UnFamiliar

Chapter 15

The morning came without another word from either of us. I'd thought about crawling over and trying to talk to Val again, but honestly? I'd felt like I'd gotten my answer. Val didn't want to be tied to me. He'd given me the silent treatment for even suggesting it wouldn't end.

I dressed in the clothes I came in for breakfast. The turtleneck was a bit too stretched out for comfort, but I needed the familiarity of it over the presentableness of another shirt.

Val grabbed my hand again only once we were leaving the room. He hadn't spoken a single word to me since we'd woken up. It felt a little like he was trying to flip a switch that frankly he didn't have access to. I pulled my hand away.

Val looked back at me, but I looked away. He was going to have to speak if he wanted me to play along. The king and people I assumed would be considered a 'retinue' appeared behind us by turning a corner at the exact wrong moment.

The king seemed to take in the situation in an instant. "Lover's spat?"

Val glanced at me, and he looked a bit afraid.

The thing was, that while Val seemed to actually go to sleep last night, I'd spent the night thinking over everything he'd said. I might've been focused on...well relationship stuff, but I'd still heard everything he told me. It was dangerous to be seen as a weak prince's boyfriend.

"Perhaps I should break my spell," I said.

Val looked like he'd been slapped, which frankly I was fine with.

The demon king chuckled. "Finally came to your senses then?"

I shrugged. I was debating between provoking or placating the king next when the snake creature skated in front of us.

"Your Majesty, my apologies, but...you are needed in the throne room."

The demon king narrowed his eyes.  "Can't it wait?"

The snake creature glanced at me specifically before saying, "No, your Majesty." What was that about?

"Fine," grumbled the king.

"May we go, father? As you don't know how long this will take, I think it's time Ambrose and I take our leave." Val glanced at me, and I gave a very subtle nod.

"I suppose you're right," the king said, then to me, "you should break the spell, it'll bring you nothing but misery." Then he walked off, following the skating snake creature.

Val snapped his fingers, and our room appeared before us.

I let out a sigh. What I wanted right then was a shower. I had a feeling however that Val was going to want to talk after my performance. We might've aired everything out, but at that moment Nina crawled out from underneath the bed, her curls wildly bouncing from the movement.

My jaw was on the floor by the time she stood up and asked, "Where've you guys been?"

Val watched the large cat that was her familiar crawl out from under the bed before he noticed I was expecting him to field this question. He wasn't exactly having it though, and what he said to Nina was, "Is there a reason you were hiding under the bed?"

"Oh, right. The school's under attack," Nina said.

"What? By who?" I asked frantically.

 At the same time Val raised a cool eyebrow and said, "So you hid under our bed?"

Nina looked at us baffled, then said to me, "We're going to revisit the fact that Val just said 'our' bed after we deal with the important things, okay?"