cavalier about this?”

“I’m not. Not at all. But you didn’t do it intentionally, did you?”

“I…yes. I knew it would happen, and I didn’t warn you and then I left you.”

“Well, that’s horrible,” I told him, at the same time unable to dredge up all the anger I should have felt because I was still so happy and relieved to be talking to him. But that didn’t mean we didn’t need boundaries. “And if you do it again, I won’t be here when you get back.”

“You cannot threaten⁠—”

I hung up. It was hard to do and basically threw my own rules right out the window because cutting him off was bound to infuriate him, and if he got mad enough not to return to me, then all this was like cutting off my nose to spite my face. And I’d always hated that expression, but as I got older, I understood a lot of old sayings more than I used to.

Honestly, I was surprised when the phone rang. I didn’t think he would call back so quickly. “Hello.”

“I will never not inform you of something I’ve done, and more importantly, we will never be parted again.”

I chuckled.

“Why would you laugh?” he asked, his voice brittle and hard.

“Because we will be parted again. You have things to do without me, and most of them are boring as shit and I wouldn’t want to tag along anyway.”

“Oh,” he muttered, and I could hear the surprise.

“And I’m a pretty strong guy, so you leaving me for two, three weeks at a time, I can deal with. It’s the five months, nearly half a year, that did me in.”

He cleared his throat. “Yes.”

“So don’t go making blanket promises you can’t possibly keep. Instead, be upfront and always tell me what’s going on.”

Heavy sigh. “Agreed.”

“And let’s be honest, you were so mad when you left and⁠—”

“I was furious that my father⁠—”

“Tasked you with bringing Alrek back when originally it seemed like he was going to let him go and not worry about what happened to him.”

“Yes. Precisely.”

“But then he realized how it would look to the rest of the Noreia if Alrek wasn’t punished,” I said with a snicker because Messina Maedoc never wanted to appear weak. “And that’s when he decided to send his biggest gun after him.”

“For his cowardice in allowing you and Nerilla to be taken by Gideon,” he said hoarsely, “Alrek should be drawn and quartered.”

“Your feelings about your half brother only added to your anger about having to hunt him down.”

“Yes.”

“But really, killing Alrek is an easy punishment. A better one would be him having to take over my job.”

He grunted, but it defused his anger, so that was good.

“I mean, I really think all your father’s children should be put to work. It would give them something to do, and that would give them a sense of purpose. People have to feel like they matter. Right now he’s not doing them any favors.”

“Of course he is. All they have is his favor,” he argued. “Nothing is expected of them. They’re all spoiled, vain, and useless.”

“Because they have nothing to do,” I countered. “You get that we’re talking in circles, right? They need a focus.”