Page 19 of By Mistake

It was Shimari who came and found him in the garden—the gazebo, where he always felt a little better, even if it would very likely fall down on his head any day now.

"Go away," Andrus muttered. "You and Oresti are having so much fun mocking and belittling me together, I figured you'd prefer his company anyway."

"You are my master, not he."

Andrus snorted, amused despite himself. "Nobody is your master."

"No, but your ancestor was my dear friend.

Now stop sulking and come inside, so I can tell both of you all about your ancestors and why none of this ever should have happened.

Also, you need to reassure your beloved that sleeping on the floor did you no lasting harm, because he gets most distraught every time you bring up your less than idyllic childhood. "

Rolling his eyes, Andrus reluctantly followed Shimari back inside. "He's a prince. He probably thinks getting his breakfast late is a criminal offense."

Shimari laughed, probably because the idea was so absurd. Oresti was everything that a prince generally was not: kind, hardworking, honest (mostly), dutiful, and surprisingly aware of the world beyond his gilded palace.

If he wasn't a prince, he'd be perfect. Though, no, that wasn't fair. The problem wasn't Oresti. The problem was Andrus and his sordid family history that meant he would never, ever be allowed to be as close to Oresti as he wanted.

Back in his parlor, a fresh tea service already awaited them. The poor staff, he hoped they ate the food from the previous setting, this was just wasteful.

"Andrus," Oresti said, abandoning the window he'd been standing at and rushing over to him, taking his hands and squeezing them gently. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you. I never mean to hurt you. I hate that's all I ever seem to do."

Damn it, why was he always so fucking perfect .

"You didn't hurt me—well, you did when you lied about being a bloody prince —but I just…

I don't understand why my mother summoned a demon.

Surely if she'd been up to something that dangerous, she'd have made more money than she did, right?

You don't summon a demon to make money that only lasted just over four months.

" Even if that had been an incredible amount to them back then, in practice it wasn't actually all that much, not the way they'd been living.

"A matter we'll most certainly investigate when more urgent matters are resolved," Shimari said. "Now sit."

Andrus shot him a look, but obeyed, huffing as Oresti promptly took over the tea tray. "I can make my own tea just fine, you know. I've been doing it all by myself for years."

Oresti grinned and handed off the cup he was holding. "Just drink."

"I hate you both," Andrus grumbled as he accepted the tea. He shifted his gaze to Shimari as he took a seat. "So tell us this tale of Sendrus and Prince Kolik."

Shimari stood in front of a set of beautiful bookshelves, the kind that were shelves on the top, with a cupboard for the bottom half, meant for storing writing supplies and other miscellany required for the upkeep of fine books.

He removed the glasses he didn't really need and tucked them into the front pocket of his jacket before folding his arms across his chest, staring at something only he could see.

"I was summoned in the summer after the conclusion of the War of the Rusted Sea. "

Andrus winced. That had been a long, nasty, ugly war. Sendrus had been part of it, fought in it for nearly six of the thirteen years it had lasted. He had come home less one eye, two fingers, and with a great many scars from knife and magic.

He'd also returned, according to every account Andrus had ever heard, fast friends with Prince Kolik.

No one had expected it: the brash, loud, spoiled prince with the soft, quiet, but wickedly sharp Lord Sendrus.

Friends they were, though, the soldier and his mage.

They'd settled into civilian life, if not easily then at least with less trouble than anyone expected.

Kolik had fallen into the politics and other society games that were expected of him, and Sendrus had focused on his magic.

Both had been engaged via expected arranged marriages, but Sendrus's betrothed had been overseas on a diplomatic mission, so the marriage had not yet taken place when he'd died.

Kolik had married, but his betrothed too seemed far more interested in another life and had gone off on some grand research that was never explained well anywhere Andrus had been able to read, and no one had ever heard from them again.

When Kolik died, and no one could find them, the marriage had been annulled, and that was the end of that branch of the family.

"Back then, tensions were high because of many changes being made to the laws regarding magic.

Sendrus supported many of them, having seen what unregulated magic could do in battle—and outside it.

Kolik supported him. Many mages, so-called peers, weren't happy with him for siding with the enemy.

Alongside that, Kolik was the last of his immediate family, with a spouse no one could find, no children, only his aging mother on the throne.

But he refused to do anything about it, to appoint an heir in his place should something happen, demand his spouse be found and made to return home—nothing. It caused…problems."

Oresti snorted. "Problems. It caused courtly in-fighting just short of actual war.

People clamoring for power, fighting to align themselves in the right places, with the right people, so they stood to gain everything when some accident invariably befell Kolik and his mother.

My ancestors were obviously the biggest suspects, but near as I have ever been able to determine, we didn't do anything. "

"They wouldn't have needed to," Shimari replied.

"The throne would go to them in the event of Kolik's death, and they knew that.

Which one of them in particular was up for debate, but whoever took the throne, they all stood to gain.

Why do the murdering when you knew someone else would do it for you?

No, there was no reason to dirty their hands and risk all the power and wealth just sitting there waiting. "

"This is heartbreaking," Andrus said quietly.

"It's nobility," Shimari replied. "After one particularly nasty attempt on Kolik's life that left him with a broken leg, Sendrus summoned me to serve as bodyguard.

He wanted nothing less than the absolute best—or, arguably, worst—to protect his beloved.

Because they were beloveds. Friends first, but deeply in love by the time they returned home.

That love never wavered all the years I knew them.

It was beautiful to behold, even to a rotten old demon like me.

And over time, I called them friends. They called me friend.

"It worked for some time, as I hardly need demonic power to kill pathetic little humans, but eventually someone tried something that forced my hand, forced me to reveal myself—not in whole, but enough for the wrong people to realize that Kolik's pretty little bodyguard was a demon.

" He fell silent, mouth pinched. "Not long after the winter solstice, a demon came after us.

It took everything I had to fight him off and seal him away where he won't be troubling anyone else, but it also revealed me for who I truly was, and that caused…

problems. To save my life, Sendrus banished me with the promise he'd bring me back when it was safe. I never saw them again."

Oresti said, "Kolik was killed just days later, stabbed to death in his sleep.

He and Sendrus had engaged in some huge, public fight just the day previous—probably hours after they banished you—and so he was blamed for it, especially since he was one of the few with free access to Kolik's private chambers.

As everybody wanted Sendrus out of the way for one reason or another, the trial was a farce and the execution swift.

His family was in disgrace, my family took the throne, and that was the end of the tale. "

Shimari's eyes narrowed. "Stabbed to death? Elaborate?"

"I don't know much, just what the old court papers said.

Investigators were not a thing back then, and there was very minimal investigation done.

But he was stabbed over and over, at least thirty wounds, in frenzy like fashion all across his torso.

The report commented it seemed like it had been done with a great deal of anger. "

"Yes, that sort of frenzied killing is usually done from anger.

Also panic, but the two are usually all of the one.

That wasn't Sendrus's style. He was best with magic, but nothing to scoff at with a knife.

Pretending for one second he would have been capable of killing Kolik, he would have been much neater and more precise about it.

" He sighed and turned his head to stare out the window. "I wish they hadn't banished me."

"What demon did you fight?" Andrus asked. "I never heard mention of that anywhere, and surely two demons fighting…"

Shimari chuckled and turned back with a soft, faintly amused smile.

"We fought here, in this house. In the garden, specifically, and Sendrus cast a ward that kept us confined.

Once I finally bested him, I dragged him off and sealed him safely away in a dank, dark cave where he couldn't be forced to cause further harm. "

Oresti quirked a brow. "You sealed the demon away to protect him?"