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Oh, back home, with Hal, there was a certain allure in his longtime lover’s indecision. All that delicious lust held captive with weak twine, destined to snap with the gentlest pressure.
But that was with someone he’d known since childhood. Someone he knew unambiguously wanted to fuck him. Someone who, despite all that he’d done, he still cared deeply for.
But doing the same thing with Calix? Deceiving someone he barely knew? Someone with whom he shared undeniable attraction, or at least a certain curiosity, but who kept his lust captive with fist-width rope?
That was starting to feel... icky.
He curled the clay off the road into the outer tree line of Green Heart Park, the public garden at the center of the city. Oak and poplar trees rose higher than the surrounding buildings, all resting on a rug of lush green. Among the city’s pervasive smell of sweat and horse shit, it presented the more neutral smell of vegetation. And while it was a good deal more ordered than the Fields of Life at the city’s edge, it wasn’t at all like the tortured promenades back home, where every tree was teased to conform to some perfect ideal.
Clouds shifted overhead, sending thin bands of light through the park. The moon was little more than a sliver now, only a few days from sable.
As he passed the park’s entrance, his eyes were drawn to the fountain in the middle. Pale light glinted off a cloud of mist.
He stopped dead. A figure was sitting on the fountain’s edge—their hood pulled back, their posture sharp as a sword.
Even from this distance, he could see that it was Calix.
A hundred thoughts raced through Aurelius’s head. What was Calix doing there? Aurelius had been walking aimlessly for about half an hour. They weren’t particularly close to the palace, nor particularly close to the Beautiful Bunch.
Although... this was the obvious path back to the embassy. Was the prince just wanting space to clear his head?
Or perhaps...
Perhaps things weren’t so different from down in Mestibes, where he never needed to play the hunter? Where people knew exactly what he was offering, and would find some contrivance to make his company?
Aurelius’s foot tapped the dirt, just a few feet from the grass.
He couldn’t risk another failure, not in a single night. If he got it wrong, he would be seen as an absolute menace, scaring the prince off for good.
Yet, this was the first chance he would have to see Calix alone. And after all this time, after all this effort, there really wasn’t a choice. It was too good an opportunity to turn down.
Aurelius entered the park, making his way toward the fountain.
Control yourself...
That was what Calix had screamed at the bathhouse, right at the point of falling to his lust. That was where the man’s mind could go—one minute deeply engaged, the next desperate to escape.
He was afraid of losing control. He was afraid of what might happen if he gave in to his urges.
As Aurelius’s footsteps swished across the vibrant grass—made silken monochrome by the moon—it was a mantra he repeated.
Control yourself, Aurelius. Don’t scare him off.
The prince glanced up at his approach, the air around him cooled by the fountain. One hand was to each side of the stone lip, gripping it hard as if fearing he might fall. But there was no surprise in his dark face.
“Beautiful night for it,” said Aurelius, sitting beside him—not so near as to frighten him, but not so far as to appear standoffish.
The prince looked around as if seeing the park for the first time. “Yes. It is.”
“In Mestibes, people will be preparing for the sable moon. Visiting the Pentheon to pray their talents don’t fail them. Many preparing to observe the Sanctum, clutching their instruments and tools all through the night, as if the dark might steal them away.”
“Your whole city fears the sable moon?”
“Oh, it’s just superstition. They just want to make sure they are prepared for the monthly Bronze Moon Symposium the fortnight after. Back home, people think that when the moon is bright, they’ll be bright. And when the moon is dark, so too will they be.”
The prince looked to the thin crescent overhead. “Perhaps that is why we Ardorans celebrate our festivals on the sable moon.”
Aurelius laughed. “When all is darkest in the hearts of men?”
