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CHAPTER TEN

H yax had hoped to be at home to hear what Copperpipe had to say but his mother had turned up in person and had threatened to drag him through a portal by his hair if he didn’t come with her directly. Which was why he was now sitting opposite Metra and Queen Vaness rather than curled around Gwil in post-orgasmic bliss.

Despite wanting to pitch an absolute toddler tantrum, he knew better than not to be on his best behaviour and not let Metra rile him. Otherwise, his mother would take over all negotiations and cite his childish actions as just reason.

To be fair, Metra was being civil and respectful, which annoyed him even more. He’d always been attractive, with black hair and a square jaw, and eyes that did legitimately sparkle like sapphires at times. “I do understand that an arranged marriage wasn’t your preferred choice, Hyax,” Metra said. “But I’m hoping we can find some common ground.”

Talia nodded. “On paper, you are both well-suited. Similar backgrounds and pedigrees, interests and social circles—with some exceptions. I see no reason why you shouldn’t grow to be fond of each other.”

Hyax counted to ten before he answered. “If I wasn’t already in love with someone, then I might have agreed. The situation is more delicate than two single princes being wed at the behest of their families.”

“You are insisting on keeping your vampire… friend?” Vaness asked, looking as if someone had waved golem shit under her nose. She was a beautiful woman, Metra having inherited her features, but her scrunched face made her look harsh and sour.

“Yes. If this marriage is going forward, I have some specific stipulations relating to him and under fae law, I have every right to insist.” Political marriages had rules and customs passed down the ages, he would be relying on them. “I will want Gwilym Hilt registered as the Prince’s Beloved.”

“That is a grand title,” Vaness said.

Hyax was about to launch into a prepared speech when his mother beat him to it. “Hyax is well within his rights to assign the title as he desires. Gwil might not be suitable as a husband, but I have no concern with Hyax’s judgement regarding Gwil as a special partner.”

Hyax was lost for words. Of all the ways he could see this conversation going, none of his scenarios had his mother defending Gwil.

“He’s a vampire, and not an important one either. If he had been someone of note I could understand the fascination, but surely this is a fad that will pass,” Vaness said, she wasn’t sneering or being demonstrative and sounded as if she was just stating facts.

“I will not be drawn on this topic,” Talia said. “Suffice to say, Hyax is exerting his right for a harem, the same right Metra would be allowed.”

Vaness glanced at her son. “I think Metra was hoping to explore an option of a more than cordial relationship with Hyax. Perhaps, Hyax would consider a temporary separation from his Gwil fellow to get to know Metra better.”

“No.” Hyax wasn’t going to agree to anything that meant giving up Gwil.

“You could consider the proposal,” Vaness pressed.

“I will do my duty, marry a man I have no care for, but I will not give up my beloved.”

They had no way to force the issue. He’d play by the rules, malicious compliance would become his favourite sport if needed.

Talia cleared her throat. “As I have previously communicated, Prince Hyax is willing to wed Prince Metra, but this is not a love match, and my son has told us all plainly that he has someone he will not be parted from. That is the starting point, so let us begin by setting a date.”

His mother was not used to being argued with and for once Hyax was glad of her tenacity.

“The sooner the better,” Metra said. “We need to allow time for preparation but with our combined effort we’d need only weeks, days even, if planned correctly.”

Hyax didn’t know why Metra would push for a quick resolution, apart from him being a controlling prick, and he wasn’t going to be bullied.

“I need more time. I have agreed to assist the Vampire Council with a missing persons case. Solivatus, Gwil’s sire, requested our help. Once we are done, then we can set a date.”

Vaness scoffed. “You helping a non-fae means nothing, I see no reason to delay.”

“It pertains to the son of the Dark Duke of MacLove.”

“King James of the Calanti?” Vaness asked.

“I cannot give details, but I am doing nothing that would not be beneficial to my tribe, or indeed the Elementa. If I were to back out now there would be serious repercussions on several fronts.”

He’d already helped, but he wanted to do more, and having spoken to Karl and Alex, he thought his involvement would make a huge difference.

“Or you could be painted as a traitor,” snapped Vaness. “What have you done?”

“I have agreed to help King James, the rest of the information is confidential, and I am unable to say more. But I give you my word, there is nothing nefarious.”

“That remains to be seen.”

He shrugged. “The truth is, I cannot, and will not, step back at this time. It’ll be a few weeks at most—and I don’t see a need to rush into this marriage.”

