"Kayne?" I dared a step closer. Never in the decade and a half of our friendship had I ever seen him like this. So lifeless.

"Ah, you're finally back." Some life returned to the prince and he stepped out of the way so the guard could switch out the shackles. At least their job was easier now that the prisoner was unconscious.

"Have you been here the whole time? I was gone for hours." There was something troubling him, I could tell by the worry residing in his eyes.

Kayne only shrugged. "Someone had to watch over the spy."

"That's what the guards are for!" I shook my head in dismay, taking his hands in my own to assess the damage he had done to them. The skin around his knuckles was torn, blisters of blood already forming. How could he have done that to himself? "You're an idiot. Was it even worth it? Did you get any information out of him?"

He sighed, his head lowering in shame. "No." For a moment, I thought he was going to rest his forehead on my shoulder, but he stopped before he could get that far.

Being careful not to hurt his hands, I grabbed the fingers of one of them and dragged him towards the entrance of the cell. The guard that had escorted me inside was still waiting for me to return. She led us out, the screams that we'd once heard now deadly silent, and we came out to a starry expanse of the sky above us.

"Come on." I tugged him along towards the blacksmiths. "I'll clean up your wounds. I doubt you want to see your mother right now anyway."

Kayne remained silent, staring up into the night. He brooded over whatever thoughts ran rampant in his mind and I let him, knowing he would approach me if he wished to talk.

When we reached my home, the flames of the furnace lit up the whole building, even as it was beginning to die down. Auron sat at a table with scraps of a dinner in front of him, the food pushed around but not touched. The door to his workroom was still closed. His head snapped up at our arrival.

He scoffed at Kayne's battered hands. "I assume that was to the prisoner?"

The prince nodded as he slumped into the chair opposite him. He was starting to return to his normal self a little more, I could tell as his actions were less rigid. I had been gone for hours as the shackles were made. Had he been hurting the prisoner for that whole time? Or had he just been staring at him, watching and waiting for someone to save him?

Auron sighed. "I'll get some water and a cloth. I can already imagine the queen's upset squeal at the sight of them."

As he left the room, I took his chair to press Kayne for information. "What happened in there? Why did you hurt the Icrodeian more than you had to?" If I had been the person chained in that chair, would he have done the same to me? No. Of course he wouldn't.

"I didn't like the way he spoke to you. You do not deserve such viciousness." He refused to even look at me, shame eating him from the inside out.

"Is that all this is over?" He didn't need to hurt people for my sake. I didn't want that in the slightest.

"No." Kayne's head rested against the wall, his fingers gently tracing the patterns of the wood in the table. "I'm just stressed, I suppose. I needed an outlet for it and the prisoner just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Auron emerged from the staircase with a bowl of warm water and a cloth tossed over his shoulder. He placed them on the table and dragged over another chair. "No offence to you, Sabre, but I'll be much gentler than you are at cleaning wounds," my friend explained as he snatched the cloth out of my grasp.

I pouted. "Rude." But I knew he was right. I didn't know if it was possible for my hands that were familiar with forging weapons, hammering blades into shape, and holding metal into ravenous flames to be soft.

He worked in silence for a while, the room only filled with the crackling of embers from the fire and the muffled hisses of pain leaving Kayne's mouth as the water stung his knuckles.

"So, what's happening with the whole marriage ordeal?" Auron asked as he wrung out the blood. "Icrodeia is involved in it all, aren't they?"

Kayne nodded. "I only just found out this morning after we returned from The Lost and Found. My mother told me that Racaea needs this marriage not just so I can become king, but for alliances. There are some rumours of Icrodeia's sudden interest in our kingdom, ones that suggest war. She hadn't wanted to tell me because she didn't think they were real, Icrodeia have no reason to attack us, and then the spy was found lurking outside of our grounds. It doesn't help that the prisoner even suggested that they want to rid the world of fae and take out Racaea in the process."

"How will marrying someone who also has ties to Racaea even help us? Shouldn't you be looking at potential suitors in the Kingdoms of Teria or Vahan?" It confused me. Surely an alliance meant gathering soldiers from another powerful force like a neighbouring kingdom.

