10 Chapter 10

He'd been here a few times before, mostly when he was younger. It hadn't changed much in those years, except that it might have gotten dustier.

Korrin stood in one of the northern towers of the castle, gazing out at the unbroken forest laid out before him, stretching so far he couldn't see the end of it. It had taken them weeks to make it to the castle; the entire kingdom was beneath him. Looking down on it, Korrin couldn't help but smile. It was something else. The wagons were small from this high up—his father's citizens nothing more than tiny specks.

Somewhere down there was Ruslo trying to find a place to park their van.

Korrin's father was still mad at him. Even Kaven seemed to be mad at him. He'd expected their anger to fade in the weeks after he and Ruslo had made their trip to Prague, but it had barely abated. It didn't help that Ruslo had told a few of his friends that Korrin had almost been arrested. It had spread through the Kingdom in a matter of days.

His father had a few choice words to say about that.

Responsibility, public relations, that sort of stuff. Stuff I have no idea about, and I don't want to.

Korrin took a drink from his beer. Yes, this chamber would do nicely for his own. It wasn't much, but it would serve him well for the coming weeks. There were all sorts of ceremonies that had to be done in the next few weeks before Kaven would take over as king. Korrin intended to lay around in his room with a couple cases of beer for most of them.

Still, life wasn't all bad.

There was a knock at his door, and then his father entered. He was getting older in years, though he was still large and strong, and as always to Korrin, almost larger than life. He was a kind man, though he was known to be tough—especially on Korrin.

Everyone in the kingdom loved him. Korrin smiled. Despite everything, he loved his father too, though he would never admit it to anyone.

His father came and sat down at the desk. He was silent for a few moments, as if he was thinking of what he wanted to say to Korrin. Finally, he said, "You do know that I love you, son?"

"I know," Korrin said. He lowered himself onto the old bed. It creaked underneath his weight but held.

"I want you to take things around here seriously."

"What's the point, father?" Korrin asked, getting off the bed and going to a window. "You have Kaven to take over. He wants this. I don't."

"And what do you want?"

Korrin's thoughts flashed back to his night with Kris. It had been one of his usual nights: a lot of drinking, rule breaking, and doing whatever he wanted. But he'd never expected to run into a woman like her.

I want her, he realized. But he knew that could never happen. He knew he could never tell his father.

"You can't live like this forever, Korrin. Drinking the night away. Going to cities. Human cities. Fighting, running from the law, chasing random women—"

"She wasn't some random woman," Korrin growled, turning back to his father. "It wasn't just some random fling." He was mad suddenly, though he knew it wasn't his father's fault. "And I won't be going back to Prague. It was a mistake I'll never repeat again, believe me."

He had gotten up out of the chair and come close to Korrin. "You know it couldn't have worked out with her, anyway. You're royalty. She's nothing. You know that as well as anyone else. And… she's human."

Korrin didn't have an answer for that.

"When you brother takes over, I want you to become his advisor."

"He has Ruslo for that."

"I don't want Ruslo for that," his father answered, and there was no arguing with his tone. "I want you beside him. He needs his brother."

"What's wrong with Ruslo?"

"Kaven will need you. Not his cousin. Not his father. He'll need you to help him. He won't be able to do this alone, and I won't be around forever."

He went to the door and paused for a few seconds. Then he said, "It's time for you to grow up, Korrin."

With that, his father left Korrin's chambers, leaving him standing there completely alone. Korrin wanted to lash out, to break something—anything—but he couldn't bring himself to do it.

He didn't want this. He was being forced into doing something he had no control over, and it was eating him up inside. He didn't know what he wanted to do, but he knew enough to know that he didn't want to help in the kingdom. He wanted to be his own man, do his own thing, like so many others down at the bottom of the camp.

Korrin might have been royalty, but he envied those below him.

He knew one thing he did want, though.

He wanted Kris and everything she embodied.

But I'll never see her again.

Korrin turned from the window and cracked another beer.