Cormal blew out a breath. “I did. But I… knew how Brannal felt about him.”
“And kind of hated him for it?” the Prince prompted.
Cormal sighed. “A bit, but it’s more complicated than that. I’ve known foryearsthat Brannal didn’t care for me that way.”
The Prince groaned. “Speaking of, since this is a really awkward conversation anyway, can I please apologize about that attempt at a kiss on my sixteenth birthday?”
This surprised a laugh out of Cormal. “I was pretty rude.”
“I came on strong,” the Prince countered, “and it was all about what I wanted, not about how you felt or what you might have been constrained to do given our relative positions. It wasincredibly selfish of me. I’ve regretted it for years, especially since the only way I could apologize was if I got my sister to tell you I was sorry when you thought I was dead. So, um, truly, I’m really sorry about all of it. You shouldn’t have been put in a position where you needed to fend off a child prince who wouldn’t take no for an answer. It was an awful thing to have done.”
Cormal digested this, not having expected it at all, and it really threw him out of his own disastrous reflections on his past.
“I accept your apology, if that makes you feel any better. Itwasa bit awkward, but I promise that I haven’t been spending the last seven years scarred for life by you having grabby hands.”
The Prince half-laughed, half-groaned. “I’d just turned sixteen. I feltsoadult. And I’m afraid I bought into the idea that I should get what I wanted for my birthday. It was really entitled and just… I apologize so much.”
Cormal looked at the other man, who was staring at the sand at their feet and didn’t seem willing to meet his eye.
“It really wasn’t that bad,” Cormal assured him. “There was no way you were going to make me do anything I didn’t want to do. Please don’t stress about that. And if I’m being perfectly honest, I was still a little wrapped up in… someone else.” No guesses as to who, but Cormal still felt slightly better not saying it out loud. “But you make it sound like you actually picked mespecifically, and if that’s the case, then I’m rather flattered. And I do apologize for not letting you down more gently.”
And the Prince finally looked at him again, though he still looked embarrassed.
“Thank you. I’m not sure that gentle would have gotten through to me at that point, and you don’t have to apologize for doing what you needed to do to get me to back off. And it’sactually tremendously reassuring to hear that you had no idea of my terrible crush on you.”
Cormal froze. “What? Seriously?”
The Prince’s eyes widened, and he let out an incredulous laugh. “Oh, wow. So you still hadn’t figured it out?” He cleared his throat. “So, no, never mind, it was just a random thought for my sixteenth birthday, and can we talk about something else now, please?”
Cormal stared at him. “Truly? Me?”
The Prince’s expression of embarrassment faded, and he nodded, swallowing, before he said, “Very much so. You were kind to me, and in moments like our time here, you didn’t treat me like the prince. You treated me just like a person. I really liked that. I looked up to you. A lot.” He cleared his throat. “And I maybe thought that you and all your muscles were really hot.”
Cormal laughed, still a bit stunned, but a wonderful feeling of warmth filled him. “Oh, well, thank you. I am… not used to being a figure of admiration.”
As soon as he said it, he wished the words back. That was… far more revealing than he’d meant to be.
But the Prince was still gazing at him softly.
“Your father could be kind of scary,” he whispered.
A shiver whispered up Cormal’s back, and he tried not to think about the terrible truth he’d never told anyone.
“And Brannal was very appealing,” Cormal pointed out.
The Prince half-nodded, half-shrugged. “He’s handsome, certainly. Maybe it’s just that he was that little bit older? I never found him as appealing as I did you.”
No one, not since Cormal had met Brannal when he was ten, had said anything remotely like that to him. In fact, they’d said the exact opposite.Cormalhad thought the exact opposite.Hehad been enamored of the other man.
He’d been so pleased when he’d also manifested fire, but it was impossible not to feel less than Brannal, who could controlallthe elements. Cormal’s father had started grooming him to take over practically from the moment he’d arrived.
Cormal had met Brannal before he’d manifested any elements of his own, when there’d still been potential, so his father hadn’t put so much pressure on him then. At the time, it had been soexcitingto have someone so close in age to Cormal, someone who was willing to play with him.
Looking back, it was clear that his father hadn’t ever expected Cormal to be able to match Brannal for magical power. He wasn’t sure that he’d actually expected Cormal to amount to anything. Privately, he’d seemed to view Cormal’s power asadequate. The fact that there were so few Mages who could control fire was something, and the fact that Cormal had followed in his father’s footsteps wasn’t to be completely ignored. (But his father could control fireandair. Cormal could only control one element, just like the vast majority of Mages.)
No, his father had decided early on that Brannal would be Summus after him, and that Cormal could be his Secundus. He hadn’t quite encouraged either a rivalry or a friendship—or maybe it had been one of the few times that Cormal had been successfully stubborn. He’d cared for Brannal, and he’d enjoyed collaborating with someone else who could control fire. He’d always looked up to him. He’d been happy at the idea of serving as his Secundus—even as there had been part of him that had chafed at not beingenough, that had seen the way his father was never quite as impressed with anything that Cormal did.
Brannal had made a much better Summus than Tramad had, though Cormal wasn’t sure that he’d ever actually said so. And it was hard to get past the legacy of a man who’d been Summus for thirty years—even the way it had ended.
