His lover reached up and captured his hand. He pulled it down and pressed slow kisses to each one of his knuckles. Turning his hand over, Eno proceeded to press a kiss to the pad of each finger. Rayne could only watch in rapt awe, his heart tumbling over and over with each touch of his lips. No one had ever taken such care of him. It was as if Eno could see straight into his soul and touch him exactly where he ached.
“Tonight, I want you to sleep right here next to me,” Eno murmured against his fingers.
“Finally in a real bed.” Rayne tried to make it a joke, but his voice was too rough and husky for it.
“I’ll watch over you and I’ll worry for you tonight. You just sleep.”
Blinking back tears, Rayne could only wordlessly squeeze Eno’s hand. He was falling too fast for this man. These feelings were starting to be tainted by an ugly feeling of terror. He’d begun to fear that he’d never be able to make the same sacrifices and hard decisions when it came to Eno. One day, he would have to choose between doing what was right for the kingdom and what was right for Eno, and he would choose the man who owned his heart.
But would he ever be able to forgive himself for turning his back on all that he was and all that he believed in?
12
Drayce Ladon
Drayce stood back, watching as Caelan squatted down to dig through a cabinet, looking for a pan in which to make some rice. There was a lot of metal clanging and a thump as something fell. After a minute, he pulled out a giant pot and held it up.
“You think this will work?” Caelan asked as if Drayce had ever cooked a damn thing in his life. Drayce had spent a good number of years eating free meals at the royal towers. When he wasn’t, he was an expert at making himself useful so he didn’t have to cook. He was the firewood fetcher and the dishwasher.
“Dude, are you planning to make the entire bag?” Drayce teased.
Caelan glared at him and reached blindly into the cabinet. “This is my other option,” he replied, pulling out a small saucepan. It was big enough to feed maybe one of them.
Shoving a hand into his hair, he scratched his scalp while frowning. “Got it. I guess we fill the big pot up with a little water. We only need a couple of cups of rice, right?”
Caelan’s brow furrowed and he stopped in the middle of returning the saucepan to the cabinet. “Isn’t a cup a lot of rice?”
“I don’t mean like a drinking cup, but one of those measuring cup dealies. I’ve seen Rayne using them. They’re all different sizes for measuring stuff.”
His friend’s lips trembled as if he was trying very hard not to laugh. “We’re so freaking screwed, aren’t we?”
Drayce pointed at Caelan, going for his most confident and stern voice. “No. We can do this. It’s just rice. We can do rice. Boiling water, right? Pan, water, heat. We got this.”
The future king of Erya continued to appear skeptical about their chances of successfully making rice as he put away the saucepan. Drayce placed the pot under the faucet. They spent a few minutes discussing how much water was too much before finally getting the damn thing on the burner.
With a heavy sigh of relief, Drayce jumped up on the counter next to the stove so he could keep an eye on the water’s progress while Caelan leaned against the counter on the other side of the stove. He closed his eyes, making the dark circles that much more prominent on his face. The prince was thinner in the face, and his clothes seemed to hang on him a little more. His appearance was taking on a leaner, harder look, and Drayce hated to admit that he didn’t much care for it.
But that was likely because of the reason for the leanness. Too much running and not enough healthy food. And then there was the God of Storms clinging to Caelan like a grim shadow. Caelan had bonded with Kaes and spent a day unconscious. He’d used what looked like the full force of the god’s powers and spent another day unconscious. What the fuck was the God of Storms doing to Caelan?
Nothing good.
Drayce kept his fucking mouth shut. Caelan had enough on his plate. He didn’t need to deal with his best friend’s worries on top of everything else.
“So…are you okay with being back?” Drayce asked and dropped his head, cursing his own stupidity. Stormbreak was under Empire control, his mother was dead, and the Godstone was stolen. Of course he wasn’t fucking okay. But that wasn’t exactly what he’d meant.
Caelan’s softly huffed laugh had Drayce’s eyes opening and finding a kind of half smile tugging up one corner of his mouth. “I know what you meant.”