Page 14 of By Mistake

That got him a sharpened gaze. The lavender walk was a covered path in the royal park, long favored by courting lovers for its handy little nooks and crannies. If you were walking with someone there, you were in earnest about them. He may as well have announced he was all but betrothed.

Telish cast him the faintest amused look, but played along. "I for one would never want to disappoint him. Lord Karrow, you should speak with Lair Heslin. They are breeding lilies of their own and would be quite enamored to at last see your one of a kind collection."

"Really?" Karrow asked, and immediately skimmed the room for Heslin.

Telish used the opportunity to make the usual farewells and get them away, and pushed on ruthlessly through the rest of the crush.

"You realize that by the time we sit down for dinner the rumors of who your lover is will be flying?

Everyone has been talking about where Willow-White could possibly be, but this will make them forget entirely.

Father could keel over right this minute, and they wouldn't notice. "

"I just want to be left alone," Oresti said with a sigh.

"Well, congratulations, you've ensured that will never happen."

"I hate you."

Laughing, Telish finally drew them to a halt in a little alcove at the south end of the parlor, the kind with two little benches, heavily padded but still uncomfortable if you sat for more than five minutes, with conventional murals of maidens and sheep and the sort, and a ridiculous miniature chandelier.

There was a little curtain that could be drawn to pretend at privacy, and Telish drew it as they sat down.

"You are not who I want to cuddle with in a gossip nook."

"I should hope not," Telish said dryly. "No, I have something vastly more interesting for you."

Before Oresti could make a smart remark to that, Telish pushed at the small, oblong panel displaying a maiden in a frothy yellow dress cuddling up with a sheepherder that took up pride of place in the nook.

There was a muted click, and then the side of the panel nearest Oresti opened the barest bit.

"See for yourself."

Shooting his brother a look, Oresti pulled the panel the rest of the way open and reached inside the dark hollow revealed—and touched something.

Velvet. A box. He drew it out, and stared at not just a jewelry box, the kind meant to hold a necklace or bracelet, but an old one.

The dust and insect husks alone spoke to years, even decades.

But the color , even faded and dusty, was unmistakable: primrose yellow, the oldest jewelry shop in Esaria, on the entire continent.

But they had restyled their packaging a long time ago, fifty years at least.

This was older than that, from the time of his great grandparents. "Why is this in here? How did no one know?"

"Oh, little things like this get lost to history all the time.

You'd be surprised what I've found around this place when I can't sleep.

Found this a couple of days ago, but haven't been able to speak to you until now.

Left it completely untouched just for you, because if I'm right, that belonged to a certain dead prince. "

A frisson ran down Oresti's spine. "What are you talking about? How could you know that?"

"Books, books, books," Telish replied, tapping the side of his nose.

"Specifically, journals. Being an insomniac is miserable, but every now and then something comes along that makes it less terrible for a time.

I've been going through the family journals, and one of our myriad great aunts complained frequently about 'finding those two in their little kissing corner again' like it was commonplace to find Sendrus and Kolik here.

Well, in an alcove. It's taken me months to figure out which of the hundreds of nooks and crannies around this heap she was referring to, but here at last I found it. "

"You still can't know it belonged to them."

"Well, no, but now that you're here we can find out for certain."

Oresti huffed a soft laugh and took out a kerchief to carefully clean the box as thoroughly as he could manage. Relatively free of grime, the catch twisted up with surprising ease, the hinges creaking faintly as he pushed it open…

And revealed an absolutely stunning necklace.

It was a choker style, popular back in the day it had been made.

Meant to sit high on the throat, rather than resting low near the collarbone.

It was made of square-cut rubies surrounded by diamonds, all of it set in white gold.

Extravagant, something only royalty or the highest nobility could afford.

Thick, heavy—and redolent with stored magic.

The box must have been specially made to mask that fact.

"I know people who would quite literally kill for this, Tesh. "

"Well, it's a good thing it's in your hands then, isn't it? Any markings that would designate it belonging to a particular family?"

Oresti examined the necklace, but found no markings other than the words with love engraved on the back of one of the ruby settings. No, the clasps had little tags, one with an S the other with a K . His heart sped up. "Tesh…"

"I can't believe it," Telish replied breathlessly as he looked himself. "Does the box have anything?"

Turning his attention to it, Oresti examined the bedding, the lid…

and then on a whim checked the bottom, where he found that part of it did in fact slide open, revealing a tiny slip of paper.

