“And now you’re threatening a war?” Hamish continued. “You’d rather bring death to our doorstep by slighting their offer for… What? Because he won? Because you cannae accept the truth? That, after everything you’ve put me through, I still willnae bend to your will?”
A soft gust of breath left his mother’s lips. Not a laugh, not even the wisp of a scoff. He had only ever heard that sound the once, thirteen years back, and he had paid twofold for his insolence then.
“Why? Why?” She stormed across the hall, her anger echoing in each pounding step. “Because this is wrong. If you had ever listened to me, to anyone!” She spread her arms wide. “Then you’d ken that.” Her face twisted with her ire and he was right back in her study, not quite two weeks ago. The first time she had ever struck him. “If you cannae see for yourself the harm you are causing, the danger you are bringing to this land by being with him. If you cannae be trusted to make the right choice, then I will make it for you.” She reached out to grab him.
Her hand smacked into something shimmering.
Only now did Hamish notice the shield surrounding them. It was more a faint feeling in the air, a hum, rather than the visible entity he had witnessed in the field. Barely visible where her palm had collided.
“I will not permit you to lay a finger on him,” Darshan hissed.
Hamish wasn’t entirely sure she had heard the man. She stared Hamish down as if he was some sword-swinging madman. “You persist down this road,” she snarled, “and you are dead to me.”
Nora gasped. “Mum, you—”
“I’ll nae have your influence poisoning me family any further.”
“You want me to leave?” he demanded of her, knowing full well that she wouldn’t answer. “Fine, I’m gone. I’ll even play along with your daft game of pretending I’m dead.” Hamish stepped closer, towering over her with the charge of the shield tingling along his skin. “But I want you to ken one thing before I do. I’m nae the poisonous one here. And despite what you want to think, I’m going to be living happily with a man who loves me.”
Darshan firmly clasped Hamish’s hand and squeezed.
With his heart thudding an extra beat, Hamish replied in kind. Feeling those slim fingers pressed against his skin gave him strength. He wasn’t alone. Not anymore. “I’m marrying him. And when he inherits the imperial throne—and he will, Mum, you ken he’s their bleeding heir—that’ll make me the prince consort to the most powerful man in the world. And you? You’ll still be bitterly living in decades gone.”
His mother sneered. “I dinnae ken who or what you are, but you are nae me son.”
“I think we both ken that I stopped being your son the day you decided I wasnae what you wanted in one.” Rather than wait for a response, he turned on his heel and strode to the door.
Darshan followed at his side, their hands still clinging to each other.
Hamish’s legs almost caved on him the moment he stepped through the doorway. He staggered a few steps before slumping against the wall. By the Goddess, what was he doing? What had come over him to speak to his own mother that way? It would’ve been better if I had just left. If only she would’ve listened.
His lover laid a hand on his shoulder, gently squeezing. “I—” He grew silent at the sound of approaching footsteps coming from the other side of the dining hall door.
Hamish straightened as the door creaked open to admit his siblings. Of their parents, there was no sign. Not even a whisper of his mother’s acerbic voice. It’s over, then. All those years… all boiling down to this. His exile.
Darshan bowed his head. “Forgive me, this was not how I imagined it ending.”
“How else could it have possibly gone?” Gordon asked. “Did you think me mum would just accept it?”
Darshan’s cheeks puffed out as he sighed. He scratched at the back of his head. “I had hoped she would find some measure of peace in her son’s happiness.”
A soft, weary chuckle escaped Nora’s lips. “You would’ve needed the Goddess’ intervention to pull off a miracle like that.”
“Evidently.”
“Come on,” Gordon wrapped an arm around Darshan’s shoulders, guiding him up the corridors. “You’ll have to gather what you can carry via horseback. Both of you.”
“I’ll go see your mounts are still saddled and ready,” Nora offered, hitching up her skirts and running off down the corridor before anyone could say a word.
“Horses?” Darshan mumbled. “But it will take months to leave Tirglas that way.”
“Aye,” Gordon said with a nod. “Unfortunately, your victory doesnae change the fact that the ship heading for Udynea is still nae in. If you were able to stay…” He trailed off with a shrug.
“But we cannot. I understand.” Frowning, Darshan gave a curt nod. “Horses it is, then.” He looked over his shoulder at Hamish. “Do not take too long gathering what you can, mea lux.”
Hamish nodded, his pace faltering once his lover and brother were out of sight. Packing wouldn’t take long; there were few possessions that he’d grown at all attached to and the rest…
Well, he didn’t own the rest anymore. He had been disowned. No title. No clan. He was free to live as he saw fit.
If the Goddess willed it, that life would be with a man who didn’t care he brought nothing but himself to a marriage.
Hamish halted in the doorway to his room, taking in the gloomy space that had been his alone for three decades. I’m never coming back. Not once had he ever given the idea any merit. Never, in all his years, had he considered there would be a time where he’d be stripped of the right to return here.
Now it was a reality.
He rifled through his things, moving from shelf to drawer before kneeling at
