I yawned, exaggerating the gesture for her.
“And that you will never fix, sell, or do anything with that house if I don’t want it to happen?”
I clenched my teeth, setting my jaw.
“Not that I have any intentions of interfering, of course,” she said. “It would upset my son.”
“You don’t even know your own son,” I muttered.
“How dare you,” she spat.
“I’m leaving, now,” I said. “Thanks for the delicious scones. And I hope you have a lovely trip to Beloria.”
I pushed open the big wooden door and charged back down the hallway. My heart was pounding like a drum inside my chest, and within moments, I was lost in the castle corridors. I was sure that if I walked far enough, I would find my way to some familiar room or some worker who could assist me to get the fuck out.
I walked and walked, getting dizzy as I went up and down stairwells and hallways. I came to a courtyard, a series of archways that looked out onto a small area with grass and so many hanging vines. And as I rounded a corner, I finally saw Sebastian. He had a cell phone pressed to his ear and he looked dazed.
“There you are,” he said. “Come with me.”
“No. I’m getting the fuck out of here, and—”
“Yes, you are,” he said. “We are.”
“Sebastian, I know you have things to do.”
“Believe me, it’s going to be better if I’m not in the castle today,” he said. His eyes darted all around him, and I started to worry that something else may have been going on.
“Sebastian?” I asked. “You okay?”
“We can take this service corridor down to my Ferrari.”
“My truck is still parked by Terrace View Road. And what about Xavier—”
“I’m driving us. We’ll get your truck tomorrow. Something tells me I’m not going to have access to my driver for much longer.”
I furrowed my brow.
What the hell did he mean by that? Sebastian was the prince, and he would have access to all of his support for the rest of his damn life.
In another few minutes, I was strapped into the passenger seat of Sebastian’s sleek, black Ferrari. He tore off down the mountain, driving like an absolutely insane person all the way to Berrydale. I gripped the edges of my seat as he rounded corners.
“Sebastian, I appreciate you trying to rescue me from your mother like this, but this is crazy,” I said.
By the time we pulled up in front of my mom’s old house, though, I realized that Sebastian didn’t seem frazzled or panicked or grim at all.
In fact, as he put the car in park, he turned to me and smiled.
“What is with you?” I asked.
“Might wanna check the news on your phone,” he said simply before he got out of the car.
I had the local paper bookmarked and I navigated to it quickly.
I almost choked when I saw the breaking news headline.
Prince Sebastian Nigel Fairleigh Ambrose of Frostmonte reveals shocking statement: “I’M GAY,” the King-To-Be Declares!
I was frozen in place as I watched out the front windshield of the car. Sebastian was outside, rounding the car. He opened the passenger side door, smiling down at me, as if it was a day like any other.
12
Sebastian
My secrets had never “eaten away at me.” I’d always heard people talking about how their secrets felt like a burden, like something they’d feel so much better without.
But me? I was a pro. I had loved keeping my secrets.
And of course I’d always been best at keeping the most important one close to my chest.
For my entire life, I’d never told anyone I was gay. The only people who knew were Henry, and ostensibly, my mother, who had only seen me kissing Henry once, that night so long ago in the park.
I had always thought it would be so much more comfortable to keep my sexuality a secret because it would be a disaster for my legacy otherwise. I knew I had to marry a woman. I knew I had to produce heirs to my throne, hopefully many heirs, and raise and groom them to be exactly the best kings or queens they could be. My secret was important not for myself, but for everyone in my bloodline.
But as it turns out, I was wrong.
Wrong as I’d ever fucking been about anything.
Because being free of my secret—my biggest one—felt like winning the lottery.
For the first time in my life, I knew what freedom felt like. Even if it also meant that my life as I knew it was irreparably gone.
“You are insane,” Henry said.
“And?”
“And… and I love you,” he continued, a disbelieving smile on his face as he paced around his living room. “And you’re insane.”
Electricity coursed through my veins. I felt like I was drunk, even though I was nowhere near it. I just still wasn’t used to hearing those words on Henry’s lips. Having the man of my dreams tell me he loved me, and knowing it didn’t have to be a secret anymore.
I was kicked back on the sofa, clad in an old, soft pair of Henry’s sweatpants and a faded shirt. I hadn’t bothered to take much of anything with me when I’d fled the castle this morning, so Henry had lent me what he had on hand. The clothes were slightly bigger than my size, but I liked it. I was cozy. I was wearing clothes that smelled like him, and I had a glass of whiskey in my hand that he’d recently poured for me.
And who fucking cared, anyway?
I was free.
I had everything I needed, right in this room.
“How did you decide?” Henry said, staring at me like I was a mysterious puzzle he was trying to solve.
“Decide what? To tell the whole world?”
“Yes,” he said. “It’s not like you were admitting you secretly eat Oreos, Sebastian, it’s…”
“It’s a whole lot more than that,” I said.
“Right.”
“Honestly? I don’t think I did decide,” I said. “It just happened. Really quickly.”
“Was this a completely spur of the moment decision? Because I have never known you to be spontaneous.”
“Not completely spur of the moment,” I said. “I knew I had to do something. This morning, I had Genoveve transfer some of my funds to a different bank account. Not enough to cause any suspicion, but…”
“But you knew you were going to flee the castle?”
“I knew I wanted to get the hell out, yes,” I said. “But coming out to the entire world? That happened fast. Christ, did I really do that?”
Henry smiled wide. “You really did,” he said.
“Oh God,” I said. I felt like I was falling fast, like I was constantly on the verge of having the wind knocked out of me. “I really shouldn’t have done that, should I have?”
He bit his bottom lip, watching me.
“You’re totally going into panic mode, aren’t you?”
“I think the adrenaline might be wearing off,” I said. “Could that be why I feel like I’m free-falling through the air without a parachute right now?”
“Might be,” Henry said. “Whenever I saw a bear on the mountain, I’d feel like a million bucks until it finally walked off. Then the panic would set in, weirdly. After the fact. Then the exhaustion.”