They both rose, and Cormal bowed.
“Yes, Mother,” Kinan said as Cormal murmured, “Thank you, Your Majesty.”
They were at the door when she said, “I would prefer that you spent the night in Kinan’s room, please, Summus. There are Mage Warriors at the door.”
Cormal nearly tripped on air, and Kinan managed a strangled, “Yes, Mother,” before they escaped the study. They made it down the corridor and to the stairs before Kinan burst into laughter.
“Oh, your face,” he howled.
Someone’s mother hadneverhad an opinion on who Cormal was sleeping with before.
Still, she hadn’t seemed disapproving, really. At least, not at this stage. Maybe it would change once Kinan was solid again. But Cormal certainly wouldn’t bring that up with Kinan now, not when he seemed so happy about the whole thing.
“I hadn’t actually thought us that obvious,” Cormal said finally, in lieu of anything more intelligent to contribute.
Kinan looked a bit embarrassed now. “Uh, I’m pretty sure that announcing in my mother’s hearing that I tried to kiss you on my sixteenth birthday and then spending a lot of time with you now… probably gave her a pretty good idea of how I feel. And since you didn’t throw fireballs at me and came with me just now… She probably guessed a lot.”
Cormal hadn’t thought of it quite like that, but on top of everything Kinan had just listed, they hadn’t been trying to be particularly subtle on the way back to the castle. Any of the Warriors or Mage Warriors might have revealed the truth to someone, or reported directly to the Queen, had she asked them to do so.
“Do you… mind?”
Kinan’s voice was small, and Cormal realized that his internal musings had made him silent for too long. He turned to Kinan.
“Not at all,” he hastened to assure him. “I meant it when I said I loved you. You’re everything I didn’t know I was looking for in a partner. But the fact remains that you’re the Crown Prince.”
“And you’re Summus. What of it?” Kinan challenged.
“We both know that won’t be for long. And you know there are potential ramifications.”
“We’ve been in a period of peace and prosperity since we all banded together to survive the Great Cataclysm. There hasn’t been the need to barter off royal family members in centuries,” Kinan said stubbornly.
In that moment, he made Cormal think of nothing so much as the Princess. Truly, the whole family could be remarkably opinionated when they wanted to be.
“I couldn’t make a better choice,” Kinan continued with a flattering amount of certainty.
“Thank you,” Cormal told him.
It seemed like now was perhaps not the time to bring up the fact that it might be better for his political aspirations if he were paired with someone who could be said to always have supported carnalions and children of two worlds.
And it was definitely too early to talk about an heir, right? Surrogacy and adoption were an option, but…
Yes, definitely too early.
“I’m supposed to be happy, aren’t I?” Kinan pursued doggedly. “Isn’t a happy monarch a better monarch?”
“It certainly does seem better than an unhappy one,” Cormal agreed.
“Well, you’re what makes me most happy,” Kinan said firmly. “So it’s a very easy choice.”
“You make me happy, too,” Cormal assured him. “I’m truly very glad to be here with you—even if your mother is aware that we’re sneaking into your room together.”
Thankfully, Kinan allowed himself to be diverted by this. “It’s scarcely even sneaking. Trust me, I’m the expert at sneaking. Come on.”
As the Queen had said, there were Mage Warriors at Kinan’s door. Winroe—tiny, blond, male, Earth—and Bilorra—tall, dark, female, Air—both inclined their heads, clapping their hands to their hearts and bowing to the Prince. Cormal nodded back.
“If you hear any yelling,” Kinan said as he breezed past them, “it’s just the two of us getting off, and you don’t need to worry about it.”
He disappeared straight through the door, the absolute ass.
