The Fallen Prince

30

Double update for you all 🥺🥺🥺

Hope y'all are enjoying !

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Rowan's POV:

Food never smelled so damn good; when it is time for dinner, Kassandra and Calandra hand us plates and saying we can stay in our tiny shack so Ciaran and I can spend time together.

"We can go out with everyone," Ciaran says, though his face is rather pale. "Uh... does anyone else know I am here?"

Kassandra nods, and he gets even paler. "Yes, they all know. We pass information so everyone knows what is going on at all times. I admired your parents, but they did enjoy keeping their secrets, but here we all must know what is going on."

Ciaran looks like he wants to crawl in a hole and die; gods, he does not know how close he was to that!

"Why are you so pale?" I ask Ciaran, taking his plate from him and setting it down on the table beside us.

He sighs. "Do they blame me? For-"

Kassandra cuts him off. "No, no one does. You were a child, we all know that, and now that you are older, we are all behind you and will follow as you guide us to taking back your kingdom."

Ciaran seems to glow a bit, and I am sure it is from pride. "I am ready to get rid of Vladimir and Daliah," he says, and his determination is very attractive.

Like, if he was not in so much pain and did not need rest, I would ask Kassandra to leave and I would worship Ciaran's body for hours. Gods, I am so in love with this man.

"Rowan, you are staring at me like I am a piece of meat," Ciaran whispers to me, and I snap out of my gazing at him and get up.

"We should go eat with everyone else, yes?" I ask, picking our plates up as Ciaran gives me a knowing smirk.

Too bad he is injured and needs to rest.

"Cal, come on," Kassandra urges, guiding her partner away from us and sending me a wink as she does so.

Ciaran definitely shares some commonalities in attitude with Kassandra, so I am curious as to how close they were when he was young. He has expressed a bit that she was his head guard; Kassandra mentioned that as well, so I am curious to what their relation was when Ciaran was growing up. Did she act as a parent or just a protector, because they act too comfortable to be just a guard to a prince, even if it has been years since they interacted.

"If you would like us to show you to the tables, we can," Calandra offers, a warm smile on her face. "Or you can find them, if you would like."

Ciaran gets up and takes his plate, and I can tell he would prefer to enter the room with Kassandra because she knows him and I know he fears judgement.

We enter the cave and walk to a center area deep in the cave where the rocky ceiling is the highest. There is a long, wooden table set up, and everyone here is sitting around it, conversing as they eat.

"It is not as comfortable as a castle, but for the last seven years... well, it has been our home."

I see a deep longing in Ciaran's eyes, and for the first time, I feel as though I can really understand his pain. He was torn from everyone he knew, watched his parents die, and he had to be alone in fear for years. Every part of him was guilty for the death and control that came from Vladimir and Daliah's reign, and I can tell he wishes he was brought here as well so that he could at least be in the loop when it came to planning.