Page 29 of The Prince's Sacrifice

“Thank you,” Pel said, feeling an unfamiliar swell of emotion that he thought waspride. “That means a lot to me. But the fact remains that I’ve got some undesirable qualities, too.”

Tor opened his mouth again, but Pel stared him down. Looking mutinous, Tor nevertheless shut his mouth.

Smiling faintly, Pel continued, “Yes, if we bond before we see him, you’ll have won the first round and stymied his attempt to bond you to Princess Terila. But you can’t promise that he wouldn’t try to undo it. Is that really how you want to start our marriage? Do you think you’re going to be able to fix things with your brother if you do this behind his back?”

“I don’t care,” Tor said fiercely.

“Yes, you do,” Pel said gently.

He could never have gotten this close to the man without realizing how much he loved his brother even when he despaired of him. Pel understood the feeling all too well.

Tor still looked mutinous, so Pel leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to his lips. “I should know, shouldn’t I?”

“What happened?” Tor asked.

Pel sighed. “It was a little too much at once. I mean, nothing was the same from the moment that I Manifested as Unremarkable.”

“Because your father is anass,” Tor said promptly.

Pel didn’t argue. It was kind of nice to have someone squarely on his side.

“My mother died when I was fourteen,” Pel said quietly.

Tor tugged Pel into a hug. “Oh, Pel, I’m so sorry.”

Pel sighed and leaned into the other man’s strength and acknowledged, “It wasn’t a good time. Father took to bed with the breaking of their bond. He didn’t cope well, and things were never the same after that. So when I Manifested as Unremarkable, it felt like it was just one more misery to heap on him.”

“But not the slightest bit your fault,” Tor pointed out fiercely. “You are who you are, and you are definitelynota misery.”

Pel drew in a deep breath. “I know. I even mostly believe it. But it was… hard. I’d hoped, of course, that I would be Extraordinary. I even thought that maybe my father would feel better, and instead—”

Tor finished the sentence for him. “And instead, he reacted in typical fashion and was anass?”

Pel sighed and relaxed further into Tor’s strong embrace.

“Yes,” he admitted in a very quiet voice. “Bavil protected me as much as he could. Forex didn’t want to see me much after that, which made him easy to avoid, at least. He started to drink more heavily, and we mostly ignored one another. I tried to be useful in other ways.”

“You succeeded,” Tor assured him.

“I like to think so.” Pel smiled faintly, though it faded. “Then Larexa manifested as Extraordinary when she was fifteen. Father was delighted, but it seemed to make him even more irritated with me, like I was a terrible aberration.”

Tor sucked in an audible breath and then said in a very put-upon voice, “I suppose you won’t let me kill anyone, either?”

Pel couldn’t help but laugh, though he pulled back from the hug to look Tor straight in the eye and say very clearly, “No.”

“Fine,” Tor said with another theatrical huff.

Pel felt a warm glow, perhaps absurd under the circumstances, but Tor was so good at lightening the mood andbeing supportive. He hoped that Princess Adexa felt the same sense of support, whatever her situation was.

“Neither Bavil nor Larexa seemed to care that I was Unremarkable. In fact, they told me frequently that it didn’t matter to them at all.”

“Until?” Tor prompted, a frown furrowing his brow.

“Until I got sent off to court Princess Terila. It ended badly, as I’ve already said. I took my time coming back. I uh, really didn’t want to tell my father that I’d failed. In retrospect, I can’t imagine he thought I’d succeed, but proving that I was useless might have made him feel better.” Tor’s jaw clenched visibly, but he didn’t say anything. “I stopped in Bessar on my way back, and that’s when I found out that they weren’t even speaking to my family anymore.”

Tor made a face. “Bavil?”

Pel nodded. “You heard?”