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Still several inches deep in the prince, Lucan knew very well that what he was seeing was a raw display of primal power. Elemental power. The kind of magic whispered about in the halls of a few sacred places. The kind that had been specifically and ferociously banned from Force since Sebastian’s birth.
It did not come with flame alone. Lucan was locked inside the prince’s body, feeling what he was feeling, seeing some part of what he was seeing. Connection came with insight, and that insight was a terrible thing.
First, he had a vision of Sebastian not as he was now, but how he had been a thousand years ago. The knowledge of time and place flowed into him even as his seed continued to fill the prince.
He was young in the vision, looking much the same as he did now. But he was not free. There were chains around Sebastian’s neck. One eye flaring red. One horn visible between strands of blond but bloodied hair. He saw a monster. A malevolent force chained against its will, waiting for a chance to inflict itself on the world.
He felt that creature now beneath his hands. He had been gripping Sebastian’s hips, but it was as though something massive, muscular, and scaled suddenly crawled beneath the young man’s skin before settling again.
Sebastian went limp suddenly, flame dying away from the ground close to their bodies, but continuing to burn in an ever-spreading circle. Lucan pulled free of him and grabbed him up into his arms. He was unconscious.
“Sebastian! Seb!” Lucan gave the prince’s face a light slap even as he cradled him in his arms. “Wake up!”
Sebastian remained pale and insensate. He was breathing, which gave Lucan some hope, but he was not coming around quickly.
“Come on, Seb,” he said, giving him another little slap. “Wake up for me.”
“Did you feel him? Do you feel what he is? Do you see now why I need to take him down? Or are you so arrogant as to think you can control the power you just touched?”
The fire continued to burn, smoke curling and thickening with every passing moment. There was no way out of this prison of flame. Nowhere to run that would not lead to a wall of unbreathable smoke and terrible heat. Lucan was trapped with his prince, standing before a devil who smiled and said terrible things.
The devil followed Lucan’s eye line to the nearest burning thicket. “That fire will consume those who came for you and my boy. Even now it is feeding on their bones. That flame is his vengeance. It is his gift. And it is also how things will end.”
“I have no time for games, devil. Wake him up.” Lucan tried to keep things simple. There were greater forces at play, forces that dwarfed a mere knight. He felt himself as a shadow against the flames, something that would flicker out when they died down and be lost.
The devil leaned forward, face shifting with flames and features that were his and yet were not. He was familiar and yet completely foreign. He was all things to all people. When he spoke, it was with a deep, resonant tone that held the unmistakeable ring of truth. This was no devilish deception. This was raw reality being presented to the knight. Lucan understood without it being overtly said: he had made a cosmic mistake in giving into his lust for Sebastian. Something had been done that could not be undone, and the consequences must now be faced.
“You felt what I would be waking if I do wake him, haven’t you, sir knight. You’ve touched the beast inside the boy. Is that what you want? To unleash such a thing on this innocent world? Or will you give him to me? I will let him slumber peacefully. When he wakes, this world will have passed away into time and he will not remember any of this pain. But if you wake him now and make him part of all these things, then he will suffer, as will any who oppose him.”
Who would have thought the foppish, spoiled prince who cared mostly for pretty clothes and jewels and all the silly trappings of his station would bring Lucan to the very brink of madness, forcing him to make a decision that amounted to life and death for many. There was a brief hint of wisdom that told him the prince, his sleeping beauty, would be far better sleeping into another age. But there had been a joining of more than flesh. There had been a joining of heart, and Lucan wanted nothing more than to see Seb’s eyes open again.
He needed the boy. He needed his prince. Not only to love, but to protect. What was a knight without a king? Nothing. Without Sebastian, there would be no point to any of Lucan’s struggles. There would be no purpose to drawing breath. He wanted Sebastian back, alive, present, so deeply he was prepared to sacrifice the world and everybody in it. So he made a selfish decision. He made the choice he knew would lead to pain, and suffering, and yes, death.
