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“You know he’s not going anywhere, right? Like, literally. So you can slow down.”
“The longer he’s here,” Jeremiah said with a grunt as he hopped into his jeans, “the more risk there is of another attack.”
Priest sighed. “Look. The outing yesterday was a bad call.”
Jeremiah scoffed loudly as he shrugged his shirt on, wincing at the pain as it dragged over his burns. It had been a bad call. It had been a call he’d tried to veto, but the king and queen didn’t want to take him seriously.
But he couldn’t deny he hadn’t put up as big of a fight as he should have. He’d been unsettled, but he hadn’t considered the fact that someone could lob a holy water bomb at him while—
His breath caught in his chest, and he spun to face Priest. “I burned him.”
Priest blinked at him. “What?”
“The prince. Remington,” he said, the name feeling odd on his tongue. “He threw himself at me, and my hellfire…”
Priest’s brow furrowed in a deep frown. “You might still be a little out of it, man. Your hellfire would have fucked him up.”
His heart beat faster, panic settling in. “I know that. That’s why I—”
“I just saw him,” Priest said slowly. “He’s with Knight right now, and he’s fine. I swear. It’s probably just the holy water attack making things foggy.” He tapped his temple.
Jeremiah wanted to argue, but if Remi was fine, then Priest had to be right. He felt better and worse all at the same time. “Maybe I’m not cut out for—”
“You’re the only one strong enough,” Priest said, throwing his legs over the bed and hopping up. He walked up to Jeremiah and pressed a firm touch over his burns. After a beat, he felt the familiar tingle as his friend began to heal him.
“Don’t,” he started, but the dark look Priest shot him shut him up.
“It’s a couple of burns. It’s not going to take me out, and you need to be at full strength.”
Demons could heal, but it weakened them. It was something they’d discovered when they were young and on their own, in danger in every city they moved to without legal protection. And some of the crueler species they ran into enjoyed reminding them of that fact.
It had been years since Priest had to heal him though, and he could see more color drain from his friend’s face.
It was over after a beat, and Jeremiah felt better than he had in a long while. He flexed his fingers, then cupped his hand around the side of Priest’s neck and knocked their foreheads together. “Thank you. But stop being a martyr. I need all of us at peak strength. Make sure you go feed before going home.”
This was more than just a small threat. This was an assassination attempt to destroy the current royal line, and Jeremiah was done screwing around.
* * *
He eventually found the prince with Knight and a handful of guards in a sitting room. He walked in, remembering to offer a half-hearted bow before he stood in front of the younger man and crossed his arms.
He had a sudden and wild urge to strip Remi down and explore every inch of his skin to make sure he wasn’t hurt. Gods, he had to stop turning into a horny little pup whenever the brat was around. He didn’t know what the fuck was wrong with his libido, but he definitely needed to get laid when this was all over.
“Can I help you?” Remi asked. His tone was filled with his usual insolence, but there was something in his beautiful eyes that spoke of worry. Almost like he was mirroring Jeremiah’s urge to put his hands on him to make sure he was actually okay.
He cleared his throat. “Why aren’t you with the twins?”
Remi let out an incredulous laugh as he stood and folded his arms over his chest. “Because I’m not four.”
Jeremiah’s eyes widened a fraction. “Could have fooled me with the absolute fuckery you’ve been pulling around here.”
Remi took a step back. “You can’t talk to me like that!”
“The hell I can’t,” Jeremiah shot back. “You’re not my prince. You’re a brat I’ve been hired to keep alive.”
“I’m not the one who okayed a beach trip out in the open while there was an active threat against my family,” Remi spat.
That shut him up, his jaw snapping closed with a loud click. The particulars of how the outing happened didn’t matter because at the end of the day, Remi and the twins had been his responsibility, and he’d almost failed to keep them safe.
