Author's note: I was perusing the interwebs the other day when I saw pic above. It gave me some serious HSHS vibes so I decided to include it at the beginning of the chapter haha. Okay so at 21 chapters this is officially the longest thing I have ever written. I just want to thank all of you guys who read this every week and those of you who comment! Seriously, your comments are what has kept me going to actually keep writing this story for so many months. Hope you enjoy the chapter  :D

Mikhos's PoV

I awoke with a massive headache and naked next to a man who had once punched me in the face. He was still asleep and I propped myself up on one arm to get a better look at him. It was strange seeing Nicolai actually look peaceful. His hair was ruffled, clearly from last night's endeavors, and golden beams of sunlight crept through the window catching in his hair as if giving it a fiery red glow. The dark marks I had left along his neck were still present, creeping down his collarbone. I felt a strange well of pride in my chest seeing them now. I had claimed him. It had honestly taken everything I had not to lash out at Nicky and the princess every time I saw them together the previous day, maybe this would help take care of that little problem. There were three things I knew about Nicolai. One, he was incredibly block headed with the same awareness of what was going on about him as a fucking rock. Second, he could be a completely insufferable idiot who had no bloody idea how to keep his mouth shut, and third, I had somehow managed to fall completely and utterly in love with him. I wasn't exactly sure when it had happened. It had been for awhile I knew that for sure. Maybe it was all the way back to when I first locked eyes with him. I hadn't actually realized it until that night on the balcony the final day before I had to give up my facade as Emery. That night my heart had still pounded even after I had walked away from him. I could still remember the mental 'fuck' my inner voice had clearly stated when I had realized what was happening. I would never tell him though, I could never tell him. He disliked me enough as it was and rightfully so. Honestly I was surprised he had even agreed to...my cheeks grew slightly warm at the memory of last night. I felt him stir beside me now and slowly his eyes fluttered opened.

"Good morning," he said slowly, his voice still groggy and rough. God I wished I could wake up like this every day. Instead of telling him that however I decided to act the way I always did around Nicolai and rolled my eyes.

"You talk in your sleep you know. It's annoying." He sat up suddenly at that, his eyes wide.

"I do? Did I...did I say anything?" I shrugged.

"No, just some mumbling."

"Oh..." a clear look of relief came over his face. He was staring at me again through lidded eyes and I could feel his gaze linger on the tattoos that crept up my torso and across my chest. It's not like I could avoid the inevitable question forever. I had hid enough from him already, I owed him at least this.

"You can ask me about them you know." A clear look of confusion came over his face.

"What are you talking about..." Jesus he was such an idiot.

"The tattoos shithead." His eyes grew wide.

"You actually would...tell me?" I shrugged.

"Yeah...I mean you've already seen them. What's the point of keeping secrets? I've been trying to hide them since I was eight, maybe it's good for me to talk about it."

"You got them when you were eight?"

"Yeah. They're not totally tattoos...not really. They're supposed to be marks to help guide the knife." I took his hand in mine and slowly brushed his fingers down the line around part of my chest. "Here is where they were supposed to cut out my heart." I brought his hand now to trace over the dotted line to the left. "And here is where they were supposed to start cutting into my lungs." I continued to move his hand down. "Here's the line for my ribs and this one is for my kidneys..." he jerked his hand away suddenly.

"W-Who did this to you?" I stared at him a moment, arching a brow.

"Wow, my grandfather must have done a really great job at keeping it covered up. Haven't you ever wondered why my grandfather banished and disowned my uncle and passed the kingdom down to my father? There's been rumors I know. Rumors that my father tricked my grandfather into banishing him, rumors my father threatened to kill him if he didn't leave. Well, the truth is my uncle was practicing black magic." Nicky's entire face paled.

"W...what."

