Chapter 6: Waiting For His Brother

FEW HOURS AGO

The ride to the palace felt longer than the three weeks Darius had spent trapped in the hospital. He spent the entire journey with his face pressed against the tinted glass of the luxury sedan, watching the city blur past outside. Bright neon signs and crowded streets gradually gave way to quieter roads lined with towering walls and heavily guarded estates. The farther they traveled from the city center, the more obvious the wealth became.

Massive properties disappeared behind gates that looked capable of keeping out small armies, while security checkpoints appeared so frequently that Darius lost count of them.

None of it managed to hold his attention for long. Every few minutes he shifted in his seat, bounced his knees relentlessly, checked the road ahead, or asked how much longer it would take before they arrived. By the time the vehicle finally rolled through a pair of enormous iron gates, Queen Jane had heard the question enough times to know the exact tone he used each time he asked it.

The palace look like something pulled from a history book and dropped into the modern world. Its architecture carried the grandeur of an older era, but cameras, reinforced glass, discreet security installations, and state-of-the-art lighting systems made it clear this was no museum. It was a functioning royal residence protected by every resource money could buy.

"Wow" Darius mouth fell open.

"We are home, Darius," Jane said softly as the car glided into the enormous courtyard.

"Finally."

The vehicle had barely come to a complete stop before Darius reached for the door handle.

"Darius, wait—"

The door flew open.

"Darius!"

Jane nearly launched herself across the seat.

The boy was already halfway out of the vehicle. For one horrifying second she imagined him losing his balance, and sending everyone right back to the hospital.

Her heart nearly stopped.

"Darius!" she snapped as she hurried out after him. "You’ll hurt yourself!"

Sometimes she genuinely wondered whether the boy intended to send her into an early grave. During the past three weeks she had learned that Darius possessed an alarming disregard for his own injuries and an almost supernatural ability to make every medical professional around him panic. She had expected many things after discovering her long-lost son. This level of energy had not been one of them.

The moment Darius stepped onto the courtyard, however, he froze.

His eyes slowly traveled upward. Seeing it through the gates had been impressive enough, but standing in front of it was another matter entirely. Towering marble pillars framed the entrance, stretching upward toward a roofline that seemed impossibly high. Massive windows reflected the morning sunlight while fountains sparkled throughout the grounds. The gardens alone looked large enough to house several neighborhoods. Even the entrance doors appeared wide enough to drive a truck through.

"What the hell." The words slipped out before he could stop them. His gaze traveled across the sprawling grounds again and a grin slowly spread across his face.

His Prince was really living in a place like this?

Jane finally reached him and immediately grabbed his arm before he could decide to sprint off toward something else.

"Darius, you shouldn’t be jumping out of moving vehicles."

He waved her concern away.

"I wasn’t going to get hurt by something like that."

"The car was still moving."

"It was barely moving."

"Darius."

He looked at her with genuine confusion.

"If you’re reacting like this, what would you say if you saw me catching a moving bus?"

Jane stared at him. "You do what?"

"Catching a moving bus."

"A moving bus."

"Yeah."

Jane looked as though she might actually collapse. She pressed a hand against her chest. William had warned her repeatedly that the investigation showed Darius’s life before they found him had been difficult.

She knew that. She understood it. But nothing could have prepared a mother to hear her son casually mention things that sounded like near-death experiences as though they were recreational activities.

"You think that’s normal?" she asked.

Darius shrugged. "Lots of people do it."

"Well I’m glad you do not have to do things like that anymore."

Darius blinked, then shrugged again.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say."

Then the excitement immediately returned.

"Can we go in now? I really need to meet my brother."

The enthusiasm in his voice made Jane’s chest tighten. She forced herself to smile.

"Of course."

Together they started toward the entrance. Darius lasted approximately ten seconds walking beside her before his excitement got the better of him. His pace quickened until he had moved ahead of everyone else, heading straight for the massive doors. They swung open the moment he reached them.

A line of palace staff stood waiting inside, heads bowed in unison. King William stood ahead of them, a rare smile breaking across his normally stern face.

"Welcome home, son."

The staff immediately followed.

"Welcome home, Your Highness," the staff echoed.

"Yeah, yeah, glad to be here."

Darius barely acknowledged the greeting.

His eyes swept across the entrance hall instead. Then across the staircase. And across every visible surrounding corridor.

The smile on William’s face gradually weakened as Darius continued looking around. Several servants exchanged puzzled glances. They had expected perhaps nervousness, but the newly returned prince seemed entirely focused on finding someone.

When Darius could catch a glimpse of Basil, his brow furrowed.

"Where’s my brother?" he asked. His gaze moved toward William. "I’m not seeing him here. Didn’t he know I’m getting discharged today?"

William’s smile faltered completely. His eyes shifted toward Jane as she entered the hall behind Darius. The royal couple exchanged a look heavy with concern.

Darius noticed immediately. His eyes narrowed.

Around them, several servants suddenly became deeply fascinated by the floor.

