Leon didn't know how long he spent in his forced solitude with the cold creeping in under his very skin. It seemed that however the palace was heated, the dungeon was not deemed worthy of the same luxuries. It was still warmer than it had been outside, but Leon huddled, shivering under his blanket, wondering if he was really expected to be healthy enough for whatever freaky experiments the vampires had planned for his blood. Then again, maybe he should count it as a blessing that no one had considered how the cold would affect his health. He may die before they had a chance to do anything with him.

  "That'll f-fucking show them," he muttered, teeth chattering.

  Somehow, he managed to fall asleep despite the temperature, and when he woke, he was ravenous and left wondering how much time had passed. There was little for him to do but keep huddling in his blanket, clutching it close and shivering as he stared into the pitch black around him. He had no idea what the length of his cell was, or if he even had a chamber pot for pissing in.

  With the nothing at all to occupy his mind with, his thoughts turned to home as they often had since he'd been taken by Mahvash. It would be a little brisk from winter there, but the first snow wouldn't have yet fallen. He and his family would be pulling out their winter coats for the first time, though, discovering little tears that needed patching up. His mom would insist on taking them all herself to sew up, but his youngest sister, Celine would end up helping, anyways.

  They'd be pulling in the last fruits and vegetables of their garden, and he'd be helping his papa candy a lot of it to sell. Their candy sales were looked forward to year round as was his mom's homemade apple cider. It was a fae quirk that their foods always came out well when they cooked, but Leon was sure it would be delicious even without the quirk helping.

  And when he and his papa were done candying and selling what they could, they would return hometo eat whatever his eldest sister Genette had hunted with the local werewolf pack. Leon wondered if she'd married Amarok yet. She'd had a crush on him since they were teens, and when Leon had left home they'd just started courting. The last letter he'd received from his mom had indicated it was getting serious. He hoped they were doing well.

  They'd join the rest of the family for dinner, though, and he'd see his brother, Louis, home from his schooling and joining the rest of them. Leon would ask him how his day had been, if he'd learned anything interesting, and Louis no doubt would have some new fact about the stars and the fates and the family would be fascinated by whatever he'd learned.

  After it all, they'd end the night with music as they sat in the living room around the fire. He could hear the sound of his father's lute clear as day, and feel his piccolo in his hands as he harmonized with his sibling's voices.

  After it all he'd go to sleep in his bed, warm and full and loved. And he'd never leave home again. He would never see vampires again. He would never be terrified of his life coming to a dismal, painful end ever again.

  "I should have listened to you, Maman," Leon murmured with a sniffle. "I shouldn't have followed Dagon away."

  It was at this moment, he heard footsteps, and he picked his head up, squinting in their direction as if it would help him see anything.

  "He should be in the first cell," a man's voice said. He heard a grating, metal sound, and then the footsteps and rustling of clothes coming closer, approaching him on his bed. "Come on. Get up."

  "Where am I going," Leon asked, sitting upright as he did.

  "Not your place to ask questions, is it," the man said, and then commanded again, "Up."

  Leon sighed heavily, but got up to his feet, nonetheless, leaning heavily onto his good leg as usual.

  "He's going to need help up the stairs," another voice said from further away.

  "That's why you're here," the first man said. "He can walk until then."

  A hand pushed into the small of his back, and Leon took the hint to walk forward, hobbling on his hurt leg, and wincing at the pain that shot up it. A few steps in, and he swallowed his pride to hop on the one good foot, following only the pressure pushed into his back as he moved through the darkness. What fresh misery was he hopping his way towards, he had to wonder. His only solace was that going upstairs again meant he'd have reprieve from the cold.

  After being made to hobble around the maze-like halls of the palace, Leon could have cried when he was finally shoved into a dimly lit room with a familiarly simple bed. The white sheets and and cotton blanket over it with an IV stand was a sight for sore eyes. This room was smaller than the one he'd been in before, though. The one before had been arranged for multiple patients, while this one seemed like it had been set up for just one. There was only a few feet of room to move around the sides of the bed, but with a storage cabinet, table, and chair on the other side of the room. There was an open door he could see into to a bathroom as well.

