AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My brew flew up and I nearly missed a step. Tybalt had claimed another pup? I supposed, unlike Yuri, he wouldn’t have stayed so focused on me for two months that he would go after me or wait until I returned. He was the leader of Aromel now, so he would need to act like it by taking a pup.
“Also,” Magnus went on, “he would be in very real danger of losing his place as the leader of Aromel if he showed any signs of behaving like Yuri.”
I flushed at the eerie way Magnus seemed to reflect my thoughts.
“You’ve no idea how deeply Yuri’s madness has affected the men of our kingdom,” Magnus went on in grave tones. “In the last two months, while you’ve been up here doing important work, discussions have been held about how to prevent men from abusing their pups, as Yuri did.” He paused, then said, “Did Peter and Neil not discuss this with the rest of the Sons the other night?”
I huffed and shook my head. “Peter was too busy being furious with me over Avenel, and then with Jace and Gennadi, once Gennadi declared he wanted to officially be a pup.”
Magnus hummed and nodded. “Yes, my darling love has a blind spot where pupdom is concerned. It is because he feels—” He stopped, pressing his mouth shut, then sending me a sheepish, sideways look. “Forgive me, I cannot discuss the intimate details of my marriage with anyone other than my husbands.”
The statement made me smile. I didn’t really need to esteem Magnus even more than I already did, but his circumspection was a credit to him. Besides, I had already guessed that much of Peter’s difficulty with the whole institution of pupdom was because he secretly craved that kind of security.
“It sets me apart from them,” I went on with a sigh. We reached the far end of the street, so we paused and faced each other. “Maybe not Jace, but I feel like there’s a wedge between me and the other Sons now.”
“Why?” Magnus asked, genuinely perplexed. “Why would falling in love and desiring a particular kind of romantic relationship divide you from your friends?”
I couldn’t believe he didn’t see the reality of the situation. “Because the only reason we formed together as a group to begin with was because we were all pups. We pledged to be loyal to each other first and foremost, and to fight for our freedom. And now what have I done?” I answered my own question with, “No sooner had I removed the shackles that bound me than I placed those shackles on another man’s wrists.”
Magnus sent me a flat look that was almost comical. “You were not all pups when you formed the Sons,” he corrected me. “Peter and Neil were never my pups. They were only ever my beloveds. Jace was freed within days of your group forming as well.”
I hadn’t realized that. “We were all the lovers of the leaders, though.”
Magnus shrugged, still unconcerned. “Many of you still are,” he said. “Peter and Neil are the husbands of a king.” He smiled broadly and puffed up his chest a bit. “Anton is still loyal to Ludvig, unless something has changed during their adventures in the eastern forest. It has been over a month since anyone has heard from them.”
That gave me pause, but before I could make a comment and get sidetracked, Magnus went on.
“Even though he has ventured across the eastern mountains and into the Old Realm, Conrad is still Dushka’s lover. And Lefric might have executed the greatest coup of all of you by becoming the lover of a prince of Good Port.”
I grinned at the thought. Any thought of Lefric made me grin. “Olympus isn’t really a prince.”
“He will be soon, if Lefric has anything to say about it,” Magnus laughed. “That young man has far more ambition and is much more intelligent than I think even you Sons realize.”
That thought had me raising my eyebrows. Lefric was a character, that much was certain. The way he interacted with Olympus was fun to watch. Olympus might have been over fifteen years older than him, but the two of them bantered like equals.
“It might also interest you to know,” Magnus went on, “that Orel has taken a fancy to a particularly sweet and adoring young man. I would not be at all surprised if, once you and Jace meet up with him again and explain Avenel and Gennadi, that Orel will get it in his head to formalize his relationship with Lowel. Then three of you Sons will have pups of your own.”
Orel taking a lover was news to me. The possibility that he would make that relationship one of master and pup threw my thoughts into even greater turmoil.
“Then what are we now?” I asked, sounding more distressed than I wanted to. “I thought I knew who we all were. I thought we were all the same, that it was us against them.”
Magnus laughed once again at that. He rested a hand on my shoulder, his eyes dancing with mirth.
“My dear Sebald. You are who you have always been, as all of you Sons have always been. You are strong young men who are in a unique position of leadership. You are friends with the deepest and strongest of bonds that will carry our kingdom into the future. You are the leaders of the future, the future kings, Justices, and healers.” His expression softened from amusement to pride. “You are all turning from boys to men.”
Was that what it was? It felt like the earth shifting under my feet, and it was all I could do to keep my balance.
I shook my head as we started back down the street toward the cottages again. “It feels like I’m suffocating under a mountain of responsibility.”
“It is called growing up, my friend,” Magnus said.
I snapped my head to look at him with wide eyes. “You just called me your friend.”
“Aren’t you?” Magnus asked with feigned shock in his eyes.
I felt sheepish and squirmed a little. “I have always thought of you as miles above me,” I admitted.
Magnus grinned. “Young men start out below older men, and—oh, dear. That sounded far more sexual than I intended it to be. Although, I suppose it’s true.” He contemplated that for a moment before chuckling and going on with, “You start out as our apprentices. There, that sounds better. Then you learn and become our equals. Then we begin to fade, and you gain supremacy over us. Then we become decrepit, and if we are lucky and have placed our pieces correctly on the sketchers board of life, you take care of us and cherish us until we move on to the next life.