He gingerly unfolded it, but the ink that had been used to write was so faded, he couldn't make out the words.

Restoring it to the box, he asked, "Do you mind if I hold on to this? Try to figure out what the note says?"

"How could I ever part you from a sliver of your favorite mystery?

Do keep me informed, though. This is even better than the time I found a lost sketchbook filled with naughty pictures of half the people in the palace.

I still can't tell if they're imagination or accurate representation.

Still do not know the owner, sadly. Maybe I should put you to work on that mystery too. "

"I'm not tracking down a pervert; that's an entirely different department," Oresti retorted. "Thank you for this, Tesh."

Telish grinned. "My pleasure. Can't wait to see the stir when you wear the necklace. The power in it will serve you well."

"It's a bit flashy."

"I don't know if you've looked in a mirror lately, Ori, but you're a little flashy."

"Oh, shut up."

Laughing, Telish closed the secret panel, pushed open the curtain, and rose. "Come on, back to work before Alina finds us. I promised I would not keep you overlong. By now she knows I was lying."

Oresti laughed with him as they rejoined the crowd, chatting their way through it until they finally reached Alina, who eyed them reprovingly. "Well, it's about time. I was about to send a search party. Oresti, come and meet this fine gentleman. No, it's not a marriage attempt, calm down."

Meeting her reproving look with a peeved one, Oresti nevertheless joined her and smiled politely at the man in question. He was older, maybe fifties or sixties, handsome and…vaguely familiar, but Oresti could not say why.

"Lord Pinslow, I make you known to my brother, Prince Oresti, son of the late Queen Lyria. Oresti, this is Lord Emlis Pinslow, Duke of Chary, from the queendom of Wistrin. He is here on a quest to find the son he never knew about until three months ago."

"Greivs," Oresti breathed as the realization hit him like a brick to the face. "Oh, my gods, that's why you seemed familiar to me. You look like Greivs."

The man stared at him in astonishment, looking very near to tears for a moment. "You know him?"

"He's my best friend and personal assistant. Come on, I'll take you to him at once."

"Thank you," Pinslow whispered, bidding Alina a thank you and farewell before following Oresti from the room.

This time, he had no qualms about ignoring everyone trying to get his attention, using what his siblings called his 'investigator walk' to encourage them to leave him alone.

Normally, he would insist on speaking with Greivs before letting Pinslow anywhere near him, but Greivs had spoken his whole life of wishing he could have met his father, the family he'd never known because his mother had run off for reasons she'd never spoken of, had eventually taken to her grave.

Outside his private drawing room, which had both its own door and one that connected directly to his bedroom, he said, "Wait in here, your grace, and I will go speak with him."

"Here, give him this, if you please. It will prove the truth of my words."

"You have his face and eyes, but I understand," Oresti replied. He took the little crushed velvet pouch that Pinslow held out and left him to get settled.

In his room, Greivs was stretched out in one of the armchairs by the fire reading a book of magic. He looked up in surprise. "You escaped earlier than I thought."

"I didn't escape; I have something to tell you." Oresti presented the bag. "I was told to give you this as proof of what I'm about to say."

Greivs eyed him warily as he slowly closed the book and stood. "What's going on?"

"Your father," Oresti replied quietly, and explained.

Hands trembling faintly, Greivs pulled the drawstring bag open and tipped out its contents—and gasped as he stared at the silver necklace pooled in his palm.

Half of a necklace, actually. Each half was a glass rectangle, hollow and filled with a shimmering liquid—red in the one he held, blue in the one that had been around Greivs throat nearly all his life.

Once they were linked, the magic-formed barriers would dissolve, the liquids merging into a single purple elixir.

Only those who wore the necklaces knew the exact makings of the elixir.

If the wrong two were combined, the magic would fail. "I can't…I don't…"

"Go, he's waiting to speak with you. Take all the time you need. I'll see you when I see you."

Greivs hugged him tightly, then headed off, the necklace still gripped tightly in one hand.

At least something about this day had gone well.

Stifling a sigh, he tucked the necklace he and Telish had found away in his safe, then headed back to dinner, because if he didn't, his sister would actually kill him. And as much as he hated to admit it, the distraction was helping.

Just a couple of days. He would focus on work and family, and then he would go back to Andrus's house and beg the man to forgive him. To give him a chance. To at least not completely throw Oresti out of his life.

He would do whatever it took to remain as close to Andrus as he would permit. Not even a demon would keep him away.