  The two men who'd brought him to the room left without giving him a chance to ask any questions. They closed the door behind them, and Leon grabbed the knob testingly, not too surprised that it was locked, but disappointed nonetheless.

  It seemed like someone had thought to improve his conditions after all. Had Riccardo stood up for him? He somewhat doubted it. Riccardo might have saved him during the ambush, and tried to argue with his father after the chandelier crash, but Leon had given up thinking he would be his hero from his situation. After the reluctance and fear Riccardo had shown when Leon had asked him to escape from this place with him, Leon's knew his fate was sealed. Riccardo was the only vampire in this place he had any hope of getting aid from and if Riccardo was not willing to take action, then Leon was doomed.

  He made his way to the bed and sank down onto it heavily, feeling the warmth already melting the cold out of his body. He didn't know he'd fallen asleep until someone was gently shaking his shoulder.

  "Leon." His eyes opened at the familiar voice, and he looked blurrily into Arthur's adolescent face. The doctor smiled softly at him. "I have some food for you and news whenever you're awake enough to take it."

  "I'm awake," Leon said, sitting up with his mouth already watering at the mention of food.

  Arthur had a tray he'd balanced between one hand and the edge of the bed, and Leon reached for it to help bring it into his lap. He picked up the warm drink sitting on it first, and brought it to his lips to gulp thirstily at. "Mm... What's this? Hot cocoa?" He looked down into it, trying to place the blend of spices and creamy chocolate he was tasting.

  "Chocolate chai," the doctor explained with a small smile. He'd moved the chair besides the bed and took a seat in it. "A special blend I make myself."

  "Holy shit, it's delicious," Leon said before taking another big gulp. "Don't usually like tea, but this is good." He set the mug down, and proceeded to take the metal cover from over his plate to reveal a steaming bowl of beef and vegetable stew poured over mashed potatoes. He picked up his spoon to dig in with gusto.

  "Don't eat too fast, you'll make yourself sick," Arthur warned.

  "I've got an iron gut," Leon assured, barely tasting the rich flavors in the stew before swallowing and scooping in the next bite. It took him a moment to remember Arthur mentioned he had news for him. "What'd you say about news," he asked, scooping in another mouthwatering bite of food.

  "I think it will go without saying, but you can't repeat this to anyone," Arthur started seriously. His weight of his tone made Leon put his spoon down to look squarely at the doctor.

  "Good or bad," Leon asked. "Cause if it's bad, I don't want to hear it. Got enough to be miserable about as it is."

  "Riccardo, Odsar, and I are working on getting you out of here," Arthur said.

  Leon's initial reaction to those words was disbelief. Riccardo was going to try to help him get out of here? Riccard? Riccardo who'd looked him in the eye and would not promise anything of that nature? Riccardo who was too afraid to actually stand up to his father where it counted? That Riccardo? Leon tasted bitterness on his tongue.

  "Riccardo? Nah..." He shook his head. "He wanted nothing to do with that when I asked him."

  "I know," Arthur said, softly. "He's afraid, still, but with all of us together -"

  "And why wouldn't he come tell me this himself," Leon snapped, cutting the doctor off. "What made you so special that he'd tell you, but he looked me in the fucking eye and couldn't promise me shit. Couldn't promise me anything meaningful, said some ignorant ass shit, and then took me down to the fucking dungeon to leave me there. So why isn't he here telling me this?"

  And as he said it, Leon finally felt the hurt and betrayal he'd been repressing. Riccardo - the only person he could remotely call a friend since he'd been taken - had completely and utterly turned his back on him when he'd never felt more terrified in his life. Mahvash had come nowhere close to illiciting the raw terror he'd felt at Demetri's plans for his life. A road of suffering followed by death was all he had to look forward to. At the end of the day, his life wasn't important enough for anyone to make a stand for. He shouldn't have been surprised, and yet he felt it sharply in his heart.

