"Just because my son is stupid, it doesn't mean that I have to fix his wrongs too. If he went into such a trouble only to help you, it's his problem. You're his problem. His responsibility. Not mine." King Alastair said.
Prince Canton lowered his gaze to the ground.
"He went into such a trouble because he knows I have potential, your highness. He knows I'm good at what I do. I'm definitely better than the spy you have by your side right now." Santos defended.
"At least you're not a pathetic human being anymore." The king mumbled.
"Please..just let me prove my loyalty to you. Let me prove my worth. All I'm asking for is one chance so I can make you see how good I can be."
"No. My son turned you into an Ink. My son will now deal with you."
"But-" Santos started.
"Except..." The king placed a finger under his chin in thought. "...how bad do you want a position next to me, Santos?"
His face lit up. "I'll do anything, king Alastair."
"Anything you say...would you even give your colours up for me?" He smirked.
"What..?" Santos blinked while Canton remained expressionless.
"All those colours that make someone a Merlot, a Moccasin, a Teal...red and yellow and blue..." king Alastair got up from his throne. "see Santos..Inks view life in black. Everything around us...is black. Colours only offer feelings. Happiness. We can't afford feelings. And the fact that you were born half-human only makes it harder for you to get rid of those..emotions." he shivered at the last word. "So, if you want to prove your devotion and make me trust you..you have to dispose those colours for me."
Santos clenched his fists.
"Will you do it?"
ERROT
When I opened my eyes the next morning, I definitely didn't expect to see what I saw.
Canton was on the bed next to me, dropping brownies into a glass of bourbon - I believe- and then actually eating them.
He was eating them.
I squinted my still sleepy eyes at him. "I'm not gonna ask why..but just..how did you even find my brownies?"
Canton turned to look at me, the chocolate of the brownie melting on his fingers due to the alcohol that was drowned into.
"The chef told me you made some yesterday. Kind of rude of you not to inform me about their existence" he said indifferently while stuffing his mouth with the bourbon-dripping brownie.
"Did you want me to tell you before or after you passed out from the poison?"
"In the meantime."
I raised an eyebrow at him. "Was that you attempting to make a joke?"
Canton glanced at me and placed a brownie inside my mouth. "You talk a lot."
I swallowed the brownie, feeling astonished to say the least.
My eyes widened. "That's actually good?"
Canton turned his head to the opposite side so he could hide the small smirk that made it's way to his face.
"Wow...just wow. Can I have one more?"
"No."
"But I was the one who made them."
"Well, you should have thought about that before you abandoned them in that container."
"I didn't know you'd want to eat them."
"And the bourbon brownies didn't know they were gonna get abandoned by their creator but here we are"
"No. I refuse to let you make me feel bad about not giving you damn brownies"
"You should feel bad."
"How do you manage to make this kind of conversation with a straight face?"
Canton shrugged uninterested and murdered another brownie with his bourbon.
"You do realise you're an alcoholic, right?"
"No one's perfect"
I snorted at that. "You can say that again."
"No one's perfect." Canton repeated.
I rolled my eyes. "I didn't mean it."
"Then don't say things you don't mean."
I blinked at him "It's an expression."
"I don't care."
"You're impossible."
"I am, aren't I"
I looked at him. "Hey, Canton."
"Jesus christ." He mumbled. "What, little human?"
"Why do you still keep Adan to your inner circle?"
Canton raised both of his eyebrows and dropped his brownies to focus his attention on me. "Why do you ask?" He said coldly.
"Because, for starters, this person doesn't like you at all and I refuse to believe you aren't aware of that."
Canton blinked. "Aren't you like, in a relationship with him?"
I looked down at that, the irritation of last time slowly coming back to hit me in the face. "No. I broke things off with him."
"Oh." Canton said, his face straighter than a pole. "Interesting. Why?"
"Cause he is a dick."
Canton bit at his lip and then chugged the rest of his now chocolate coloured drink down.
"So, will you answer my question?"
"Why do I still keep him in the castle even though he doesn't like me?"
"Exactly."
"I must have my reasons."
"Mind sharing them with me?"
"I'm not drunk enough, yet." He said as he poured another round of alcohol on his glass.
"I mean, he just lives here to exist. He doesn't do anything else. Does he even have a position next to you?"
"He's a revel organiser."
"Because what a king is missing from his inner group is a person who organises parties."
"Revels." Canton corrected me.
"Same thing."
"Not."
