“We’ll find him, Your Majesty. We’ll find him and bring him home.”
The king turned his head so that his cheek was lying in his arms. Pale-blue eyes watched him closely, and Adrian remained perfectly still under that thoughtful inspection. He didn’t know what Caelan saw when he regarded him. He hoped that he appeared strong and competent, exactly what this group needed to see their way through finding Drayce as well as the godstone. He wanted to be someone Caelan could rely on and trust.
“We will,” Caelan agreed after several seconds of silence. “I need you to remember something important while we’re on the road, Adrian Westergren, Lieutenant of the Royal Guard.” Caelan lifted his head, eyes still holding Adrian’s with their piercing gaze. “You’re not just accompanying us to protect me. I need you to protect my family as well. Keep them safe and bring them all home again.” He turned away, dropping his gaze to the gray marble countertop, and softly added, “I won’t lose anyone else.”
“I will, Your Majesty. I promise.”
He said the words easily, but there was an uneasiness that swirled in his stomach. Eno’s and Rayne’s warnings rose up in his mind that this man also had the power of three gods at his fingertips. What would happen if Caelan lost someone in his family that he loved? Wasn’t that more dangerous than anything that the Empire could cook up?
FOUR
Caelan Talos
Wind whipped along the deck of the ship as it raced across the water toward the Isle of Stone. They’d passed through God’s Throat several hours ago. He’d come onto the deck to witness the special green flares that had been lit to honor the king as he passed between the two forts that guarded Stormbreak Bay.
While the air was bitterly cold and ice formed on the railing, Caelan was in no hurry to return below deck, where Eno and Rayne were on a conference call with General Morgan and the Minister of Defense on how they were going to meet Caelan’s order to ramp up naval production in time for the spring thaw. They’d not lost a lot of ships when Stormbreak had fallen to New Rosanthe, thankfully, but their numbers had never been as strong as the Empire’s.
They needed to fix that.
The gods had sent him to gather the power he needed to deal with Safa and the Goddess of the Hunt, but that didn’t mean the problems with New Rosanthe were going to be immediately solved when he defeated both. No, a war with New Rosanthe to push the empire back within its own borders was undoubtedly going to follow, and they needed to be prepared.
A sharp yelp had Caelan twisting around to see Adrian sliding into a wide stance, his arms flung out to steady himself, which was not the easiest of tasks in the rough water they were crashing through.
“Sorry, Your Majesty. Patch of ice on the deck,” Adrian said. He carefully pulled himself fully upright and inched a tiny bit closer to Caelan, falling into his place as his shadow. The man’s face was a touch red, but that could have been from embarrassment or the harsh cold wind.
“We won’t stay out here much longer,” Caelan reassured him. There was no point in telling the man to go inside without him. Despite being made aware that Caelan was quite capable of protecting himself and there was little worry while they were on an Erya naval ship, Adrian remained close at all times. The only moments where Caelan had a break from him was when Eno was walking with him.
However, he was starting to ease up when Rayne was with Caelan. Rayne was skilled and experienced enough at this point to provide protection, but Adrian refused to relent completely. He didn’t know if Adrian was skeptical of Rayne because of his role as Caelan’s advisor and not a trained guard, or if Eno had something to do with wanting to keep his king and his boyfriend safe at the same time.
All in all, it was amusing to see Adrian utterly unfazed by Rayne’s glares.
“I’ve never been this far north. I spent a year of training at the western fort, but I never got out onto the water,” Adrian volunteered.
Caelan glanced over his shoulder, a small smirk playing on his lips. “Winter training?”
“Gods, yes,” Adrian groaned. “I’ve never seen so much ice in all my life. I felt like I was going to be chipping it off my balls even after I returned to Stormbreak.”
A bark of laughter escaped Caelan, and then he laughed harder, seeing a horrified expression stretch Adrian’s face. For a heartbeat, the man had forgotten that he was talking to the king, and Caelan appreciated it. Rayne and Eno had gotten good at switching between the casual and formal with him based on who was within listening range. But even that had taken years of practice and seeing Caelan in some embarrassing situations—mostly thanks to Drayce.