Page 28 of The Autumn Prince

“Milo!” I hollered.

Then all of a sudden, someone grabbed my shoulder and spun me around. I had a second to see that it was Wally before he swooped me up into a bear hug and squished the breath right out of me.

They were all here! All of my friends! Milo and Bridge crashed into me and Wally, everyone talking about how and why as we hugged each other. Bridge had tears on his cheeks, and I wiped them away. Wally made fun of Milo’s codpiece because what the hell was that? We were loud and happy and I could hardly believe that they were all just here.

It was when I turned to introduce Incendis to everyone that I remembered my friends hadn’t come here alone. There was a spiky Winter Warlock dude, one with flowers all over his head, and a blue guy with antlers. Each of them looked uncomfortable and like they didn’t know what to do with their hands, gazes flicking all around nervously.

They were the other princes. Had to be. These were Incendis’s brothers.

“Oh, my god,” I loudly bitched, “this is a celebration, and yet you’re all standing around like you don’t want to be here.”

Incendis didn’t do anything except blush, while the rest of them kept looking like they wanted to be anywhere else.

“Come on,” I groaned. “Be nice. Hug your brother. Don’t be an asshole.”

The snowflake one snorted a laugh.

“Hydris,” Bridge said, “tell them.”

The guy looking like a cute little hippy with flowers in his hair blushed scarlet, but he nodded and said, “I’d, um, like to apologize for all the wars. I made Maddox to lead for me because I thought I was doing everything wrong, but that was a huge mistake because he was the one doing everything wrong. So I’m sorry.”

“And where is Maddox now?” the prince with antlers asked.

Bridge’s chuckle sounded a touch evil. “He’s a puddle on the throne room floor, isn’t he, honey?”

Hydris giggled and, as he nodded, the big pink flower on his head bloomed.

Okay, so like a kitten, that prince had claws.

I realized Milo was having a silent conversation of wide eyes, cocked heads, and subtle hand gestures with the ice prince. Finally, Icy made a face like he was groaning before clearing his throat.

“I’d like to apologize as well,” the prince said. “If it’s possible for me to make amends to your people for the lives lost, I would like to do so.”

“All of us fought,” the antlered one said, “so maybe the thing to do as we recover from the curse is make a pact. We will never again use war to solve our differences.”

“Or because you’re bored,” Wally added with a very pointed frown.

“Or, uh, that.”

I looked to Incendis, eyebrows raised in question.

He very quickly said, “I agree to the pact. No more war.”

“No more war,” the other two echoed.

I said, “Now hug.”

The looks of horror on their faces…

“Oh, come on,” I groused, hands on hips. “You’re brothers, for fuck’s sake. You just learned lessons and fell in— Oh.” I looked to my friends. “Did we all fall in love with a prince?”

With grins on all their faces, they said they had as they went to stand with their prince. What strange couples we all were, but it seemed kind of fitting that each of them was with their specific prince.

I cocked my head at the Winter Prince and said to Milo, “Chilly?”

“Frigid,” he said with a big grin.

I laughed since he’d once told me he’d put his dildo in the freezer before he used it sometimes.