"Do you realise how ridiculous this sounds? Elvina is your knight, Santos is your spy and Adan is..Adan."
"Why are you this talkative every single morning?"
"Why aren't you kicking him out?"
Canton sighed. "Listen, kid. Let karma do it's job and leave me be."
"You don't like him either, do you?"
"He was my best friend."
"Your best friend? He doesn't look like a best friend to me."
"That's why I said was. Are you listening to me?"
"Well, this still doesn't answer my question."
"Let's cry about it."
"He.. immediately thought of you when he realised someone had impersonated him.."
Canton didn't say anything to that. He just kept drinking.
I begun biting at the inside of my cheek, contemplating whether to ask this next question or not but it was out of my mouth before I had the chance to overthink about it.
"Do you like me?"
Canton choked on his drink. He started coughing uncontrollably.
My eyes got slightly wide and I started patting him on the back.
He immediately glared at me. "Remove that hand from my back." He said between coughs.
I pulled it away and looked at him, expectantly and a bit nervously.
He took another sip so he could reduce his coughs.
"I wouldn't replace water with bourbon." I told him.
He then ignored me and took another sip.
And another.
And another.
Soon enough, the glass was empty again.
"Canton..." I started.
"It's king Canton, Errot." He snapped coldly at me. "Don't make me say it again, you won't like the consequences." He got up abruptly and almost lost his balance.
"Oh my god, are you--"
"I'm fine." He said. "I'm fine." He placed a palm against his forehead. "God, they're testing me today." He mumbled under his breath.
He walked towards his door. "You'll be free for a couple more evenings. Try not to set my castle on fire"
"But you-"
He walked out and closed the door behind him. "-never replied."
Shit.
ELVINA
I was ready to call Canton and yell at him for being late when I saw him stumbling his way towards me.
I closed my eyes shut and exhaled.
When I opened them again, he was standing in front of me, his drunk worried expression almost making me laugh. "Sister." He said.
"Bro." I smirked.
"Is it that obvious? I mean, it can't be that obvious. Can it be that obvious? It can't be that obvious"
I chuckled. "What are you talking about?"
"Canton asked me if I like him"
My smirk widened. "You are Canton."
"Right. Yes. Me. Not me. I am Canton." He rolled his eyes. "Don't be an idiot. I am Canton. You're confusing me."
"Oh my god. You're not coming like that. We'll sober you up first."
"No. Listen. Sister." He placed his hands on my shoulders and looked at me dead in the eye. "The human. Asked me if I like him."
"Yeah, I got that. And what did you say?"
"I didn't answer!"
"I think its time for you to tell him about the third curse."
Canton placed a finger against my lips to shut me up. "Shhhh. Sh. Hush. He might hear you."
I grabbed at his finger and pushed it away from my mouth. I frowned. "Why does your finger smell like chocolate?" My eyes then widened. "Canton Severin Alastair. Did you eat chocolate without me? I thought we were a team" I crossed my arms against my chest.
"Have you ever had brownies dipped in bourbon"
"Why do you eat everything with that damn drink? I'm gonna take all your bottles away."
"You can't. I'm the king." He smirked.
"And I'm the--" I lowered my voice a bit. "The princess, wanna fight me?" I whispered.
Canton started chuckling.
I face palmed.
He begun laughing now.
I sighed. "Come on, let's take you back."
"What? No. We are going to-"
"We are not going anywhere. I'm gonna give you to Errot and let him handle you while I'm gone."
Canton smiled at nothing in particular. "Errot."
"Yeah. Errot. Fun, right?" I took his arm and placed it around my shoulder and started dragging him inside the castle and towards his room.
I opened the door to his bedroom and found Errot staring at the window.
He immediately turned around at the sound and raised his eyebrows at us.
I passed Canton to him and Canton stumbled and fell into Errot's arms.
Errot grabbed him and held him still, his arms now under Canton's shoulders.
"Here. Your responsibility now."
"What?" Errot was looking from Canton to me, trying to understand what's going on. "I thought he had to leave?"
"He can't even walk, let alone..-" I shook my head. "He's hammered. Take care of him."
Errot looked at Canton again.
"Alright, bye." I said quite fast and walked out of the room.
ODA
"I know you're here. Reveal yourself." I yelled out, my voice echoing throughout the training room.
I begun looking around, inspecting the floor for his shadow.
Absolute silence.
"I'm already frustrated, Santos. I can feel your presence."
Something moved behind me.
I whipped my head around only to get pinned back to the wall by arrows through my clothes.
