Cold Kisses in Summer MxM (Staten Krown)

3

There are four massive towers skinny, round towers surround an ivory palace. They reach twice the height of the walls and are connected by reinforced, thin walls made of yellow stone. The entrance to the castle was a waterfall. A brilliant waterfall at the edge of a bridge.

I'm amazed.

"This is it..." I whisper.

Most people who grew up like me would never see the Seasonal Courts. They'd never see this vast palace where the few ran the many.

Huge statues decorate the bridge outside, memories of glories of the past.

"Welcome to the Seasonal Courts," Paris tells me with a broken eagerness as we walk through the gates.

"How terrible..." I state.

"Terrible?" Paris raises his perfectly groomed eyebrow, "I wasn't expecting that."

"You were expecting me to call it beautiful. You were expecting me to gasp at how amazing and awe-inspiring this place was. It's not that to me. This is a prison. A beautiful prison but a prison...none-the-less," I tell him.

Paris gets quiet. I thought he was going to be offended and maybe argue. Take up for his grand palace but surprisingly he doesn't do that.

Almost upon making it past the waterfall and somehow not getting wet even with open windows, I saw it looming before me, my future prison: beautiful, serene, majestic, and yet forbidding enough to make my heart sink into my boots. It towered above us, dominating the entire city---dominating the entire world. A magnificent horror built on the edge of a cliff. To the poor idiot humans nestling beneath its shadow it may have signified protection and home, but to me, this castle struck the note of doom and was a sight to make the bravest shake with fear.

Four towers about two hundred and fifty feet above the river-level. The van pulls over to a private entrance to one of the four towers. Guards were everywhere as though this place was about to be raided. In the middle of the four towers was a courtyard and a grand palace surrounded by gardens of water.

"Why four towers?" I ask.

"2 towers for the Seelie courts and two for the Unseelie courts," he explains. "That how it was in the beginning, at least. No one lives in the Unseelie towers after the civil war."

The Castle rooms in which we were to live were about another sixty feet above the courtyard ...the Seasonal Courts were situated in the heart of the Solitude.

"Uncle Raine!"

The little voice is so recognizable but when I turn I can hardly tell who's speaking to me. My little nephew is there with women who I don't know. He's wearing all these baubles and jewels. He has on this heavy coat. They all seem to weigh him down. He tries to run to me and I know he would almost trip if he didn't have these strangers carefully correcting his footsteps as though he just learned to walk.

"Dino?"

I hug him. My heart echoes. It was all worth it for this moment. Coming to this horrible, beautiful place was all worth it to see him.

Dino's hug is gripping.

"I missed you----"

"Are you OK? Did they hurt you?"

"No---"

He didn't look hurt. Good. He looked covered in gold from head to toe. Better. When I stole him from here we could sell this shit and live at least a year comfortably. I turn and see Paris watching overhead as though my bad intentions were peaking through my pores.