Page 34 of The Autumn Prince

ONE YEAR LATER

Looking over my shoulder, I saw that Milo was walking over, so I stepped back from the group I was with, cocked a hip and tossed my hair to make sure he saw me. I heard his barking laughter first.

“Why are all you idiots wearing kilts?” he hollered as he trotted over. “And which one of you got Flurry to convince me to wear mine?”

I snickered at him, claiming the title without admitting a thing. Me, Wally, and Bridge all had on kilts in homage to how Milo had arrived in the Winter Court roughly a year ago. Though none of us would be flashing our princes from the breakfast table—well, maybe later—I couldn’t resist poking fun at him for everyone’s anniversaries.

Apparently, Bridge had dropped into Hydris’s pool, Wally had fallen from the sky to crash into Solaris, and I, of course, had plopped right onto Incendis’s bed. And in every single scenario, someone had been naked or taken a dick to the face. Ol’ Lars had not been subtle when it came to throwing us at our princes.

“Who could resist,” I said on a laugh, “letting our dangly bits waggle free as we celebrate the first annual Freedom Day Festival?”

Milo groaned like he was in pain, but then he caught me into a hug. “You sure you’re wearing a kilt? Should I verify that?”

He tried to grab my ass, but I danced out of reach.

“I’m sure,” Incendis said offhandedly. “I checked earlier and look forward to doing so again later.”

A laugh jumped out of me because yes, he had, and yes, he would.

“Such wickedness,” Flurry murmured, as if he didn’t abduct Milo from our get-togethers whenever the mood struck him. “Someone should do something.”

Solaris snorted, while sweet Hydris blinked innocently. “Do what about what?” he asked.

“I’ll show you later,” Bridge told him and kissed his cheek.

A year together, and I knew so much more about love. For example, it grew deeper with each passing day. The love I felt for my friends, and the love I felt for Incendis. I’d thought I’d known what it was all about before, but oh, how I’d been wrong. This place, these people, my prince…that was love.

And to watch how the princes all loved each other and my friends was so beautiful to see and made me feel so full of happiness that, every now and then, I’d look around and wonder how any of this was real.

“Go on and get food,” I said, shooing everyone deeper into the festivities. “There are artists painting portraits, vendors selling all kinds of things, and performances everywhere. Oh, and the unicorns are racing each other in ten minutes—you don’t want to miss that.”

Since I was the chair of the celebration committee that had planned all of this over the past eight months, I had to stay available to help solve last-minute problems. I’d witnessed all of the performances when they’d auditioned and practiced and, if you’ve seen one unicorn look like a rainbow rocket shooting across a field, you’ve seen them all.

Incendis came over and tucked me against his side. “When are you going to tell them about your play?”

I chuckled in a slightly evil tone. “I’m not. I’m just going to sit them down in the front row.”

The other thing I’d been working on for the past year was a play about how my friends and I had arrived, messed up the princes’ lives, and helped to break the curse. It was mostly a comedy, but there was some drama, too. A couple people died, and a few ran around naked. They didn’t know it yet, but I’d used our talks like interviews to build the scenes that would tell our stories for everyone to see. The acting troupe was going to perform my play for the first time tonight, and then go on tour through the courts to visit fifty different towns and villages.

Incendis quietly laughed. “You’re terrible.”

“I know.”

Honestly, I hadn’t told them simply because I’d wanted to capture my vision without having three—or six—other people telling me what to do. Nothing would be untrue, no one would be made a fool of, but there were moments from last year that I felt this world needed to know about.

I wanted everyone who saw the play to be as proud of my friends and their princes as I was.

“Do you have a moment to assist me?” Incendis asked.

“Assist you? With what?” I looked around, but everything I could see was something the committee had been responsible for doing.

“It’s back at our tent.” He took my arm. “Very urgent matters.”

He was practically making me run. “Very urgent? What’s happened?”

“You’ll see.”

I would? I looked down at my clipboard—a device I’d had to get someone to make for me because they hadn’t ever had such a thing—and there wasn’t a single thing Incendis was needed for on the entire schedule.