"Money and private armies are the main resources I believe my mother is after, but I think the same thing. Though, looking for people of age and willing to marry from quite far away would take too much time." Kayne straightened in his seat as Auron finished cleaning up his hands, nodding gratefully in his direction.

"What would happen if a war broke out? Who do you think would win given the current situation?" My fists clenched. I didn't want there to be a war, not when the people I held dear in my heart had a chance of getting hurt.

"Well, our armies are pretty evenly matched at the moment. I think it will be about who can gather the most alliances before the other backs down."  Kayne ran a blood-free hand over his face in frustration. "They're after something — someone — but I just don't know who."

"What would you do if the two kingdoms went to war with each other?" Auron turned to me, despair filling his expression. "Which side would you choose?"

Who would I choose? "I-I don't know." While Racaea was my home, I still very much loved Icrodedia too. Would my friends turn against me if I chose my homeland? Of course, they would. Who was I kidding? But did there even have to be a choice? "What if we don't have to go to war?"

"Oh?" The prince perked up at my suggestion, watching me warily.

Kayne had said himself this morning that pretending to be his suitor truly wasn't a bad idea. Now, it was even more of a better plan. Even though I had barely any money to my name and no power to give him, I still had my heritage behind me.

During the moments while I paused to think, Auron and Kayne looked between each other. "Scheming face," the weaponsmith stated, tilting his head to the side to get a better angle of my expression.

Kayne nodded in agreement. "Definitely scheming."

I raised my hands to send vulgar gestures to both males, then quickly returned to my thoughts. "What if I did pretend to be your fiancé for a little while? Just until you could find someone who can really help Racaea with what it needs."

An infuriating smirk grew on the prince's mouth. "I knew you couldn't resist my charms. All it took was the notion of marriage to get you to fall for me." He sat up in his chair, his earlier fatigue and emptiness vanishing completely. "Was it the idea of giving me an heir too?"

My foot reached out to find where his legs were located under the table and kicked him with as much force as I could muster in the shins, earning me a glare warning me revenge would be returned. "No, not for that. Don't make me take my proposition back. But I'm Icrodeian. If they see that Racaea will have an Icrodeian queen, maybe that will deter them from attacking."

"Do you want to do that?" Auron asked. "Earlier, you seemed pretty sure to deny Kayne's offer with no further discussion about it."

I had been determined not to marry my friend, but now things were different. "I'm sure. It wouldn't be permanent as it would be until he finds another suitor, and if it stops a war breaking out from the two places I adore, I suppose I don't mind putting up with Kayne."

I turned and expected to find a snarky remark from the prince, but his face held nothing but seriousness. He reached out to take one of my hands, causing my cheeks to warm. "You don't have to do this if it makes you uncomfortable and you'd rather not. I apologise for taking things a little too far in The Lost and Found, but don't do this for the kingdom's sake."

"I'm doing it for my sake, for my own peace of mind. I don't want to be forced to choose." If I picked Racaea to side with, I would never be able to see my homeland again as I truly would be a traitor. However, if I picked Icrodeia, I would have nowhere to go, no friends to help me out or keep me company.

"Becoming his fiancé would drag your reputation through the mud. When you come back to being a weaponsmith, you would hardly get any orders. We don't even know how Trik will react to this either." Auron had a fair point. Could I really give up my one passion too?

Kayne dropped my hand, standing from his chair. "Sleep on it and give it some thought. You don't need to make a decision yet as the ball still isn't for a few days." He sighed deeply and stretched, a yawn escaping somewhere in the middle. "I should get going, it's getting pretty late."

"We'll see you tomorrow." Auron stood too, picking up the water and cloth that still laid on the table.

As the prince made his way towards the exit, he walked straight into Trik's chest as he left Auron's workroom.

"Prince," Trik acknowledged as the customer he was talking with slipped out of the front door, nodding his head once before moving out of his way. There had only been a few times where he had met Kayne, but they had all been when we were still children.

He nodded too, embarrassment creeping onto his face as he fled from the blacksmith, making laughter burst from both Auron and I.

"So, which one of you is he in a secret romance with?"

Auron only laughed more. "Neither of us." Not yet, anyway.