“I would say that now, even more than ever, you need to prove your loyalty,” Vaness said. “Supporting the vampires and a rival faction is not princely behaviour.”

“Well, I’m a prince, and I’m behaving in this way, so I would say by the very definition it’s princely behaviour.” He would not back down on this. “Let me finish and I will be cooperative on the wedding planning and even comply with an expedited timeline for the ceremony. If not, I will fight you on every single point, from the time of the service to the colour of the ribbons on the gifting tray. I could drag things out for years if I wanted to.”

His mother’s look told him he would be receiving a stern talking-to, but her reaction could have been a lot worse. “You can play petty well.”

“I learnt from the best.” He smiled nastily. “I do not want this marriage. I will go through with the motions because I have been told it is my duty to do so, but I make this clear, I will not have a relationship or a romantic involvement with Metra. I will tolerate him and that is the best I will offer.”

“How dare you,” Vaness snarled. “You are not so important.”

“Then if I am not suitable for your son, I would understand if you wished to call off the marriage. You can blame it all on my loose morals and misguided ways.”

Talia had claimed there was a risk of war, but that didn’t appear to be the case. Vaness wanted to push for a marriage to his tribe, and she had no intention of backing out.

Hyax couldn’t put his finger on it, but there was more going on here, and he noticed his mother stiffening slightly, which made him think she had also come to a similar conclusion.

“Our tribes will be joined, Prince Hyax, your theatrics will not stop that, and we will ensure a peaceful environment for both our people,” Vaness said, but Hyax thought she’d have liked to have used a few more choice words.

“I think this is enough for today. No doubt Metra and Hyax will want to arrange a time to meet separately to foster a civil situation, but for now we have other business to conduct,” Talia said, her tone even more clipped than before. “I propose we reconvene officially in three weeks, to allow Hyax to finish his business with the Vampire Council, and we can work on the wording of the official announcement in the interim.”

Hyax was pleased with the turn of events, they’d not gone as expected but he considered the outcome the best available given the situation, and he’d also come out with some additional time and his mother’s support.

Vaness stood, Metra doing the same. She was not happy but not in any position to argue. “Very well. If his business is concluded sooner we should meet earlier, and in the interim I will send draft wording for your consideration.”

Vaness opened a portal, and they were gone.

He huffed. “Mother, what just happened there? From what you told me, they were the ones threatening war and knew about the coronet.”

“I don’t know. I was expecting the same sort of bravado as the last time I spoke to her, but the narrative has shifted. The change can only lead me to believe they have reasons for wanting this marriage they haven’t revealed yet.”

“I picked up an undercurrent. I think we should investigate further,” he insisted.

“Agreed.” She walked over to a cabinet, and from a locked drawer removed a golden box. “In there’s a tenement stone, it’s not traceable or trackable and I suggest in all your dealings with Metra and his mother, you keep it on you.”

Tenement stones were used to gather evidence for some of the more salacious trials. They could record vital signs, or the use of magic, alongside words and actions and were generally only ever used under royal decree. His mother’s blessing to do so set his teeth on edge. “If you are so worried, why are you allowing this marriage to go ahead?”

“Because you can look after yourself, Hyax, and you have a vampire boyfriend who can help as well, since he is far better connected than I realised. Originally, I had thought it a good match to join the tribes of Elementa and Tasharick together, now I may ask you to go through with it in order to prove or find evidence as to why we should never join forces with the Elementa. We were at war for a long time and then we made peace, that does not mean we need to be close allies.”

He decided now might be a good time to mention the potential warming of the relationship with the Calanti tribe. “You do realise that my support of the Vampire Council and the Dark Earl of MacLove, could help us to mend fences with the Calanti?”

“Is that your intent?”

“Gwil was asked by his sire to help, but if there is a possibility that further good can come of it then I think it is something that we should consider, or at least not dismiss out of hand.”

“I am far from convinced closer ties with the Calanti would be the right approach for now. But I will not stop you from helping.”

He knew she would take some time to convince, but he also had the chance to speak about Gwil and the way she had defended him in her own way, “I will keep you informed on any interactions I have with King James; he said he might write to you. But I feel I must also mention, I was surprised by your support of Gwil.”

“I told you I do not have an issue with him being your partner, and I would not ask you to give him up, but I cannot be as supportive of your involvement in public. Marriage is different.”

