Chapter 149: Circe.

Eight Years Ago…

“Helios, I could say we’re close, right?” Ezra, sixteen years old, turns to look at Helios, who was reading a few documents apparently given to him by the king about some legislation.

They were at Ezra’s house. Helios had come by to ’escape’ all his tutors, so they were lounging in his small drawing room.

Helios looks up from his documents, giving him an ’are you serious?’ look.

“Is that even a question?” Helios asks, raising an eyebrow.

Right.

Helios was practically saying yes. Ezra always did this, and Ezra was self-aware.

Ezra knew he and Helios were friends.

Very close friends. The closest even.

But sometimes, Ezra felt like he should ask, because he still couldn’t believe it.

Or maybe because he still had a raging crush on Helios, or maybe it was the hormones that made him insecure.

Either way…

“Can I ask you something… personal?” Ezra had a random thought. It was very, very random.

“Go ahead, Ezra. You can always ask me anything,” Helios says, putting his documents down now to show Ezra he was all ears.

Ezra’s eyes widened a bit. ’He didn’t have to put everything down,’ he thought, his face reddening slightly, not really sure why that simple gesture made him feel flustered, but it just did.

“OH,h um… well, I know about King Samson, and you’re… well, your mother is the queen, right?”

That’s what he was taught anyway. Helios was the very first son of the king, and he was the only son of the kingdom’s queen. Circe was her name.

Queen Circe.

“Yes, I’m sure you’ve heard of her.”

“Yes, well, from others, and from your stories,” Ezra says with a soft tone, almost awkward. Helios did have a knack for making Ezra… soft.

Ezra takes a deep breath. “But I don’t think I’ve seen her? Or well… not that I’m eager to meet her, or well, not eager as well, but I’ve seen the king… especially during the Sun God festival, but I don’t think I see much of… your mom? She is the queen, after all.”

“Oh.” Helios blinks a bit. His expression was neutral, but Ezra felt like something was off. “My mother is a bit sickly.”

“Sickly?”

“Yes, she doesn’t go out much because she’s always sick,” Helios answers, with a half-smile.

“That’s sad,” Ezra says. “But you get to see her a lot?”

“Yes, whenever I want. So, I don’t feel too sad about it. If anything, she’s happy being the queen and not doing anything.”

’I would like to meet him,r though,’ Ezra thought, but didn’t say it out loud. “That’s nice.”

Helios spoke highly of his mother all the time.

Their relationship felt more real than his relationship with the king, which was more about the crown than anything.

So, Ezra had this random thought that he wanted to meet the queen, because it felt like it would make them closer.

“I should let you meet her someday. I’m sure she will love you.”

Ezra’s eyes widened. It was as if Helios had read his thoughts. “Really?”

“Yes, it would be nice if I let the two most important people in my life meet, yes?”

Oh.

Present…

’Helios said she was sickly…’ Ezra thought. After they followed Sherry out of the room, it didn’t take long for them to reach the garden.

And when they got to the king’s beautiful and massive garden, there was a long table in the middle, and Ezra saw the king, along with two women.

Ezra already knew which one was Aurelia, because Aurien was said to look exactly like his mother, and they both had black hair.

There was only one woman with black hair, the one on the left side of the king.

So that meant the woman on the right…

’She doesn’t look sickly at all, if anything…’ Ezra’s eyes widened slightly as he looked at the woman with purple hair and purple eyes.

She didn’t have a smile on her face.

She was wearing a beautiful, fancy green gown similar to Aurelia’s, though Aurelia’s was much simpler.

But besides her intimidating aura, there was something Ezra noticed.

’She doesn’t look old at all,’ Ezra thought, his gaze lingering for a second longer than it should have.

Samson and Circe, as far as he knew, were married at seventeen and had Helios when they were both eighteen years old.

Helios is twenty-seven years old.

That would mean both the king and queen would be forty-five now.

The king did look like he was forty-five.

Aurelia, too, looked her age, though Ezra couldn’t do the math on her since he had forgotten how old Aurien was, and he didn’t know how old Aurelia was when she had him.

’Is her sickness being too young—’

“Your Majesty, I have brought the guests.”

Sherry’s voice cut Ezra’s thoughts off cleanly.

“Ah, Kaelis, Ezra Belloren, and you must be the child, Lior.”

The king’s voice carried easily across the garden, calm but firm.

Ezra tensed slightly as they approached, the shift immediate. Even Lior seemed nervous, and Lior was the kind of kid who would insult princes to their faces without hesitation.

