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Up close, Sebastian’s eyes were a brilliant blue. He was captivating. Absolutely beautiful. His full lips quivered with emotion he did not have the ability to express. He was a vulnerable, gorgeous creature and Lucan felt intensely protective not only out of duty, but out of instinct.
Speaking of instinct, it was Lucan’s to draw the boy into his arms and hold him close, but such contact was still inappropriate, even given what had happened back at the castle. Sebastian was the prince regent, the heir to the throne, and the last of his name. The prince was Lucan’s charge, and Lucan took that responsibility very seriously.
“Come. Sit. I will build a fire,” Lucan said. “There was no time to gather supplies before we fled, but I will hunt in the morning and you will be fed.”
“And then what will you do?” Sebastian turned his big eyes to Lucan. “Build another castle? Bake another cake? My family… the crown… All is lost. You should go too.”
Lucan felt himself soften again toward the prince, and the urge to hold the young man increased.
“I have no intention of leaving you, sire.”
“I cannot pay your wages.”
“A knight does not serve for money. I pledged my oath to the crown of Force, and I intend to keep that oath.”
“The crown is gone. The man with the black beard has it. Don’t you serve him now?”
Lucan listened to Sebastian trying to convince him to abandon him, and taking no reassurance that would not happen. The boy was scared, of course. He had not been prepared for this. He had not been prepared for anything. He had been kept in the castle his entire life, coddled, pampered, and removed from all of the harshness and realness of life.
“I serve you,” Lucan said. “And only you. I pledge now, Sebastian. I will preserve your life and see you on the throne of Force again, or I will die trying.”
Sebastian’s expression became more pale and worried. “I don’t want you to die trying on my behalf. We both know I am no king.”
“I know nothing of the sort.”
“I cannot fight. I could not defend myself. I could not even move when the invaders came. I couldn’t flee, Lucan! Cowards run away, but I could not even be a coward. What kind of a useless monarch would I be? Sebastian the Frozen? No.”
Lucan was surprised Sebastian knew his name and could use it so easily. They had never been formally introduced. No knight or soldier was permitted to speak to the prince. His mother the queen had been very particular and strident about that.
“It was the first time your life had been threatened. We train many long hours to overcome our natural impulses. When confronted with danger, the body can fight, fly, or freeze. Your instinct to freeze was not wrong. But we can train you to choose another impulse. I must impress upon you, sire, what has happened tonight is not a failure for you. It is a failure for those who tried to eliminate your line. You are alive, and as long as you are alive, you are winning.”
Sebastian allowed himself the smallest of smiles, a little glimmer of something like hope appearing in his gaze. “I had not thought about it that way.”
“In the coming weeks and months, your thoughts will be the most powerful tool you have,” Lucan explained. “You can learn to fight, you can learn how to run and hide. But more important than either of those things is a skill I know you already possess — how to survive in a world that is hostile to your truth.”
Confusion and then guilt flashed in Sebastian’s eyes. “I’m sure I do not know what you mean.”
Lucan was equally sure Sebastian knew precisely what he meant, but he spared the prince’s pride by kneeling next to the fire and beginning to stack the wood and kindling that the previous hunter must have left for the next. It was a small gesture of hospitality from one stranger to another, and Lucan was grateful for it. He would not have liked to have left Sebastian alone in order to gather materials for the fire.
He had been brutally orphaned this night, and Lucan knew from experience that nothing could ever replace what he had lost. Lucan had served closely enough to King Thadecus to know that the relationship between him and his son was not close, but nobody wanted to lose a father, not even a distant and uninterested one.
Lucan struck tinder and the fire began creeping through dried moss and curling scraps of wood to wrap around the smaller kindling and quickly take hold. Within minutes there was a cheering warmth and glow in the room, which Sebastian availed himself of eagerly, all the while fretting.
“I have no armies. I have nothing but you. One knight. Nobody has ever taken a kingdom with one knight.” Sebastian stood next to the fire, wringing his hands rather than warming them. “My great-grandfather Athelred, he built Force castle. He secured the borders. He had armies that I have read as being great brutal swarms. He was fearsome. He stood well over six feet tall…”
