Chapter Six
"You're late," Queen Sabine said without looking up from her seat.
Leo strolled into the drawing room, hands buried in his pockets. His expression was bored, but the edge in his voice said otherwise. "I had to emotionally prepare for another lecture about how disappointing I am."
"Leonard," she warned, tone clipped.
"What?" He shrugged and dropped lazily into the empty armchair opposite her. "Am I wrong?"
The room was thick with silence, and watchers.
To his right sat Aunt Bernice, overdressed in forest green velvet, eyes glittering with the kind of polite hunger Leo had come to hate. Next to her, Uncle Matthias, stiff-backed and quiet.
And then there were the other two pale men, same ones from the hallway days ago with the same dead eyes and frozen faces that didn't blink or breathe in sync with normal humans.
Leo had thought them a hallucination at first, but no, they were very real and very scary.
They nodded slightly when he entered, as if they were still seeing him as something more than a teenager in trainers and cynicism.
It creeped him out profoundly but now he understood something: in three months, he'd be crowned. And when that day came, the first royal decree on his list?
"Banish any pale, stone-faced man from the premises."
"What was that?" Queen Sabine asked, arching an eyebrow.
"Nothing," Leo said smoothly. "Just future planning."
The fifth and final figure was someone he did know, though not well.
Merrick, his father's old advisor. Wrinkled, bird-boned, with watery grey eyes that seemed to have witnessed everything and understood too much of it. He sat closest to the fire, watching Leo with a look that was part reverence… part regret.
The Queen finally looked up from the scroll she'd been reviewing. "This meeting is not about punishment."
Leo scoffed. "Shocker."
"It's about your future."
He raised a brow. "Should I pretend to care this time, or just yawn through it like usual?"
"Leonard," said Merrick gently, his voice soft but firm, "do you know why you're here?"
Leo tilted his head, resting one ankle on his knee. "Because someone decided I need five adults and a guilt trip to get through adolescence?"
Sabine folded her hands on her lap, her voice calm but heavy. "You're here because there are things we must tell you, things your father wanted you to know, but the time was never right."
Leo leaned forward, brows raised. "Same thing you keep beating around the bush over? You refused to tell me when I asked and suddenly the time is right?"
"We were trying to protect you, "
"From what? From knowing the truth about my own life?" He scoffed. "Funny how the 'right time' always seems wrong with you people."
"Leo," his aunt said gently from across the room, "can you please just listen?"
"I've been listening," he snapped. "For seventeen years."
"Leonard," his mother said sternly.
He sighed loudly, dragging a hand through his hair. "Fine. What am I? What's the big secret? What 'group' am I supposed to lead? And don't say the kingdom. Because I already know I'm the heir of Jevenex. The one and only heir. It's not a news flash."
One of the pale men, left side, narrower face, shifted slightly in his chair, almost like his bones clicked when he moved. "You are not just the heir to Jevenex."
"I figured that much," Leo muttered, side-eyeing him. "Especially when people start bowing like I'm a blood god or the second coming."
"It's because of your bloodline," said Merrick, the old advisor near the fire. His voice was thick with something Leo couldn't name, respect, fear, maybe both. "You carry two legacies. Royal… and something older."
Leo squinted. "Older than royalty? What, dragons? Atlantis? The ghost of Excalibur?"
"You joke," Uncle Matthias said, sharp for the first time. "But the truth is not far off."
Leo blinked, the sarcasm faltering for a second. "You're not serious."
"There is an order," the other pale man said, his voice low and smooth like smoke curling under a door. "A blood-bound alliance, hidden from the world. It exists through instinct, legacy, and inheritance. And you, Leonard, are meant to lead it."
Leo leaned back, letting out a short laugh. "An order of what, exactly? Cultists? Shape-shifting politicians? A secret society of porn addicts?"
His mother's jaw locked. "I and your father made a grave mistake keeping it from you this long," she said. "He believed that silence would protect you. That ignorance would buy you time."
"Well, congrats," Leo said bitterly. "I've had seventeen years of blissful ignorance, and now I get riddles instead of answers."
Sabine stood. "Now that he's gone, you must continue his legacy. But we can't just dump it all on you at once. It would be… too much."
"How do you mean?" Leo asked, narrowing his eyes.