"Darius," Jane began carefully, her voice slipping into the gentle, cautious tone Darius was beginning to recognize as the one she used whenever she wanted to soften something unpleasant. "As I told you, Basil has been... very occupied. He’ll..."

Darius rolled his eyes.

"Occupied? For three weeks? Is he solving world hunger or what?" He gestured toward the hallway. "Just point me toward his room."

"Darius, please, he needs time—"

Jane reached toward him.

Before she could finish, one of the younger maids suddenly stepped forward.

Before Jane could finish, one of the younger maids stepped forward. She looked nervous enough to faint. The poor girl looked terrified.

"Your Highness."

Everyone turned toward her. She swallowed hard. "Prince Basil left for college this morning. School resumed today."

For a moment there was silence. Then both Darius and Jane spoke at exactly the same time.

"Oh."

"Oh."

The maid visibly relaxed.

Darius rubbed the back of his neck as understanding settled over him. The disappointment was still there. He had spent weeks counting down the days until he could finally meet his prince, only to discover he had missed him by a matter of hours. Even so, the irritation disappeared almost immediately.

"Well, that explains it," he said. "I thought he was hiding from me or something."

Jane’s smile became noticeably strained.

Darius, thankfully, didn’t notice. Or so she thought. Instead, he looked around the palace again and grinned.

"I guess I’ll just have to wait a little longer."

"Let’s show you your room," William said immediately, stepping in before the conversation could linger any further. "You’ve had a long day. You should settle in first."

"Yes, exactly," Jane agreed a little too quickly. "Basil will be back eventually. You’ll have plenty of time to talk to your brother later."

Darius looked between them. For the first time since arriving, his smile faded slightly.

Something was off.

The feeling had been sitting quietly in the back of his mind for weeks now. He had first noticed it when Basil never visited him at the hospital.

At the time he had accepted Jane’s explanation that Basil was busy. Then another day passed. Then another. Three weeks later, the excuses had started sounding increasingly forced. Every time he asked about Basil, Jane’s smile became just a little too careful. Her answers always arrived a little too quickly, as if she had rehearsed them beforehand.

She thought she was hiding it well.

Unfortunately for her, very little escaped Darius’s notice. He wasn’t stupid.

He could tell when people were uncomfortable. He could tell when people were avoiding a subject. And right now both William and Jane seemed determined to steer him away from Basil as quickly as possible.

A possibility he had been trying not to think about surfaced again. Maybe Basil didn’t like that he had been found.

Maybe discovering that the real prince existed had turned his life upside down.

Did he feel threatened by his existence?

Honestly, Darius couldn’t even blame him if that was the case. If their positions had been reversed, he would probably need time to process everything too.

The thought didn’t upset him nearly as much as it probably should have. If Basil was worried, then Darius would simply have to work harder to reassure him. Relationships didn’t magically appear overnight.

They took effort. Unfortunately, that effort required actually meeting the man.

"The room can wait," Darius said.

Jane blinked. "What?"

"The room." He gestured vaguely toward the upper floors. "It’s not going anywhere."

Before anyone could stop him, he crossed the entrance hall and dropped onto one of the large sofas near the sitting area. The cushions sank beneath his weight as he stretched out comfortably. "I’ll just wait here."

William stared. "Wait here?"

"Yep."

"Darius—"

"If Basil comes back and I’m upstairs, then I’ll have to come downstairs." He pointed at the sofa beneath him. "This is more efficient."

Jane exchanged a helpless look with William. "Darius, Basil may not return until late."

"That’s fine by me."

"You should unpack."

"I have servants for that now."

Several nearby servants immediately looked away.

"Darius."

"I’ll wait."

Jane tried again. "What if he—?"

"I’ll wait even if the college is on Mars."

William pinched the bridge of his nose. The conversation was clearly going nowhere.

With a sigh, he turned toward the assembled staff. "You’re dismissed."

The servants visibly relaxed before quickly scattering to resume their duties.

Over the next hour, both William and Jane made several additional attempts to convince Darius to move upstairs. Each effort failed almost immediately. Darius remained firmly planted on the sofa, occasionally asking what time Basil normally returned from school. When nobody could provide answers that satisfied him, he simply settled deeper into the cushions and continued waiting.

At some point a maid brought him snacks. A second offered to give him a tour of the palace. He declined all two offers.

The excitement that had fueled him throughout the day slowly began to lose its battle against exhaustion. Three weeks of recovery had not completely restored his strength, no matter how much he insisted otherwise. Gradually, the tension left his body. He sank deeper into the sofa, his posture relaxing as the comfortable cushions cradled him. His eyelids grew heavier with each passing minute until keeping them open required more effort than he was willing to admit.

Jane noticed it first. "Darius."

"Hm?"

"Why don’t you sleep in your room and meet him tomorrow?"

"I’m not sleeping."

The words were immediately undermined by the yawn that followed them.

William snorted. Darius glared at him.

"I’m awake."

"Of course you are."

A few minutes later, his head had fallen against the armrest — he was asleep.