I Swore to Kill the Prince I Guard novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Frostmere

Evander caught Florian before his head hit the dais.

He did not remember crossing the floor.

He had the prince in his arms, limp and light, with spit on his lip and his eyes half rolled.

The Great Hall was screaming.

"Physician," Evander roared.

"Physician, now."

He carried the prince out through the side door at a run.

The royal physician said it was monkshood, a spoonful's worth, far too little to kill a grown man.

It was enough to teach a lesson, he said.

The cup was sent for, and the cup was gone.

The Chancellor wept at the bedside and swore that the kitchens would answer for it.

Evander stood in the corner and said nothing.

Every time he looked at Basil's wet, kind face, he saw a hand's width of unburned silk.

Nine days later they rode to Frostmere anyway.

Florian insisted.

He was white and thin and walked with a stick.

He told the Chancellor he would sooner be poisoned in the snow than in his bed.

To Evander he said that at the lodge only Piers and he would touch his food.

Lord Basil laughed, kissed his hand, and sent the court ahead.

The lodge at Frostmere sat alone on a rise above a frozen lake.

It had six rooms, a hall, and a kitchen run by two old servants who went to bed at dusk.

Piers took the grooms' loft over the stable.

The snow began on the second night.

By dark it came down.

Wind howled around the eaves, a drift rose to the sills, and the lake vanished.

Evander and Florian were alone in the great hall.

A fire the height of Evander's chest roared in the hearth.

Florian lay on a pile of furs in front of it in his shirt, with a book open and his stick beside him.

He wasn't reading.

Evander sat on the floor with his back against a settle, cleaning his sword.

He needed something to do with his hands.

"We haven't spoken," Florian said finally.

"No."

"I thought you'd gone."

"I came back."

"Why?"

Evander looked at him.

"Because you aren't going to kill yourself," he said.

"Not while I'm here."

Florian's mouth twisted.

"Is that why?"

"No."

Evander put the sword down and crawled across the furs.

Florian looked up at him with his curls tangled.

Evander took the spectacles off the prince's nose, folded them, and set them beside the book.

He kissed him very slowly.

Florian made a small sound, his hands came up Evander's arms, and his body softened under him.

"I'm sorry about the study," said Evander against his mouth.

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