I let out a gasp at that, my body now frozen and my eyes widened.
A smirky Santos revealed himself in front of me, a bow on his hand.
I closed my eyes shut in frustration. "Pull those arrows out of my clothes now."
"Do what you have to do in order to escape."
I opened my eyes again. "How about no?"
"How about you have ten seconds to free yourself?"
"Ten seconds?" I asked taken aback.
"Well, nine now."
"What" I started pulling at the arrows but my efforts came to a dead end real quick.
"Seven. Five."
"Seven, five? When did we get to seven, five?"
"Three."
"Come on!"
"One"
I then pulled at the arrows hard and ended up tearing my shirt off in the process.
"Oh no. Fuck!" I whined out loud while staring at my poor ripped shirt.
Santos raised an eyebrow at me. "Oh, she swears too."
I snapped my eyes at him, the irritation showing. "It's your fault!"
He rolled his eyes at me. "It's just a shirt, relax."
"It was a shirt! It was literally the only shirt this closet had in actual colour." I pouted.
Santos shrugged. "I wouldn't know."
I was ready to lash out at him again when I caught the meaning behind his words.
I looked at him. "Which.. colour do you think this is?"
His eyes fell on my shirt and he took his time examining it. "Definitely something dark. Red, maybe."
"It is red." I said quite shocked.
A tiny side smirk formed on his face.
"How did you become an achromat?" I asked, curiosity getting the best of me.
"Didn't Elvina fill you in?" He said while rolling his eyes.
"No."
"At least she respected that." He mumbled lowly.
"She didn't think your situation was a secret. Don't blame her."
"My situation." He scoffed. "Yeah well, anyway. I do not have the time for this."
"I do." I crossed my arms. "We are gonna have to spend time together, let's get to know each other."
His eyes fell on my chest. "I can't really.. concentrate at getting to know you while you have a big hole in the middle of your.." he pointed at my breasts. "Fancy going without undies?"
I quickly unfolded my arms and glanced at my chest only to realise that he was right. I looked back at him, my cheeks a bit red now. "Like you've never seen a pair before" I snickered. "Men."
"Who told you I want to look at yours, though?"
"This is not my problem. I'm not the one that decided to destroy my shirt all of a sudden. Bear with it."
Santos sighed. He walked closer to me.
I became still. "What are you doing?"
He came so close, our chests were touching. I looked up at him and he returned my stare.
I took a step back, only to bump into the wall.
"Can you like, move away? You're kind of in my space."
He leaned forward and I almost gasped when his hands reached at my sides, only for him to grab at the arrows and remove them off the wall.
I exhaled, slightly relieved.
He frowned annoyed at me. "What did you think I would do?" He shook the arrows in front of my face. "My arrows."
"You're an ass."
"I've been told." He mumbled and walked back to his place.
"Wouldn't bet otherwise."
"We already wasted half an hour. Let's train you."
"I'm not a dog."
He groaned. "And I'm not getting paid enough for this"
"You're not even getting paid, dude."
"Whatever. Just stop talking and follow my steps. Bro." He snapped back.
I smirked at that. "Go ahead. Show me."
ERROT
"you smell good." Canton mumbled and buried his nose deeper into my neck.
"Hey, let's lay down now." I said and dropped him gently into his bed.
"I do not wish to lay down." He said and sat up on the bed while crossing his arms against his chest.
I looked at him. "Well, what do you want to do then?"
"Talk." He patted the space on the bed next to him.
"Talk. Okay." I said and sat down. "What do you want to talk about?"
"The curse. The third curse. Elvina told me to tell you about it but I don't really want to but I do. Want to. But I don't. But I do. Not."
I blinked at him.
"She said I think it's time to tell him about the curse." He mocked her voice. "And I think that's beautiful."
"Beautiful?"
"Yeah, beautiful. She always says the right thing, you know. She's my seneschal anyway. She has her way with words. She is right almost every single time."
"What's the third curse?"
"But do I follow her advice?"
"Do you?"
"Of course not. I do what I believe it's right and then mess my life up."
I nodded amused. "Sounds believable"
"Right?"
I chuckled. "But now you want to follow her advice?"
"I know I should."
"Go ahead then."
Canton stared at me unblinking and unmoving.
I raised an eyebrow at him. "Well?"
"Wanna hear a secret?"
I sighed. "Yes."
He leaned a bit closer to me and whispered. "I'm terrified."
"Why?" I whispered back in amusement.
"Cause..it will become real. It will scare you away."
