Chapter 5 Mooncrest Jewel

Prince Lancelot’s POV

I got up at once and shoved him hard across the chest. Kain stumbled backward with a startled cry and fell flat on his rear in the dirt.

“Ouch!” He winced, rubbing his hip as he glared up at me. “What in the hell is wrong with you?”

I just stared at him, my blood running cold. A male escort? I was forced to spend an entire year traveling with a shameless, brazen male escort because my mother believed it was the only way to keep me safe from assassins.

Without offering him a second glance, I turned on my heel, mounted my stallion, and gripped the reins tight. I mentally prayed to the goddess that I wouldn't wake up one night in the woods to find this despicable creature trying to take advantage of me.

“Hyah!” I shouted, digging my heels in. My horse skidded forward and broke into a hard gallop.

“Lancelot!” Kain’s voice echoed down the trail behind me, but I didn't even bother to slow down. I simply wanted to put as much distance between myself and that unbearable thief as humanly possible.

A short while later, the trail narrowed, leading me to the roar of a shallow waterfall crashing over jagged stones. I pulled my horse to a halt by the riverbank to let him drink, only for the sound of pounding hooves to signal Kain catching up.

“What in the actual world is wrong with you?” Kain barked, his face flushed and breathing heavy as he pulled alongside me.

“I am saving myself from getting taken by a man,” I replied coldly, keeping my eyes fixed on the water.

Kain stared at me for a beat before bursting into a loud, obnoxious laugh. “I was only teasing you, alright? You aren't even my type. You are easily the ugliest prince I’ve ever seen in my life.”

I snapped my head toward him. “Me? Ugly?” I stared at the shameless peasant who had just casually declared the most sought after bachelor in Vilemont ugly. The absolute nerve.

“Anyway,” Kain muttered, ignoring my indignation as he pulled a faded parchment map from his travel pack and unrolled it. “Since you are bent on traveling with me, our first stop is Caeldwyn.”

I frowned, reining my horse closer. “What could we possibly have to do there?”

Kain rolled the map back up and shoved it into his bag with a sly smirk. “We are going to meet a wizard remove the spell holding my magic.”

The small amount of patience I had left completely evaporated. “What? Are you telling me you’re a wizard?”

Kain gave me a lingering look as he nudged his horse forward, picking a path across the slippery rocks at the edge of the waterfall. “Of course I’m a wizard. And once I break this seal and get my full power back, I’m going to turn you into a toad.”

“You dare lay threats upon your future king?!” I called after him, my voice rising over the rushing water.

“You’re not my king, Lance. You’re nothing to me,” he shot back over his shoulder without missing a beat. “I am the king of myself.”

A knot of genuine anxiety began to tighten in my stomach. I was not entirely sure I wanted a chaotic thief like Kain getting his hands on real magic.

A street rat this reckless endowed with arcane power would be an absolute disaster for the realm. True wizards were rumored to hold high moral standards and discipline, Kain was a shameless, mercenary whore who possessed neither.

We rode through the rest of the day and well into the night, the dark canopy of the forest finally opening up as we reached the outer borders of Caeldwyn.

I had only visited the territory once, years ago alongside my father during a diplomatic treaty signing. I was still little then, no one here would recognize my face now.

We dismounted in front of a small, crooked cottage sitting on the edge of the woods. It was enclosed by a pathetic excuse for a fence made of woven thickets and a creaky wooden gate.

We tied our horses to a nearby oak, and Kain casually unlatched the gate, striding toward the front door. I followed closely behind, my eyes scanning the overgrown yard. “Whose cottage is this?”

“Mine,” he answered, shoving an iron key into the rusted lock.

We stepped inside into total darkness. Kain struck a match and lit an oil lamp on a nearby table, flooding the cramped space with a warm, yellow glow.

Without even taking off his boots, he collapsed face first onto a narrow, threadbare mattress in the corner.

I looked around the small room, taking in the cheap, battered furniture and drafty floorboards. “I thought you worked as a high earning escort. Don't your clients pay you well?”

“They pay fine,” he mumbled into the pillow, turning his head to look at me. “But unlike you, my prince, I actually have a mountain of expenses to cover.”

“Expenses? What kind of debts could you possibly have?”

Kain didn't bother answering. Instead, he simply rolled onto his back and stretched his open palm out toward me expectantly.

I stared at his hand. “What?”

“The coins you brought, fella,” he said briskly. “We need to pool our funds and ration them out properly.”

My brows drew together in an immediate frown. I had packed a considerable purse of gold and silver in my saddlebags to ensure we wouldn't run into financial trouble on the road, and this street thief was demanding it with absolute entitlement.

“It’s not your money,” I said flatly.

He offered me a sweet, dangerous smile. “You don't want me throwing you out into the dark, do you? Consider it rent, your Highness.”

“Why are you so utterly money hungry?” I scoffed, crossing my arms over my chest. “If you need coin so badly, why don't you go sell that Mooncrest jewel you stole from my vault?”

“I can't,” he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the stone hanging from a chain.

I hid a subtle smirk. It was a regular, worthless piece of polished glass on a cord. Before we had left the palace, I had secretly instructed my blacksmith to craft an exact replica of the Mooncrest jewel and made the swap myself.

There was no universe in which I was going to leave an artifact of immense power in the hands of a common thief.

“Why can't you sell it?” I asked, playing along. “I thought you risked your neck in the vault precisely because it was worth a fortune.”

“No,” Kain said softly. His tone changed, the playful sarcasm vanishing as he held the stone up to the lamplight, staring into its depth with a strange, fierce pride. “With this... I can finally unlock my magic. And once my power is freed, I can trace its origin and find out why my parents abandoned me and why they sealed my magic away in the first place.”

He rubbed his thumb gently over the glass, his expression turning unusually quiet.

A sudden, sharp twist hit the pit of my stomach. So that was why he took it.

I offered a stiff nod, keeping my face entirely blank as I watched him cradling the fake stone in his hands like a fragile egg.

Thank the goddess I switched it, I thought to myself, staring at the bright, desperate glimmer in his eyes. A foolish, reckless boy like him should never be allowed to hold that kind of power.