AllFreeNovel
Share Us
ChapterTwo
Jace
Holding me back when I could see my mother and my sisters and feel the urgency radiating from them was one of the cruelest things Magnus had ever done to me. Didn’t he understand that I hadn’t seen them for three years? That the last time I had seen them had been under the absolute worst circumstances imaginable?
They looked well, though. I’d noticed that from the moment I spotted them on the dock. Mother had aged, of course, but not as badly as I could have imagined. Taisiya and Vera had grown so much in three years. Taisiya wasn’t a girl now, she was a woman, and Vera was almost one too. I couldn’t wait to hold them in my arms. Listening to Magnus prattle on with Jorgen Iceblade and my brother was like torture.
Okay, I knew it wasn’t prattle. I knew Magnus was making an entrance and making a point. I wasn’t stupid enough not to know how vital it was that he established himself as the most important man at the meeting, more even than Sai or Jorgen. And I knew it was important for me to be part of the image Magnus was trying to present. I knew it, I did.
But my family was right there, after so, so long.
Genny reached out a hand and grasped mine right about the time I started fidgeting so badly I wasn’t sure if I would be able to hold still for a moment longer. I actually gasped for breath at the contact of his hand in mine, like I’d been struck by lightning.
I peeked at him, and he just looked back at me with that almost supernatural calm that someone who had been through what Genny had definitely shouldn’t have possessed. I was the dominant one in our relationship, but that look made me feel like he’d scolded me, like a child about to burst the seams of his trousers while waiting for winter solstice gifts.
Except that wasn’t the whole reason Genny had reached for my hand. A moment later, I noticed the disturbance coming from Sai’s people, who were crowded together on the dock, trying to make room for all the newcomers, us and Jorgen’s people. I turned to see what had drawn Genny’s attention to the point where he’d take my hand, and I saw my mother and sisters, and the woman who must have been Sai’s wife—I remembered Yulia vaguely from before—pushing their way through the cluster of men.
“Enough of this needless formality. I have waited long enough. I want to see my son.”
Not even Genny could hold me back when Mother shoved to the front of the men and stepped into the clearing where Magnus, Sai, Jorgen, and Olympus were exchanging greetings. I’m not too proud to admit that a sound ripped from my lungs that might have been a sob, or that my eyes stung. Nothing, not even Magnus, could have held me back from rushing forward and throwing my arms around my mother then.
“Mama,” I wailed, like I had as a child, hugging her so hard I lifted her off her feet. “Mother.”
I couldn’t think of anything else to say. There was nothing else to say. Mother embraced me as though she could fend off all the evils of the world to keep me safe with her. The force of her love almost made me collapse. Three long, horrific years, and we were finally together again.
Taisiya and Vera joined our ball of wild emotion, squealing and weeping as they hugged me too. I couldn’t form words, I couldn’t even breathe. I just wanted to hold them and be held by them for as long as possible.
I heard Sai say something, but it wasn’t until Mother inched back and put some space between us so that she could clasp her hands on either side of my face that I became aware of anything outside of the cluster of me and my family.
“My boy,” Mother wept and choked. “I love you. I missed you. I have been so afraid for you. Not a day has passed that I haven’t prayed for you and your return to us.”
“I missed you too, Mother,” I managed through tears and snot and near-hysterics. “I love you too. And you, Taisiya. And you, Vera.”
I moved away from Mother enough to hug and kiss each of my sisters with all the love and longing I’d felt for three fucking years.
“I need to see that our guests are taken to the palace for the welcome breakfast we have prepared for them,” Sai said. He was trying to be a leader, but he was weeping now too. “Take your time and come along when you’re ready.”
I nodded and forced myself to breathe a few times. “I’ll come,” I said, my head still spinning a bit too much for thought. “We’ll come.”
I noticed that Magnus, Jorgen, and everyone else had already started away from the dock, led by Sebald and some of Sai’s other men, and escorted by the guards. Had Sebald said that young man with him was his pup?
I shook my head. I didn’t care what Sebald did or who he fucked or how. Not when my mother and two of my sisters were within arm’s reach again.
Sai started off after them, but seemed torn about doing his duty as a king and wanting to stay with his reunited family. Or, at least, as much of us as where there. I already knew that Stepan was in Yakutsk, Arseny was in Klovisgard, and my oldest sister, Alyona, had married a merchant in Good Port. I’d had my reunion with Alyona a few days before, even though we’d barely had an hour to spend together. She’d been able to meet Genny, and that was all that mattered.
Genny.
I turned back as my mother and sisters started to sweep me along after the rest of the procession. Genny stood off to one side with the pale, anxious look he wore when he was uncertain to the point of being paralyzed. I hated that look on him, and I intended to chase it away immediately.
“Come along, Jace,” Mother said, grabbing me by my side and turning me forward again. “Just wait until you see the changes in the palace. Your sisters, Yulia, and I have worked tirelessly since being freed this winter to restore it to the home it was when your father was alive. You remember Yulia, don’t you?”
I tried to keep looking at Genny, whose eyes went wide with panic as Mother all but pushed me away.
“I remember her a little,” I said, not looking at Yulia, or my mother.
I wriggled out of my mother’s grasp and walked back to Genny, sliding an arm around his waist and propelling him forward. I smiled to reassure Genny, but he remained tense as we walked back to join Mother and the rest.
“I have someone to introduce you to as well,” I said, beaming at Genny. The only thing that could make me happier than being reunited with my family was introducing them to the love of my life. Still smiling at Genny, I said, “This is Gennadi Rozynov, my beloved.”
