Page 40 of The Prince's Fealty

Her eyes filled with tears. “Pretty sure. And I don’t want… I don’t want anything to happen because you didn’t know any better.”

A wild, radical idea was insinuating itself in Pel’s brain, but he was resisting it, because that would mean, it would mean—

“Thank you for telling us,” Tor said gravely. “We need a few minutes.”

She nodded, rose to her feet, and headed out of the cave. Cavun marched a little farther away so that he wasn’t within hearing distance if they spoke quietly.

And Tor turned to Pel, a look on his face that was hard to interpret.

“Hey,” he said.

Pel managed something that was half laugh and half emphatically not. “Hey.”

“Are you panicking over there?” Tor wanted to know.

“Maybe a little?” Pel said, swallowing convulsively. “I kind of thought that we figured this lesson out.”

“Except apparently for the bit where I’m a fool,” Tor acknowledged ruefully. “I thought Blending during sex would feel really great, and it didn’t occur to me that it meantthat our magics were already connected to one another in pretty much the exact way that they’re not supposed to be if you want to prevent—as it turns out, really a lot of things. I’m sorry.”

“Are you?” Pel asked carefully.

Tor’s eyes flew to his, and then he tugged Pel closer and kissed him, gentle and full of so much emotion that Pel wanted to cry.

“Not remotely,” Tor said emphatically once he released Pel. “I mean, it’s terrible timing, it’s not something that I thought we were capable of, and I would never have wanted to do any of this without our actually talking about it, but it seems as though our bodies and our magic maybe decided for us?” Carefully, he asked, “Is it something you wanted?”

Pel sighed. “It’s not something I thought was possible, not without the intervention of the High King, anyway. Didn’t Terila’s parents need the High Queen’s magical blessing each time they conceived?”

It was still circling round and round in his brain, part of him not able to believe it at all, but the rest of him quite sure that Tama would never make this up—if for no other reason than because she was worried that the truth would sway them away from doing what she wanted them to do.

“Yes, they did,” Tor agreed. “But clearly, we’re extra special.”

Pel snorted another laugh that sounded a bit too wet.

More seriously, Tor said, “I’m guessing it’s because I’m Varex’s twin. The same thing that let me tap into his magic on the mountain let me give us the magical boost that was needed to conceive.”

That was as plausible as anything else that had occurred so far.

Pel swallowed. “I didn’t even consider the possibility.” He’d dismissed all of Tor’s talk about preventing pregnancy, in fact. “So I’m… I’m secretly delighted and entirely terrified, especially just at the moment.”

Because Pel had been running around doing dangerous things, things he would never have done if he’d realized it wasn’t just his own life that he was endangering. Except, of course, that if he hadn’t done them, Tor might not be here right now, and his death might have killed all of them.

A shiver raced through him at how close to disaster they’d come. He didn’t actually feel any different, but his entire world had rearranged itself.

“What about you?” Pel asked.

“The same,” Tor agreed with a rueful smile. “I love you so much, and I definitely want a life and a family with you. This wasn’t at all how I thought that might happen, in so many ways. I’ve been trying to figure out how I was going to put up with living with either Fernila or Forex, and I was determined to make it work… Only it suddenly seems like there’s a whole new option—but only if I commit actual treason, which my brother would actually be within his rights to sentence me to death for. That could cost me not just you but also our baby.” Tor’s face was tight with worry and fear. “That makes me want to say no to the entire thing and not risk it.”

“But if you don’t risk it, what happens to your sister and your niece and your brother—and the entirety of the United Realms?” Pel pointed out gently. “Whoever’s behind this, it seems like it’s a well-thought-out plot. If it’s Nostex, the plan has been in motion for nearly twenty-five years. Even if it’s Yomil or Fernila, it’s likely been years in the making. Even if you try to sit it out, you’re in their way.”

Pel couldn’t see any way this worked out well for any of them if they left it alone. He continued. “Just consider. In the worst-case scenario, if they kill the rest of your family and the Fealty comes to you, do you think they wouldn’t hunt you down? Do you think they wouldn’t use me or the baby to get to you? We can try to stay safe, but they came up with a plan to infiltrate the High Castle at Nexa. And if Nostex or Fernila get the Fealty and they’re behind this, do you really think that any of us would be safe? Someone who schemed like this to take over the United Realms? Do you think they’d leave the exiles alone? We might die then, too, just as surely—plus you’d be riddled with guilt for not doing what you knew to be right.”

Tor smiled at him again, pulled him closer, and Pel leaned against him.

“We could go after my family without the exiles pledging their Fealty to me.”

“We could,” Pel agreed. “But would you be at your best?”

They both knew he wouldn’t.