Torian chuckled. "Trust me, Wilder. I know. I'm also glad you accepted." His eyes dropped to the ground and a little laugh slipped out. "I'm no longer the heir to both thrones."
"Which means you're not going to destroy the magic," I reminded him.
"Prince!" Jack said before flying over to land on Torian's shoulder. "Prince-court." Then he nibbled on Torian's ear, up at the top. "Prince-knight." Jack nodded. "Prince-Morrigan! Prince-queen. Prince-duke-duke!"
"Duke-duke," Hawke said, tapping Wilder's arm with the back of his knuckles. "We have a ship-name now."
"Duke-duke?" Keir asked incredulously. "No. I think you're supposed to be something like Wawke, or Hilder."
"Eww," I said. "No. I think duke-duke is much better."
"I am not calling them duke-duke," Keir said.
"Could just use our names," Wilder pointed out. "Also, we all missed fourth period. Someone's going to need to explain that."
"I'll do it," I assured them. "Pretty sure Ms. Rhodes will give me a pass on this one too." But I leaned a bit to see Torianthrough all of our friends. "And it'll be easier if you agree to talk to my dad."
"Rain," he grumbled.
"If nothing else, to update him on all of this."
"I got it," Wilder offered. "The rest of you can go down and grab us meals. I'll make sure Torian has an appointment, then we'll join you."
It was well done, and subtle, but Wilder was clearly hinting that he wanted to talk to Torian alone. Granted, what Aspen had done was a big thing. That Shadow was still standing there, watching us? Yeah, that made me think it was more important than any of us were going to admit out loud, so I decided to help out.
"Yep, I'm starving," I said. "Jack, you staying or coming with me?"
"Jack-Morrigan!" he replied, flying over to claim my shoulder. "Knight, queen, duke, Morrigan, Jack!"
"And we're good, Tor?" Aspen asked.
Torian merely looked up at her and smiled. Still, Aspen waited for a moment, watching him and likely sharing something only they could hear. When both of them smiled, I was almost sure of it.
Then Aspen turned, nearly skipping toward the door. "Today, we need cake. This is going to be a celebration, so don't make us do it without the men of honor."
"Promise," Torian told her.
But the weight of the ripple that made? I knew he wasn't only agreeing to meet us for lunch. It seemed that finally, Torian had realized he deserved to live.
Chapter Fifty-Five
TORIAN
Keir moved to Rain's side. Hawke followed Aspen out. The wisps of shadows along the walls faded quickly. When the door closed, Wilder was still standing in the middle of my room, looking like he wanted to say something, but his mouth didn't open.
"What?" I asked, finally breaking the silence once enough time had passed for our friends to be on the elevator.
"Tor..." He shifted like he was about to step forward, but stopped himself. "You know I didn't know that was coming, right?"
"No, it's a good thing," I assured him.
He looked down, dragging his tongue over his teeth behind his lips. "Yeah, maybe. I also don't have a fucking clue how to do this."
"Bullshit."
That made his head snap back up. "What?"
"Oh, come on, Wilder," I said, waving him towards a chair. "You have been the most loyal duke in the history of nobility." And I laughed once, thinking back to all the times he'd fucking hovered over my sister protectively. "You're a perfect heir."