  Arthur's ears had gone back, his eyes slightly wide. "I..." He cleared his throat as Leon stared across at him. "He's a little indisposed at the moment," he admitted. "Recovering from some new wounds. I thought it best to let him sleep or I would have had him come with me. My apologies."

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Leon sighed heavily. "New wounds," he muttered. He, of course, recalled the threatening way Demetri had invited Riccardo to go meet him after Riccardo was done dropping him off. It took the sting out of Riccardo not being here to tell him of this grand escape plan, but not the whole of the betrayal. "Explains why he's not here, I guess, but I still want to know what made him change his mind? He didn't seem like he wanted anything to do with helping me leave when we spoke."

  "I hesitate to speak for him," was Arthur's non-answer. "The important thing here to remember is that we're going to do our best to get you out of here. Odsar's going to go ahead of us within the next few nights to get in contact with some friends of mine. In a few weeks, when you and Riccardo are healed, we will follow the path he and my friends lay out for us."

  "Us... So you're going," Leon asked, hesitantly.

  "Yes," Arthur answered with a soft smile. "I'm quite sure Demetri will discover my treason and be none too happy with me afterwards." He sounded amused at the prospect. "I should have left here long ago, but it seems fate had reasons for staying my mind on that decision."

  That initial doubt Leon had felt when the doctor revealed a plan was being formed was starting to leave him. And in its place was something so hopeful it felt tender like a muscle he hadn't used in a while. He was at once afraid and alight with the feeling.

  "So... So the three of us'll get out of here," he asked, throat thick with it all.

  "And Erik," Arthur corrected. "Riccardo can't bare the thought of leaving him behind. I can't blame him. The poor lad left in the hands of Demetri and Alayne... Goodness."

  "Holy fuck," Leon murmured, softly, one of his hands creeping up to clutch at his shirt over his chest, needing the weight of it over his heart. "How're we doing this? I mean, I've seen like a thousand vampires crawling all over this place."

  "A few hundred, but I see your point," Arthur said with a nod. "I wish I had more of an answer for you, but this is very fresh at the moment. We have weeks yet to plan, though, and believe me that I will be giving this all of my time and energy."

  "Why do all this for me," Leon wanted to know. "You barely know me. Hell, your brother - Odsar - knows me even less than you do. So why?" Even if it was just because he was a fae, he would take it.

  "I've been terrified to do anything like this for the century I've been employed here," Arthur started, thoughtfully. "I'm ashamed to say I've been a bystander to a great deal of atrocities Demetri's committed. Against your people, werewolves, and even his own family. I've seen a great deal of others here stand idly by and be complicit to this growing evil in our world. I wish I could say that I had some sort of moment of having enough of it all, but it was Odsar who sparked this flame in me. I suppose I'd quite forgotten that if I stand for what is right, I do not have to stand alone." He looked at Leon and smiled softly. "You ask why I'm doing this, and it's for you, for Riccardo and Erik, the world, and for myself, if I'm being honest."

  Leon smiled softly back at the doctor. "I like your honesty," he assured, feeling warmth spreading in his chest. "I've been feeling like I had no one to stand with, too," he admitted. "I'm so fucking glad it's not true." He chuckled.

  "As am I." Arthur rose slowly from his seat. "Now, then. I wanted to get a good look at your leg again. With all of this nonsense you've been put through, I just want to be sure my work hasn't been reversed. I assume you'd like some more pain medicine, too?"

  "Yes, please," Leon groaned.

  To Leon's relief, his leg was doing alright by the doctor's assessment. He still welcomed the pain medicine he was given to combat the discomfort, though. With all of that taken care of, he finished his warm food and drink just as he started to feel drowsy again from the mixture of medicine and exhausting events as of late. Arthur took his dishes and left him to drift peacefully asleep in his warm bed.

  Leon didn't know how long he slept, but when he woke, he felt a million times better than he had before. He let his eyes slowly crack open, and had every intention of stretching and settling right back into his soft mattress, but spotted a figure at the foot of his bed. His heartrate picked up rapidly and his mouth opened to shout, but he strangled the noise in his throat when he realized he recognized this visitor.

