I was trying to prepare Alex for battle but he refused to let me touch him so he put his armor on by himself. I chewed on my lip as I watched him doing this and I decided that I couldn’t go down without a fight.
“Sire?”
He just ignored me.
“Alex please talk to me.” I whispered.
“What do you want me to say, Jack? How can I believe you? I caught you red-handed!”
“Alex no! I was just so surprised that I couldn’t move! I was scared of what he’d do if I pulled away, I was scared of what you’d do if you saw, I was scared of what would happen if someone else saw us, I was just so scared and I didn’t know what to do and I froze and I’m so sorry but I’d never do anything to be disloyal to you!”
“You already were disloyal! You betrayed me and you betrayed my trust. I hate you so fucking much, Jack.”
That horrible feeling came again, the one where you feel like you’ve been punched in the gut. My eyes closed and I let myself dote on the pain because I deserved it. I deserved to feel like this. I heard him storm out of the tent and when I opened my eyes, I saw that I’d raised my left hand. There on my fourth finger, was that silver ring that Alex had given me. Tears streamed down my face and a soft cry escaped my lips as I slowly slid the ring off. I knew he’d never be mine again. I knew that whatever future we’d envisioned was gone. I clasped my hand around it and and moved over to his side of the bed. With a shaky breath, I placed the ring on his bed. I knew I’d never move on, but maybe he can take that ring and give it to a nice girl…Or probably not. He probably wouldn’t want to give something I’ve worn to her. I wiped my face and fixed my appearance so it didn’t look like my heart was crumbling and stepped out of the tent.

---

Alex hadn’t allowed himself to be within twenty feet of me and he was now riding up at the front of our group. Balthazar had been keeping his distance too and he was smart by doing so. I wouldn’t put it past Alex to do something horrible to him. Matt rode beside me and caught my gaze. He gave me a sympathetic smile when he noticed my distress. I twitched my lips upwards a little then went back to staring at Alex. Once we got to our destination, we waited to ambush the enemy. Matt and I didn’t speak much but his company made me feel better. It was like I had a burn and he was water. It hurt terribly but he made it hurt a bit less. Even though it didn’t completely stop, he made it bearable. We heard the two long whistles signaling that the enemy was in sight. I bit my tongue, using the pain to keep me level headed as a third sounded, signaling for us to get ready to ambush them. We unsheathed our swords and Matt and I gave each other nodes of possible goodbyes. Once the fourth whistle came, we charged. Judging by first glance, we were evenly matched but our side seemed to have a few more soldiers. My sword collided with an enemy’s and the fight began.

---

I fought with every bit of me but after slaying seven men, I was exhausted. When I thought about it, I was surprised I made it to seven. With the weight of my armor, the exhaustion from lack of sleep due to all the traveling, stress, and the emotional beating I’d just taken, I was impressed with myself but of course the enemy doesn’t know that. All they know is how well I’m fighting and after seven men, bearing only three inch gash on my bicep, I’d say I was doing pretty well.
“Jack!” A voice called me. I spun around to see Sir Balthazar running to me.
“Alex is having a few of us meet in the woods, something about a new strategy.” He said. I was glad because though we seemed to outnumber them at first, It was like more and more men appeared…Weird. We ran through the brawl together and he lead me down a trail but eventually my feet started hurting because of running for so long and I got suspicious.
“Sire?”
“We’re almost there.” He said, not stopping. I followed him, though admittedly more cautious then before. He lead me to a creek.
“Sir?” I asked in confusion when no one was there.
“Aw Jack. You were so easy.” He said with a smirk, then a bunch of Cenrid’s men stepped out from the trees.
“Sir B-Balthazar?” I stammered, refusing to believe what was obvious.
“You know, I’m surprised how easy it was to get Alex angry at you. I thought that since you guys were so close, it would be harder to convince him that you were cheating. I guess your relationship isn’t as strong as you thought.”
“Cheating?”
Damn it how many people know!
“I’m not an idiot, Jack. But the King is, lucky for you.” He said. And just like that, all my fear vanished. Why? I don’t know but it did.
“Balthazar you traitor. How could you do this to your Prince? How could you do this to me? I’m your friend!”
“You are my friend no more than Alex is my Prince.” He replied.
So what are you going to do to me?” I asked. “What do you get out of this?”
“Well first we’ll get some information, then Cenrid has agreed to release you into my custody and believe me, you’ll be very interesting to have.” He said as his eyes raked my body. The thought of having to return to something similar to my old lifestyle made me nauseous. “Knights, do with him what you wish, but do not alter his appearance too much. A few scars are fine but I still want him attractive.” He ordered. They all nodded and moved in before I could run. I struggled but then suddenly I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head and before I slipped into unconsciousness, I spotted Balthazar heading back up the trail, returning to the battle.

Notes

Title Cred: The Call by Regina Spektor

sorry about the weird updating schedule. I'm really anxious and I have therapy on wednesday and ughhhhh