Excalibur's Seven | ✓ [LGBT]

~ 3 ~

THE YOUNG PRINCE WAS forbidden from leaving the castle, especially when he had duties to fulfill. But children were not known to obey, even the ones who'd had discipline beaten into their bones since the day they crawled a bastard from their mother's womb. It was the nature of a child to defy, to long for freedom. And that, perhaps, is why the Sídhe loved children so much.

His first mistake was running into the faery-infested woods. It was not uncommon for children to leave and return decades older that very evening in those woods, or to disappear completely, likely lured to an eternity of dancing until they died, only to be revived to dance some more. Sometimes children were stolen and replaced with crude little goblins.

Stepping into a circle of colorful fungus was his next mistake. Or perhaps it wasn't his own mistakes, rather, it was the mistake of his elders who sought to protect him (or perhaps preserve him so that they might be the ones to finish him off) and never told him of the Fae. They figured he would remain inside the palace walls until he was old enough to be poisoned by the knowledge of such wicked creatures.

But such was not the case, for the Prince was standing in a circle of mushrooms, admiring a flower he'd plucked from the ground. It was no ordinary flower, see, it seemed to reflect back at him, omitting a warm glow. He was sure the flower wanted him to take it, compelled by the imagination of an unspoiled childhood.

This was his third mistake. He stood too long in the circle, and when he looked up, he noticed he was not alone. There was a boy, only a few years his elder, it seemed, though his eyes were far beyond his years. His hair was the color of stormy clouds, his skin as pale as the snow. His eyes were so blue, the Prince let out a shiver.

"Who are you?"

"Who are you?" the stranger repeated.

"I asked first."

"No you didn't."

"A faery cannot lie."

The Prince stared. "But I did ask first."

This stranger was playing a trick on him, he was sure. And this was his fourth, but not final mistake. Underestimating a faery was an act of a true fool, one who might never recover from foolishness as though it was a chronic disease.

"May I have your name?" asked the stranger politely.

Perhaps if he had come a year later, his response would be different. But this was now, and the Prince was young and cursed with a prematurely rotted brain.

"Kristofer."

That was his fifth mistake.

* * *

Twice now. It had been twice that Kit came face to face with an Unseelie and didn't do anything about it. And twice, the faery left him dizzy and disoriented, terrified of what it might do next.

When he gave his name to the young faery so long so, he was sure he was safe. The faery had done nothing with it, letting him go free, never to think of the encounter again. But he was starting to doubt how safe he was from that encounter, because the assassin left him with a bitter taste him his mouth just as the other left years ago.

But he kept his mouth shut about the first encounter. He'd do the same this time. He wanted to be the one to hunt the man down, he was the only one with any clue of who it was anyways. If he said nothing, he could get to the man first.

"We have to be careful," said Chalice. "The Fair Folk are tricky creatures."

"Bullshit, a sword will kill any flesh, Sídhe or not," Selene interjected.