Page 10 of The Autumn Prince

Lars clicked his tongue. “A desperate and impulsive idiot with the best intentions who neglected to read the fine print.”

Right then, I got the very weird feeling that Lars was somehow involved. Possibly not directly, but he knew things. I couldn’t quite pinpoint why I thought that, but there was something there.

“Any chance the impulsive idiot might undo his curse?”

“Can’t. He’s tried, of course. But…” He sighed and shook his head like he was disappointed. “Well, he’s merely a shadow of his former self now.”

“I see.” I didn’t, not really, but that little something inside me was still there and pointing at Lars while it screamed, he knows! He knows!

“The timing’s the worst part,” he said quietly while staring into the still-bustling room. “Impulsive, like I said. Didn’t even notice it would take three years.” Tears welled up in his pale blue eyes, and he whispered, “So many people have died.”

I set my burrito down and gripped his arm when he swayed a little. He felt so frail. Maybe the vibe I was getting from him was just great gobs of grief. Some of the dead could’ve been people he knew and loved.

Lars patted my hand and smiled like maybe he was a bit embarrassed, so I let him go.

“Want some of this?” I asked as I picked up the burrito again. Of the two of us, he could use the calories way more than I needed them. “There’s enough to share.”

He shooed me away. “Oh, hush, and eat your baby goat.”

“Ah! What?”

He walked away chuckling. I took back feeling bad for him. The bastard.

My stomach gurgled. It might be threatening to give back the— No. No, there was no way these people were slaughtering baby animals in an economy with low resources. Right? No way.

I looked up when movement caught my eye to find Incendis fluttering over to me. For a moment, I was struck by how lovely he was in his golden clothes with his wings dripping sparks behind him.

But I needed to know what I was eating.

“Zalman,” he said with a big smile. “Good morning.”

I pointed the bitten end of my burrito at him. “Is this baby goat?”

“Baby…” He looked absolutely shocked. “Goodness, no! It’s not goat at all.” He peered at it. “That’s most likely venison.”

“Veni—” I spun around to glare down the hallway where Lars had gone. “That son of a bitch.”

“Who?”

“Lars.”

“Who’s Lars?”

I squinted at him. “He’s one of your… I don’t know. Butlers maybe?”

“Oh.” Incendis peered down the hallway. “Maybe I know him by a different name.”

Was that weird? Should the prince know everyone who worked for him by name? I wasn’t sure that was possible given there had to be a hundred people in the room behind him. I’d struggle to remember all their names without making genuine connections. But it still felt odd that a person who seemed to be in charge of making me comfortable and feeding me was a stranger to his employer.

I shrugged at myself and changed the subject. “So what are you working on in there?”

“Quite a few things, actually.” He turned to look into the room again, went up on his toes and leaned sideways a bit, before looking back at me. “Excuse me. I’ll be right back.”

When he’d been peering in there, I’d tried to figure out what he’d seen. Had someone waved to him? Was an argument starting? A delivery arriving? But I hadn’t seen a single thing that made it seem like someone needed Incendis to return to work. As I watched him walk away, he literally went right back to visiting every table like he had been before.

I noted the time on the big grandfather clock across from me here in the hall and finished my venison and mushroom burrito. It was pretty good. The slightly spicy sauce definitely helped. So did knowing it wasn’t baby goat.

And it was an hour of me standing there and holding up the wall before Incendis noticed me again. In that time, I’d watched as the people working in there did one of two things when Incendis approached their table—either they ignored him, or they stopped everything to talk to him. When he was ignored, he stood there gazing at whatever was on the table, listening, and nodding. When they engaged with him, they did all the talking, making me think they were catching him up on developments.