The Warlock (BxB)

Chapter 4

Logain was alone when he woke up. The prince was no longer next to him, nor was he in the room. He would need to get the prince and then they were out of here. After the prince's confession last night, he understood a little more about the prince. That didn't mean that he could simply forget why he came here. Logain might have understood why the prince didn't want to return home, but he was going to finish this task. The quicker he got the prince to the castle, the quicker he could return home.

He sat up and found that his shirt was now on. The prince must have dressed him before he left the room. Thinking this made Logain feel awkward. A prince was taking care of him. It shouldn't have been that way. Logain was a lowly warlock. Casimir had higher status than him, so he shouldn't be doing anything for Logain. It was wrong.

It hurt him to move, but he forced himself out of the bed. Hopefully, the prince was still somewhere in the building. If he left before Logain woke then the warlock didn't know what he would do. He couldn't return to the castle without the prince. Maybe the prince would return on his own, but Logain doubted that he would do that anytime soon. If Casimir wanted to stay away from the castle then he would.

He made his way slowly down the hallway, then even slower down the stairs of the inn. After his failed attempt at magic, he was now paying the price. He would get used to the pain sooner or later. He always did when this sort of thing happened. It took time, but it eventually became bearable.

Prince Casimir sat on a stool in front of the bartender. There weren't many people in the tavern like there were last night. The ones who were there now looked up at Logain when he entered. Some of them gave him looks of concern, but he ignored them. He didn't need their pity. They didn't understand what he was going through and they didn't need to know. It would have been better if they didn't show him any concern at all. He tried to pretend like their staring didn't bother him. Their looks of concern looked genuine, something that Logain wasn't used to.

As he got closer to the bartender and prince, the woman looked up at him and gave him a smile. The prince had his back turned to him so he didn't see the warlock right away. He talked to the woman in hushed whispers, until Logain was right behind the prince. Casimir turned to face him when Logain cleared his throat.

When Casimir saw him, a large smile found it's way on his face. "Well, hello there, beautiful. I see that you are still alive. I was just about to come up and wake the sleeping beauty."

Logain didn't want to show how much the prince's words bothered him, but he had a feeling that he was failing. He shuffled on his feet and looked away. He was sure that his face was turning a bright red by now. Why did this man have to say such things to him? Things like that he only wanted to hear from one man, but that was a dream. He would never hear those words from the one that he admired. Instead, this prince had to say those things.

"Please don't address me like that." Logain tried his best to keep his voice calm. He didn't want to give away his embarrassment that easily. He looked at the ground as if that would help to hide his burning face.

Casimir chuckled. "Then what am I suppose to call you? You never gave me a name."

"Just call me Logain."

This brought a smirk to the prince's face. "Logain, huh? I've heard that name before. My sister often talks about you. I see what she is trying to do now."

His answer confused the warlock. Logain glanced up at him. He was curious as to what he meant. "What is she trying to do? She just wants you to come back home."

The prince stood up from the stool. Now standing in front of him, Logain felt small. He only came up to the prince's shoulders. Logain wasn't very tall to begin with, but that never really bothered him before. Maybe he was feeling so odd right now because he was in the presence of a prince. When he was around Princess Selene, he felt comfortable. She was his friend, but even when he first met her he didn't feel this way and she was royalty.

Or maybe it was because he has never been around someone who was openly like him. Logain didn't know any other man like him, not until he met the prince in this tavern.

Instead of giving him an answer, Casimir shrugged. "Oh, don't worry about it. It's between my sister and I. Anyway, we should probably get going. We have a months worth of travel ahead of us."

Wait, a month? Princess Selene told him that Casimir was only gone for a week, so why would it take them a month to get back to the castle? That didn't make any sense.

Prince Casimir must have seen the confused look on the warlocks face. He gave him another mischievous grin and said, "Do you think that I'm going to make this journey easy for you? It would only take us a few days if we traveled normally, but I don't feel like getting home so soon. I don't want to go back to the castle. I'm only making the effort to leave now because you're so hell bent on getting me back there. So we can either do this my way, or you can leave without me."

This damn prince. Logain scowled at him. He didn't have much of a choice. He couldn't return without the prince. It seemed that they would be doing things the hard way. Or maybe he could get around this somehow.

Logain reached out to grab his arm, but Casimir saw and grabbed his wrist first. When the prince touched him, Logain suddenly started to feel weak. He felt as if all of his power was being drained from his body. He was going to cast a spell to get them back to the castle right away. It backfired on him last night, but he was one to take risks. He didn't want to be stuck traveling for a whole month. He saw magic as an easy way out of this as long as it worked, but now something was wrong. He didn't feel the magic in him when the prince had ahold of him.

"Is something wrong? You probably can't feel your magic anymore, huh? See, I prepared for this. I had a feeling that someone would try to take me back home. Sebastian tried to use his magic on me, but I blocked him. You see this ring here?" Casimir held up his hand with the ring on it for Logain to see. "It blocks all magic from being cast on the bearer. When you touch the ring or it touches you, you lose your magic. Your magic will come back a few minutes after I let you go, but until then you are powerless. You can't cast your fancy spells on me so don't even try. Besides, you can't cast spells. You'll end up hurt again and I can't let that happen."

That explained why Sebastian couldn't force the prince to leave this place when he tried. It might also have been the reason why his spell last night didn't work. It could have backfired because of the ring. Logain knew about magical items like these that blocked magic, but this was his first time seeing one.

Looked like magic wasn't an option anymore. They really would have to do this the hard way. Casimir looked triumphant, while Logain glared at him. The prince was certainly making this harder than it needed to be. This should have been an easy task if only the prince would cooperate.

"Fine, we'll do things your way for now." Logain didn't have much of a choice. He would be forced to travel with the prince for a month or until the prince got bored of traveling.

This would be an interesting journey.