  Riccardo was slumped over from the chair Arthur had occuppied hours earlier. His arms were folded to act as a pillow for his head. Leon hadn't paid much attention to how Riccardo had slept during that day they shared a room in Jongvale, but he amusedly noticed how disheveled of a sleeper the prince was. His black hair was a mess of fluffy, tangled waves around his face. His ears were hanging out at lazy, limp angles, and his face just as lax. In fact, he was drooling, Leon was amused to see.

  To add to the surprisingly messy look of the sleeping prince, he had a blue bath robe hanging loosely off his frame. Bandages criss crossed like a harness around his torso were exposed for Leon to take in.

  He wanted to be mad at Riccardo, still. The sting of this man turning away when Leon had begged him for his life still sat in his heart. Riccardo was here, now, though. Looking at the bandages wrapped around his thin chest, Leon wondered what punishment this man had taken. And he's willing to take more... he thought with a guilty frown. He wasn't sure if he was ready to let Riccardo off the hook, but the bandages were a stark reminder of why exactly Riccardo was so afraid. He had good reason to be, and it wasn't as if Leon wasn't afraid, too.

  Riccardo stirred just then, eyes cracking open and shifting about before locking on Leon's. He was more alert immediately, and sat upright.

  "Leon. Sorry," Riccardo started. "I came in and I didn't want to wake you and I guess I..." He frowned and wiped at the drool still clinging to his face.

  "Don't worry," Leon said. "I won't tell anyone the prince of darkness drools in his sleep."

  Riccardo turned a delicious shade of pink, and Leon felt like he could get addicted to making him turn that color again and again. "I... Mng... I did, didn't I?"

  Leon chuckled. "Just a bit. Not a problem, though. Really. It's kind of cute." Shit, he hadn't meant to say that.

  Riccardo's eyes were saucer wide, and he suddenly coughed as if he'd choked on something. "Cute?" He let out a high-pitched and obviously nervous sounding laugh. "Drooling in my sleep is cute? Well... Heh... That's odd, Leon."

  "Yeah..." Leon rubbed the back of his neck. "That's me. Odd." He shook his head. "Just don't worry about drooling. It's really not a big deal."

  Riccardo nodded. "Thaaaaaank you," he said with an uncertain smile.

  Fuck he'd made things weird, Leon thought. Things were already weird between them as it was. And fucking hell if he fucked things up and Riccardo decided not to help him get out of here.

  "Leon?" Leon focused back in on Riccardo whose gaze had dropped to the blanket where he was tracing mindless patterns into the surface of it with a finger. "I wanted to say. Well, I mean... Arthur said that he had told you somewhat about the plan. Not that it's really a plan at the moment to begin with. More of a hopeful goal, really, because none of us know how we're going to get out of here."

  "Hey, I'll take a hopeful goal over nothing," Leon assured his rambling companion.

  "Right." Riccardo cleared his throat. "I wanted to say, though, that I'm sorry I couldn't commit to this when we talked earlier. When you asked me to go, I was..." He seemed to struggle with what to say for a moment, and when he did continue his words progressively came out faster and sounded more and more strained. "I was scared and I couldn't see how it could be possible, and I didn't want to promise you something I was certain I couldn't do and -"

  "Don't worry about it." Leon cut him off. Riccardo looked up at him, and Leon's blue eyes bounced between Riccardo's dark ones. He still looked scared even now; Leon could see it in his face. There was something else, though, like surprise but also that same kind of longing he'd seen there before the chandelier had crashed. "What's with the look," he asked before he could get sucked into that stare.

  "I..." Riccardo blinked and leaned slightly back. "I wasn't aware I was making one," he said.

  Leon raised a brow. "You had that same look before the chandelier came down," he said. "Like you're - I don't know." He was hesitant to say what he thought. Gods help him if he was wrong, but Leon had seen that look on other men's faces before. Never quite so innocent or soft, but it had the same sort of flavor he'd come to expect.

  "I can try to stop," Riccardo offered, worry furrowing his brow.

  Leon actually snorted at that. "You don't even know what it is," he said, unable to help the amusement he felt at that.