"When the time is right," Sabine replied, "when you're eighteen, you'll know. You'll feel it."
"I'm seventeen," he snapped. "Seventeen and three months away from this so-called destiny. You really think I'm not old enough to hear a damn word?"
"You're not awakened," Merrick said solemnly.
Leo stared at him like he'd spoken in ancient tongues. "Awakened."
"It begins at eighteen," the pale man said. "Your blood will shift. Your senses. Your body. You will feel the call."
Leo slowly stood from his chair. "Okay, that's not disturbing at all."
"You'll understand when it starts," Merrick said.
"Can I get a preview? A pamphlet? Maybe just the name of this oh-so-secret order?"
Everyone exchanged glances.
Leo looked around, frustration blooming into something more jagged. "You're all talking around it."
"We cannot name it before you are ready," Sabine said, more carefully now. "The knowledge alone could be… dangerous."
Leo scoffed. "Dangerous? I'm the one who's supposed to lead it!"
"That's why the truth must be given in stages," Merrick said.
Leo threw his hands up. "So let me get this straight. I'm the future head of a secret group that no one will name, with powers I apparently haven't unlocked yet, and I'm just supposed to twiddle my royal thumbs for three more months like a good boy?"
"You're meant to prepare," Sabine said.
"Prepare for what?" he demanded.
Silence again.
Leo let out a sharp breath through his nose. "God, I hate all of you."
"Leonard, " Aunt Bernice began.
"No. Don't 'Leonard' me," he snapped, rounding on the room. "You've all known this my entire life. Every one of you and none of you thought I deserved to know until now, when I'm on the brink of whatever this is. You're not here because you care. You're here because you smell the throne, the power and you want to stake your claim before I get smart enough to shut the door in your faces."
"That's not fair, " Matthias tried.
"It's accurate," Leo growled. "You're not allies. You're parasites in fancier robes."
The pale man, still stiff, unmoved, tilted his head. "Do you wish to reject your inheritance?"
Leo looked up sharply, jaw clenched. "No."
"Then accept the burden," the man said. "And the protection that comes with it."
Leo was quiet and reathing hard. Then, finally, he leaned back in his chair, arms crossed.
"Good," Sabine said softly, her voice laced with the subtle relief of someone who had just won a war. "Then we'll begin to prepare you and you won't be alone."
"Damn right I won't," Leo said suddenly, voice cutting clean through the atmosphere. "I want Desmond with me at school. Give him admission to Briarwick Academy."
There was a flicker, a moment's pause, brief but sharp, as if someone had dropped a pin on royal marble.
Queen Sabine blinked. "The maid's son?"
"He's not just the maid's son," Leo said, his voice firmer now, jaw tightening. "He's my best friend."
"Do you want him as a guard?" asked Aunt Bernice, adjusting her shawl like the very thought of Desmond sitting beside Leo in class gave her a rash.
"I want him with me in class and studying like every other student." Leo stood as he spoke, voice lifting with each word.
Sabine studied Leo for a moment, her expression unreadable. And then she nodded.
"Done."
Leo frowned. "Just like that?"
"You'll need someone close," she said, smoothing the folds of her dress. "Someone who isn't… one of us."
Leo narrowed his eyes. "You're not even going to protest?"
"I may not like your methods," she replied calmly, "but I'm not foolish enough to deny your instincts."
Leo held her gaze for a long beat. Then, slowly, he nodded. "Finally. We agree on something."
From the fireplace, Merrick stood with a small grunt. His voice, though aged, carried weight. "Leonard," he said, "when the time comes, you must choose wisely. Leadership isn't just blood. It's instinct, loyalty and restraint."
Leo cocked his head, smirking. "You might want to write that down. I'm a slow listener."
The elder chuckled quietly.
Sabine exhaled, but Leo noticed it wasn't a sigh of peace, she was already thinking ahead.
The others rose to their feet.
One by one, they stepped forward with soft smiles, extended hands, murmured blessings he didn't ask for.
Leo stood motionless, ignoring each one of them as they perform their theatre, he watched the way they smiled like vultures in silk, and he hated them for it.
Opportunists.
They weren't here to protect him but to invest in him.
Like he was a storm they couldn't control, so they'd rather be on its good side when it finally broke.
He hated that they looked at him like he was a dictator, or a ruler of the world.