Page 9 of The Prince's Fealty

“I certainly didn’t make it a secret that I wasn’t interested in bonding with her. If you mean the, uh, details, almost no one. You and Rin.”

“Could—” Pel started.

“Absolutely not,” Tor cut him off without hesitation. “I’d trust Rin with my life. I’d trust him withyourlife. He’s my best friend.”

Pel smiled faintly at him. “All right, not Sir Rinil, then. Does anyone benefit if they get you out of Alossa no matter where you go?”

Tor laughed, though it wasn’t a very amused sound. “Fernila, Yomil, my brother… When I’m gone, none of them have to put up with me.”

Pel shot him a look. “A little more seriously.”

“Not that I can immediately think of.” Tor shrugged. “They’re certainly the ones that I interacted with most often. I mean, I’m sure Captain Darmila was glad I was out of her hair.”

It had really just been the first six months to a year after Tor had been unceremoniously demoted as captain of the guard and Darmila put in his place that Tor had been what he could now see was impossible to work with. The last year, they’d mostly ignored one another… but he wasn’t so sure that erased the disaster he’d been. It wasn’t like he’d been gracious enough to apologize; he’d hoped getting over himself enough to let her do her job without him being angry, belligerent, or snide showed her that he was sorry.

Goddess, he really was an ass.

Pel’s eyebrows raised. “No jealous paramours?”

Tor smirked. “Not unless you’ve decided to branch out, sweetheart.”

Pel let out a disgusted huff, and Tor laughed, leaning in to press a soft kiss to Pel’s lips, his heart thrilling when Pel allowed the contact. Tor wasn’t sure he was ever going to get over how close he’d come to losing Pel—in so many ways. He couldn’t control the death part, but he could certainly fix his own behavior. He had to do better and prove that he was worthy of Pel’s regard.

More seriously, he clarified, “As you know, I’ve enjoyed myself in the past, but I’ve always been careful to keep it light and of short duration—at least until I met someone I couldn’t resist.”

Pel scoffed again—but he let Tor kiss him again, too, so he couldn’t be particularly upset.

Bavil was grinning at them. Maybe they weren’t taking this quite as seriously as they could—or maybe they just needed the moment of levity to counter the terrible subject.

This was certainly the most overt affection they’d shown in front of Pel’s siblings. (Well, apart from the time they’d started making out in bed before they’d realized Larexa was in the room. That had been embarrassing and hilarious.)

This was entirely deliberate, both being conscious, aware of their surroundings, andbonded. Tor hadn’t had the chance to really wrap his brain around it entirely, but he was so,soglad.

Once they figured out who was trying to set him up, he was definitely going to concentrate on more pleasant topics. Even now, it was an underlying hum through Tor’ssoul. They werebonded, the very thing that Tor had desperately wished for but had put off (he thought) because Pel had wanted to get Varex’s approval first.

It was something Varex couldn’t stop now—unless he actually killed Tor, of course. Tor would fight more than ever, since that could jeopardize Pel. Worst-case scenario, Tor would voluntarily spend the rest of his life in his brother’s dungeon before he put Pel at risk.

Tor had been sure before they went to Alossa that he could explain everything to Varex if only he was given the chance. Despite how terribly it had gone wrong, there was a part of him that still believed that had to be true. What had happened had beenawful—but if Tor was being set up, then it was more than Varex simply not listening to Tor. Who knew what lies might have been spread, what evidence might have been falsified and presented to Tor’s brother?

Oh, why hadn’t Tor objected to the distance growing between them? Well, he’d objected, but why hadn’t he tried to do something constructive about it?

Instead, he’d gotten angry and acted out like he was fifteen and not thirty-five. As if that would ever resonate with his brother when he’d always been the more sober-minded one.

But Tor hadn’t been thinking of plots or treason or exile. He’d just been hurt that his brother wasn’t his best friend anymore, and he’d lashed out.

He’d pray to the goddess that that wasn’t going to prove a deadly mistake.

“Let’s look at this the other way,” Bavil suggested. “Who benefits if you’re eliminated? We don’t know why, but it seems unlikely someone has chosen the High Prince of the United Realms to be their scapegoat at random. So this is aboutyouin some way. Why eliminate you?”

“Because they’re annoyed with me?” Tor said a bit flippantly. “It’s not like I’m the—”

As the truth exploded across his brain like a burst of magic, he inadvertently jerked out of Pel’s embrace, then needed to steady himself with a hand on the cave floor.

How had he not seen it before?

To be fair, he’d been in a magical coma until just recently, but still!

“I’m not the heir anymore, but the other person who was recently attackedis!” Tor exclaimed. “They didn’t just go after me. They didn’t just accuse me of conspiring with the rebels and committing treason. They didn’t just break me out of prison or orchestrate the break or whatever they did. They didn’t just cause chaos in the castle and make it looklike I was committing another heinous crime. They went after the High Crown Princess. They went after me and the heir, andthatmeans—”