pass a lone figure hunched over in his cell, his straw-like, blond hair in tatters around his neck. He lifts his head, sunken eyes staring at me above a full beard. It’s hard to think of him as the boy who used to help me catch tadpoles in rivers, and even less as the repugnant man he grew up to become.
Lucian stands from the bed, his eyes bloodshot. He walks to the bars and grasps them like a monkey rattling his cage.
“Get me out of here.”
“Sorry, brother. Can’t do that.”
“Look at me!”
I look at him. “I don’t see anything wrong with you except a marginal decrease in personal hygiene.”
“I can’t fucking shave with these disposable razors. Look at my fingers, for God’s sake!”
“Honestly, did you think you’d be able to get manicures in prison?”
The bars rattle violently as he rams his palm against the cell. “This isn’t fair!”
“You committed several crimes. Do you want me to start listing them? You should be grateful to me for dropping the regicide charges.”
“I did what was necessary to secure my position, and you stole it from me.” His fingers whiten around the bars. “Our father wanted me to be king, not you.”
“The problem is literally no one else wanted that.”
“Fuck you.”
Lucian throws me a vicious glare as he walks away from the cell door.
The throne was forced on my shoulders. It was never something I wanted. I was resigned to the position just like I was resigned to the fact I would have to marry some high-society girl I’d have nothing in common with.
“Why the fuck are you even here?”
“I’m here to remind you that you are not allowed to give interviews to the press, and if you don’t want an even steeper sentence, you’ll hold off on providing colorful headlines for Royal Exposé.”
He sneers. “Did you like the article?”
“I admit I laughed at your description of me as a ‘dim-witted troll.’”
Lucian tosses his head back, laughing, and for a moment I almost forget he swung a sword at my wife. That image still haunts me. Sure, he was a meddlesome prick, but I never thought he was capable of seriously hurting someone. If Daisy hadn’t kicked him in the balls… I push that chilling thought aside.
“You have two choices—”
“Blow me.”
“You can stay in prison and fill out the remainder of your sentences, or I can exile you right now. Either way, you’ll be stripped of your titles and spend the remainder of your life as an ordinary man.”
He returns to the bars, clenching his teeth in a mad grimace. “I should have cut that bitch in two.”
My heart squeezes hard suddenly, and I’m tempted to ask the guards to open the cell so I can grab the back of his head and smash his face against the iron bars. Instead, I turn my back on him. He screams with a righteous wail of fury as he watches me leave. The furious wails become pleas for me to come back. Then he desperately shakes the bars, perhaps sensing that this is good-bye. I close my eyes as though they can shut out the sound, and I keep walking.
Fourteen
King Liam Bows to US President!
Daisy
“This is a huge conflict of interest.”
I round off the last sentence of my article and bite my lip, scrolling up to reread it before I send it to my editor at Huffingtown Press. My chair bounces as Liam grabs the head, leaning in to read what I’ve written.
“What is it, a travel essay?”
“Yeah. For Anglefell.”
“How is that a conflict of interest?”
“I’m the queen of the country. Who the hell would take this article seriously?”
He makes a sound at the back of his throat. “Well, I do think you should rewrite it.”
My spirits fall. “Really? I’ve been working on this for days—you really think I need to?”
“You should start off talking about your personal experience. How once you tasted prince cock, the location immediately became bearable for you.”
I roll my eyes so far back in my head that I’m sure they’ll be stuck there forever. “Ass.”
“I’m not an ass for pointing out the obvious.”
“I actually happen to like it in Anglefell, thank you very much.”
“I’m surprised there’s no mention of any negatives here. What about the lack of cheese-burgers?”
“It’s cheeseburgers, Liam. One word. And last I checked, they finally opened a burger place.”
Although it’s thirty miles away.
He spins my chair around so I’m facing him. His ridiculous smile cracks through my annoyance.
“Just write about my cock for the entire essay. Describe