But then again, Ezra had told Lior about kings.

And maybe because Lior still remembered Kaelis’s story about the king killing multiple men who bullied Aurien.

Ezra bowed his head as soon as they got near the table. Sherry also bowed. Lior glanced at Ezra, then mimicked him a second later.

“Your Majesty, it is good to see you, and of course, Her Majesty, and also the great concubine,” Ezra spoke before Kaelis could, and it didn’t seem like Kaelis had any plans of speaking right away. “It is such a great honor to be invited to a tea party.”

It really was.

There were only a handful of people ever invited to the king’s exclusive tea parties. It was an even more exclusive event than royal balls.

There were no knights.

Only a few selected servants were allowed to serve.

So Ezra knew right away that the king had asked him to come there with a reason, not just because he wanted to speak after all.

After all, if there was one thing Ezra knew about the relationship between the king and the queen, it was based on one thing Helios also told him.

“He doesn’t care about my mother enough to not drop anything else that’s important.”

The investigation for Dark Ones and the kidnapping were important, and this wasn’t an actual tea party, because actual tea parties had more important guests.

And Sherry mentioned that today was the queen’s scheduled meeting with the king.

“Come, take a seat,” Samson beckons them, pointing to the seat at the opposite side of the table.

Ezra gestures for Lior to follow, and Ezra walked with a slight stiffness, aware of how exposed he suddenly felt.

For some reason, all eyes were on him.

The king’s.

The queen’s.

And even Aurelia’s.

It seemed both Circe and Aurelia recognized him.

All three of them sat on the designated seats that Sherry pointed out to them. Ezra was beside Lior, of course, and Kaelis sat on the other end of the table, adjacent to the king.

It was… awkward at first.

No one spoke right away because as soon as they sat, Sherry went to the king.

And the king was murmuring something to Sherry, low enough that Ezra couldn’t catch it.

“Do you want Earl Grey or chamomile?”

A few more servants approached with only one question as they placed cups of tea and small plates of biscuits in front of them with careful hands before stepping back just as quickly.

Ezra didn’t reach for anything.

He didn’t even answer.

He sat straight, hands resting lightly on his lap, aware of every movement around him. Every sound felt sharper than it should have.

Even the soft clink of porcelain seemed too loud in the silence.

’I shouldn’t touch anything yet,’ he thought. ’Wait until the king does.’

Or at the very least, Kaelis.

Beside him, Lior sat unusually still.

His small hands were clenched on his lap, his back straight like he was trying to copy Ezra, but Ezra could feel the tension in him.

It wasn’t just nervousness. It was restrained, like he was forcing himself not to move.

Lior was barely breathing.

Ezra’s fingers twitched slightly, the urge to reach out and reassure him strong, but he held back.

’Just a little longer. Stay still.’

He couldn’t risk drawing attention.

Not here.

Beside him, Kaelis hadn’t said a word.

Ezra glanced at him briefly.

His posture looked relaxed, but there was something off. His jaw was set just a little tighter than usual, his gaze not quite settling on anything, like he was deliberately not looking somewhere.

’I feel like he’s avoiding the queen,’ Ezra noted quietly.

That reaction earlier hadn’t disappeared.

If anything, it had settled deeper.

Then—

Circe spoke.

“Kaelis, still won’t cut your hair, I see, despite how many times I’ve told you.”

Her voice was calm, even soft.

But it carried.

It cut through the quiet with ease.

Ezra’s attention shifted immediately.

So did Kaelis’.

For a brief moment, Kaelis didn’t respond. He looked at her, his expression unreadable, but there was a flicker of something there.

It was… frustration.

Barely there, but enough.

Then he leaned back slightly, one hand resting against the arm of his chair.

“I like it this way, Your Majesty,” Kaelis replied, tone light, almost casual. “I hope it doesn’t keep troubling you, since it is my personal style.”

’He addresses her so coldly,’ Ezra thought, his eyes flicking between them.

Circe didn’t react the way Ezra expected.

No irritation.

No visible offense.

She simply looked at him, her gaze steady, almost examining, like she was weighing him rather than listening to him.

“It doesn’t trouble me,” she said. “It just doesn’t suit you.”

There was no softness in it.

No attempt to ease the words.

“I’ll continue to keep that in mind,” Kaelis answers through gritted teeth.

“You should.”

The words landed flat, but heavy.

Ezra felt it.

The tension between them wasn’t loud, but it was there, sitting right beneath the surface where no one was acknowledging it.

’So…’ Ezra thought, glancing between them. ’They don’t like each other.’

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