Hyax wouldn’t push, this was already better than he had been envisaging, and with time he thought he could get more acceptance. Even with the suspicions over the Elementa’s reaction, the marriage would go ahead, maybe, depending on what more he learnt he might confide to his mother about his past relationship with Metra, but for now he would keep that powder dry in case he needed to use it.

He returned home to find Gwil back, his eyes wide, staring in disbelief at several pieces of crumpled paper.

“Oh, you’re home, where’d you go?” Gwil asked, getting to his feet and giving Hyax a quick kiss.

“Summoned home, wedding planning. I have managed to use the MacLove case to buy some time, but I think there’s something going on with the Elementa.” He tapped the pages Gwil was holding. “What are they?”

“First reports from Copperpipe, but back up, these can wait. What do you mean something’s going on, because your mate Cikla jumped me in an alley?”

“What?” He had no idea why Cikla would have accosted Gwil.

“You first. I don’t believe in coincidences, and I reckon what Cikla told me and whatever’s ruffled your wings are connected.”

Now was not the time to get annoyed at Gwil’s wing reference, Cikla was a close friend and he’d spoken to her about his mother’s insistence he marry. “Remember I said my mother was concerned that the Elementa might threaten war and expose my tribe over the Stone of Ljin? Well, they don’t seem to be sticking to that script. I said if they were so upset about me keeping my fang fucktoy around then they could pull out of the marriage, and Queen Vaness was quick to dismiss the idea and not risk a threat to peace.”

Gwil was thrown. “I don’t get it.”

“My tribe had made no threats about war if I don’t get married, but that’s not how they answered.”

“Could it have been your mum making up an excuse to insist on the marriage?”

The thought had crossed his mind, but his mother’s reaction and her giving him a tenement stone made him believe she was as thrown as he was. “No, I saw her surprise.” He removed the stone from his pocket and handed it to Gwil. “Don’t open it, as it’ll start recording, but in there is a state-of-the-magic-art surveillance device. She gave it to me to use whenever I talk to Metra and his mother in the future.”

“Safe to say there’s something suss going on.” Gwil, ever the master of the understatement.

“Now, what’s this about Cikla?” Hyax asked.

“She pulled me into an alley, and didn’t do any terrible things to my person.” Gwil grinned and Hyax rolled his eyes. “She wanted to warn you about Metra trying to play nice by sending Sitial to persuade you nothing happened between them.”

“She’s too late for that, he already did.”

Gwil shook his head. “No, she knew that, but she thinks Metra’s parents were in on it too. And that they already know you were an item once.”

Hyax didn’t know what to make of that. “I would’ve thought they’d been none too happy to find out their son had been cavorting with an enemy at the time. Vaness is the sort to have a long memory and not be able to look past that to push Metra into marrying me.”

“I don’t know, but it ties into what happened when you went home.” Gwil took his hand. “There’s something else, Cikla said she’s done some digging, and not only were they together, they still are.”

He’d always known Metra was a lying, cheating piece of shit. “He lied to me then, and he’s lying now, no surprise really.”

“I’m not sure what’s going on. But I think we need to play him at his own game, pretend you believe Sitial and act cordial with Metra. There’s an old saying, you catch more flies with honey than vinegar.”

“Flies like shit, Gwil.”

Gwil pulled him closer. “It’s all right to be upset over this, you’re allowed to be angry. All I’m suggesting is you channel that anger into uncovering what Metra and his family are up to.”

“I am angry, but it’s now how much he thinks he can play me for a fool. I’d never want him back.” He knew Gwil had a point about playing along and it was a good idea. “I’ll have to think about whether I can be nice to him, I’m not that good an actor.”

“You are a stubborn sod who likes to get his own back, and you could use that energy in better ways.”

“Maybe.” He didn’t want to deal with it at the moment and Gwil wouldn’t push, at least for the time being. “How about you tell me how things went with Mr Potato?”

Gwil’s eyes narrowed but he didn’t rise to the bait. “Copperpipe has been diligent to the point of astonishing.”

“He’s good but not sure I’d call him astonishing unless it was something relating to what he keeps under his sacking.”

Gwil handed him the papers. “He has a named suspect, and potential lead on the general area. I’ve already left Solivatus a message… I’m expecting a call to Crofton Hall at any moment.”

Hyax scanned the notes Gwil had made, Copperpipe had gone above and beyond the usual effort. He had a name, a background search on them for the last twenty years, and a potential location, which he was in the process of narrowing down. He really should start giving the little dumpling more credit.