"Look, king. I've watched you murder people in front of me and take their eyes out of their sockets. Nothing will scare me away. Plus, I can't really go anywhere since I'm working for you."
"No....it will emotionally scare you away from me. You won't...no."
"It won't."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Trust me."
"It will scare you."
"But why?"
Because.." he started.
"Yes?"
"It has to do with you."
I froze.
"With me? How's that possible? King Alastair died like..a thousand years ago"
Canton took a deep breath.
"Canton." I pushed, all amusement gone from my face.
He was avoiding my gaze.
"Alright, I'll tell you. But can you stop talking? I need all the silence I can get."
I nailed my mouth shut at that and kept staring at him intensely.
He exhaled and started running his hand through his hair continuously, knocking his crown off.
He glanced at it laying on the floor. "Stupid crown." He mumbled.
I pursed my lips into a thin line and waited patiently.
He looked at me, remembered what he's supposed to be doing and snapped his head away from me like I was infected.
He ran a hand through his hair once again.
I begun tapping my foot against the floor, nervously.
"The third curse."
I stilled.
"My father..learned about my relationship with Tristian. Imagine how surprised he was to hear that his son was involved with his investment. Ecstatic."
He paused to reminisce.
"He was incredibly supportive, as well. So supportive he even ordered a bunch of his male slaves to..to rape me."
He took another breath and continued.
"Notice how I said male and slaves. He wanted to show me how awful and disgusting gay sex is and humiliate me at the same time. You know, his prince Ink son getting punished by human slaves."
I tried not to interrupt. I let him keep going even if I wanted to wrap my arms around him and never let him go.
I wanted to tell him how he doesn't deserve all this. How unfair it is and that he's the strongest person I know.
But I didn't. I stayed quiet instead, my jaw clenched.
"He hated it. He said that I was sick and that I should find a girl and get her pregnant so I can continue the bloodline and create heirs."
He wasn't looking at me.
"Heirs. Not children. Not kids. Heirs. I told him that I didn't want to find a girl. That I liked men. That I was in love with Tristian. I told him that I would never change. That I will always like guys. That I will never have children."
He chuckled.
"Jesus, I'm so drunk." He mumbled and begun rubbing at his forehead. "My head is on fire."
I placed my hand on his shoulder as a sign of support and remained silent.
He closed his eyes at my touch.
When he opened them again, he was ready to continue. "Fast forward a few months later..he was dying. You already know about the first and second curse. But two curses weren't enough for him. He had to make sure that he would destroy my life in every possible way. Love included." He turned to look at me at that.
I shivered, my hand still on his shoulder.
"He needed to make sure that..the person I'm meant to be with..-who would come into my life years later-..would break my heart. Betray me. That I would never find happiness again. Not even in the eyes of the person I would fall in love with."
He paused and I tried to breathe.
"All those years.. I thought it was Tristian. That he would come back and hurt me again."
My eyes are locked with his.
"Until I met you, Errot."
I felt like someone knocked all the air out of me.
Like my heart stopped and started beating again.
I attempted to say something but I couldn't utter a word.
It's the same feeling as when you're walking down the stairs and you miss a step.
This second. This mere second that makes you feel more alert of your surroundings than ever.
More alive than ever.
"What...what are you trying to say.."
I managed to mumble.
After that second passes, your heart won't stop racing for a while.
It's like it's still scared of that step you skipped and what would have happened if you eventually fell.
"I'm trying to say...-" He tore his gaze away from me. "That I'm really dizzy." He touched at his head. "I'm so..dizzy." he whispered.
I was biting at my lip so hard, I think it's now bleeding.
"Uhm..yeah..you should..just ..just lay down, Canton."
Surprisingly, he did as told and laid down on his bed, his eyes now closed.
"Lay down with me" he said.
"I don't think that's a good id-"
"An order. I'm ordering you." He mumbled.
I gulped. "Alright. If it's an order.." I carefully took my position next to him on the bed, my movements slow and steady.
Canton then grabbed me by the shirt and pulled me to him with force, my head now resting against his chest.
His fingers are messily playing with my hair while his heart is beating crazily fast, matching my own.
"Canton.."
"Mhm.."
"How drunk are you.."
"On a scale of one to ten..eleven?"
"Good." I raised my head a bit to look at him. "Cause I'm way too embarrassed for this"
Canton frowned. "For what?"
My eyes fell to his lips and I gulped. "This" I whispered and leaned in, finally erasing the distance between us.
♛