Chapter 10: Lost Minds

Queen Jane, her face still streaked with tears, looked up at Darius in stunned confusion. The heavy grief that had filled the room only moments before seemed to curdle into a tense, breathless silence. For a moment, she genuinely wondered if she had misheard him.

Beside her, Basil stared as well, the despair that had dominated his expression moments ago twisting into pure, unfiltered disbelief. He remained frozen for several seconds before slowly pushing himself upright from where he had been kneeling on the floor. The movement was stiff, as though his body had finally decided it had reached the limit of what it was willing to tolerate today.

His eyes never left Darius.

"So..." he began slowly, his voice dangerously quiet. "I can no longer have a single shred of privacy in this palace?"

The question hung in the air for a brief moment before the rest came rushing out.

"Anybody can just barge into my room now? Is that how this works?" Basil spat, his voice trembling with a mixture of fury and exhaustion. "The moment the real thing shows up, everyone else loses the right to basic boundaries?"

Darius kept his posture relaxed, though the tension running through his body made every muscle feel like stretched wire. He shoved his hands into his pockets and forced a grin.

"Chill, big bro," he said, offering a small, easy shrug. "I’m doing this for both of us."

Basil’s eye twitched.

Darius continued before he could interrupt.

"Seriously, what’s the big deal here? Think about it. I get a brother, you keep your place as a prince, and the King and Queen get to keep the son they raised and the son they just found. It’s a win-win situation."

He tilted his head slightly. "Unless, of course, you want them to lose both of us, big bro. You don’t want that, do you?"

Internally, Darius’s thoughts were far less casual than his expression suggested. If he had to be seen as intrusive or manipulative right now just to keep Basil here, then so be it.

He could endure the resentment, the hostility, and even the hatred rolling off Basil. He would deal with the consequences later and repair whatever damage this caused. Right now, absolutely nothing mattered more than stopping his prince from walking away.

Basil’s eyes narrowed with defensive fury. He recognized the trap immediately.

He knew this guy was a manipulative fucker who wanted to twist the narrative and make him look like the evil, ungrateful child in front of the Queen.

He had suspected it from the moment Darius arrived. The cheerful smiles, the effortless friendliness, the way everyone immediately seemed drawn to him. Basil had known it was all an act. What he had not expected was for the man to resort to such shameless tactics, weaponizing the entire family against him within a single conversation.

Slowly rising to his full height, Basil wiped the wetness from his face with a savage jerk of his sleeve. When he looked at Darius again, who was still wearing that infuriatingly unbothered smirk, his glare could have cut steel.

"Who the fuck do you think you are?" His voice shook, raspy and venomous. He took a heavy step forward, practically vibrating with indignation. "Who the hell do you think you are to dictate how I handle my life? Do you just lack a basic sense of boundaries, or are you actually this desperate for attention?"

Darius’s smile faltered slightly. "Big bro—"

"I’m not your fucking big brother, you useless piece of trash!" Basil roared.

"Basil!" Queen Jane snapped, immediately pushing herself to her feet. "That is your brother you’re talking to."

"That’s no brother of mine," Basil shot back without hesitation, never breaking eye contact with Darius. "He’s been here for one day. One freaking day, and he’s already walking around acting like some self-appointed authority figure."

He took another step closer, his chest heaving. "You don’t have any authority over my life. I can do whatever I want, and you are not going to manipulate me into staying when I don’t want to. I’m leaving, and that’s final. If you want to play the accommodating, saintly prince that badly, then go do it somewhere else. Stop involving me in whatever twisted fantasy you’ve built inside your head."

His voice dropped into something colder.

"Now get the hell out of my room."

"Basil, please," Jane whispered weakly, her heart breaking at the chaos unfolding before her.

But Basil didn’t even look at her. His eyes remained locked on Darius, burning with pure hatred.

"I said get out of my room."

Darius didn’t move an inch. He stood rooted to the floor, his eyes unblinking as he stared back at Basil.

That somehow irritated Basil even more. The stubborn refusal to back down. The absolute certainty. The way he stood there looking completely unconcerned by the hostility directed at him. If only Basil were still the undisputed crown prince, this conversation would have ended minutes ago. Guards would have thrown the idiot out and punished him severely. Instead, here he was being openly defied inside his own bedroom.

Sensing the volatile tension radiating from both her sons, Jane quickly stepped between them and raised a placating hand toward Darius.

"Please leave," she said carefully. "Leave for now. This is not the right moment for this. Basil is going nowhere, you can rest assured of that. Just give us some time."

Darius finally glanced at her, his eyes cold, before shifting his gaze back to Basil.

"It better be."

Something about the way he said it made both of them pause.

"Because if not, I’ll show him exactly how much authority I have over his life." He tilted his head slightly, his tone remaining disturbingly calm. "I don’t mind chaining him to the bed if that’s what it takes to make sure he doesn’t leave."

The room went silent.

Jane gasped and instinctively took a step back. For a split second, Darius looked less like the excitable young man she had spent three weeks fussing over and more like something far more unsettling wearing his face. Even Basil felt an uncomfortable chill crawl down his spine at the blunt threat.

Darius shrugged as though he had said something completely reasonable.

"After all, I’m the real prince now." His gaze settled on Basil. "That means I technically have the power to make all kinds of decisions, right?"

"Darius..." Jane said weakly.

He glanced at her and smiled. The expression somehow made her even more nervous.

"I’m your real son, Mother the Queen. Shouldn’t what I want matter more now?" His gaze drifted back toward Basil. "So you’d better make sure he doesn’t try anything funny."

The smile widened. "Or y’all will see a side of me nobody here is going to enjoy."

Even Basil, who had spent the last hour furious at everyone in existence, felt his stomach tighten slightly.

Darius nodded to himself.

"Anyway, with that settled, I’ll go find one of the maids to arrange my room." He pointed casually toward the wall separating the neighboring chambers. "I want the room closest to this one. Somebody clearly needs to keep an eye on him."

Then he looked directly at Basil and grinned.

"Rest well, big bro."

Before either of them could respond, he turned and walked out. A moment later, the door clicked shut behind him. For several seconds, neither Basil nor Jane spoke.

"ARGHHHHHH!"

Basil’s scream exploded through the room, startling Jane so badly she nearly jumped. He violently kicked a nearby footstool, sending it crashing into the wall, then spun around and swept everything off a side table with one furious motion. A decorative lamp hit the floor first, shattering on impact, followed by a picture frame and several books that scattered across the polished wood.

Still not satisfied, he slammed his fist against the wardrobe door hard enough to make the furniture rattle, the sharp pain shooting through his knuckles doing absolutely nothing to cool the rage and humiliation boiling inside him. The sheer audacity of that homeless thug. "Who the hell does he think he is?" Basil snarled, breathing heavily as he paced the room. "Who does he think he is?"

Jane could only stare.

One hand remained pressed tightly against her chest as her mind replayed the scene she had just witnessed, followed immediately by the one unfolding in front of her now. Less than an hour ago, she had been trying to console one son who felt abandoned and forgotten. Now the other had stormed into the room looking ready to declare war if anyone suggested Basil leave.

Somehow, both of her sons had completely lost their minds because of each other.