  Riccardo paused for a moment and then smiled nervously. "I don't," he agreed.

  "Don't worry about it," Leon tried to wave it away. "Think I'm just imagining things."

  Riccardo looked even more confused than before, and both his ears drooped low as the wrinkle in his brow grew tighter. "Okay," he agreed, softly.

  "So King Mustache hurt you bad, huh," Leon latched onto a subject change before he dug himself any more of a hole than he already had.

  "King... must - Oh!" Riccardo smiled and let out a soft chuckle. "My father? Hehe... King Mustache. I like that." His smile faded, slightly, though, and he sighed. "It's not too bad. I'll be fine." He grabbed at his robe, though, pulling it tighter around himself to cover his bandages. "It'll be healed even before my arm. I think my father wanted to make sure I wouldn't be too hurt to attend the rest of the celebrations."

  Leon grimaced. He didn't know what Riccardo's injuries were like, but they were enough to wrap his torso up in bandages. He couldn't believe this was apparently some version of going easy on Riccardo. Riccardo's nonchalance about it continued to surprise Leon, too. He realized this way of living wasn't normal, didn't he? He had to long for something better.

  "Pretty excited to leave here, huh," Leon asked. "You have to meet my family. My parents will greet you with open arms for helping me get out of here. Maman'll take one look at you and want to feed you, though. I was thinking about her cooking earlier. It's fucking amazing. You gotta try it."

  "They'd really be alright with me," Riccardo asked, skeptically.

  "Well, yeah," Leon answered. "Lucky for you, you got me to vouch for you. And don't worry, I'll put in a real good word."

  Riccardo's face softened, a genuine smile coming to his face. "I suppose I would like to meet them. Are they all like you?"

  "In what way," Leon asked.

  "Um..." Riccardo chuckled. "Colorful, I guess? Just the way you talk."

  Leon snorted. "You like the way I talk?"

  Riccardo nodded. "I wasn't sure at first, but... Yes, I do," he admitted. "You're funny, and really honest. I appreciate that."

  "Honesty's important," Leon said with a shrug, feeling warmth fill his chest at the compliments. "But wait. Go back. You said, I'm funny?" He grinned crookedly. "The King Mustache thing really amused you, huh?"

  Riccardo smiled cheekily. "It's pretty good," he said. "Do you make up silly names like that a lot?"

  "I guess so," Leon said. "Kind of the king of nicknames in my family."

  "Have you thought of one for me," Riccardo asked, tilting his head, one ear lifting up as the other flopped down.

  "Hehe... Half a mind to call you 'ears," Leon told him with a snort.

  Riccardo straightened his head and ears, eyes cutting to the side as if he could see his own ears. "All of my kind have ears like this, though," he said, looking back at Leon.

  Leon smiled. "Yeah, you caught me. Guess I don't have a nickname for you yet. I'll think on it, though, okay?"

  Riccardo smiled. "Okay." He put one arm on the bed and leaned onto it. "Tell me more about your family, though. What are they like? What's your home like?"

  "Warm," Leon answered, imagining it all over again. "And not just because of the fire, but just because that's how my parents are. How my whole family is, honestly. We're close, we take care of each other. They'll take care of you, and your brother. And you can help us sell things in town in turn. Or hunt with my sister. Erik can do some schooling with Louis and come home and just be a kid. That'll be good for him, won't it?"

  Riccardo was hanging onto his every word, he realized, with a soft and hopeful glint in his eyes. "It would be really good," he agreed, softly.

  "We'll figure out the night schedule thing," Leon went on, thoughtfully. "You two gotta join us for dinner every night, regardless. It's fall there right now, so they're pulling in the last harvest before winter settles in..."

  He regaled Riccardo with the very picture of what he'd been imagining in the dungeon, noting the light that remained in his eyes. Leon could hear the warmth in his own voice as well as feel it in his chest, now. He was going to go home back to it all. Back to his parents, and his siblings, and their happy life full of warmth and love. He didn't doubt it like Riccardo and Arthur seemed to be. He could feel it in his heart that he would see his family again and Riccardo would see it with his own eyes.