"Yeah. I didn't understand it when I was a kid. My uncle and I were close actually. He was honestly more of a father to me than my own flesh and blood. I was sick if you hadn't known before, I wasn't supposed to live much longer. Maybe he thought he was helping me." I shut my eyes for a moment. "I don't know. He told me he needed me for something important one night and led me too some room under the castle where there was some kind of cult waiting. Then he chained me down and marked me to be butchered. Luckily my grandfather had caught word of what was going on and sent his soldiers in to save me. It would have been a scandal having it get out that a member of the royal family had been practicing the dark arts and it would have hung over our dynasty for generations to come so when he was expelled from the kingdom my grandfather only announced that he had been disowned. Of course that began a whole new crop of rumors. I hear in some places they even call me the false prince. How funny is that? But who cares really. It's in the past now. I hardly remember it." That was a lie. I recalled every moment of that horrible night in disgustingly accurate detail. Sometimes I still dreamed about it. My gaze fell to the boy beside me now. "Hey...Nicky are you okay? You don't look well." He looked like he was about to throw up.

"Yeah. I just...I need some air. Do you mind...I'm just going to go take a short walk around the gardens." I scoffed.

"Well don't be an idiot about it. We can't be seen leaving the room the same time. Go out before me, I'll meet you later in about an hour so no one will get suspicious." He just nodded stiffly going to stand up. "And don't forget your clothes you dumb fuck."

-------

Gani had been waiting near the palace entrance for some time for me before I arrived.

"Sorry, I'm late. I was...busier then I expected to be last night." Gani nodded slowly.

"You went off with a girl?"

"Something like that." Gani snorted.

"Well...the Kingsmen had quite a night as well. Munny and I decided to sit the sex part out...god knows we drank enough to make up for it. Munny...wow the kid is young but god can he put down a glass of wine. Sullivan and Aubin had been fighting over this blonde all night and finally I think they decided to share her. Not exactly sure how that worked out for them because they were way too hungover to even form clear sentences this morning. Oh and Nicky! I didn't see him after he went off last night but whoever he spent the night with...fucking christ they wanted the world to know it. He had so many marks on him I couldn't believe it. He tried to cover them up but as usual Nicky he did a shitty job at it." I found myself smiling slightly despite myself. "Alright," he finally said. "Let's get to the real business at hand." Gani had put on the clothes I had sent up to him this morning and as I went to stand next to him I slipped the hood of the ragged cloak I had around my shoulders up over my head. Gani smiled sweetly.

"Okay, I know you wanted to blend in but I wasn't expecting you to go all out on the peasant clothes."

"We can't afford to be caught." Gani laughed at that.

"Always the planner. We haven't gone on an adventure like this since we were children."

"Yeah, and even then the 'adventure' pretty much consisted of us sneaking down to the kitchen without permission. I think our past selves would have been proud of how far we've come." Well...at least one of our past selves. I suspected seven year old me wouldn't have wanted to turn into this pathetic mess of a human being. "We both need an alias." I said suddenly. This was my favorite part of these kinds of things, sneaking around as someone else. I really would have loved to be an actor. Maybe in another life. Gani grinned.

"We shouldn't be out too long. I mean we're seriously just going to check out the state of the town. What would we need them for?" I shrugged.

"I don't know. If someone stops us maybe? If not, just for fun. Come on, please. Work with me here." Gani sighed heavily, though he was still smiling.

"Okay...um. Alright my name is Miguel Santonezzo. I'm a swordsman from err...Shereen. My uncle murdered my mother and I'm secretly tracking him down." Hmm, good character. A little over the top and a bit melodramatic but what's the harm in a little melodramatic backstory.

"I'm going to be the son of a sheep herder, Sam Perkins. I decided I had enough of the Idorian mountains and wanted to see what life outside of my small family hovel would be like."

"Good. Simple and subtle. I like it."

-------

We slipped out of the palace easily and it took us little to no time to make it through the small city that surrounded the palace and to arrive at one of the little towns that lay on it's outskirts. Gani's eyes widened as we approached.

"Holy shit." The town was practically made up of little shacks. This is what I expected I would find but I had wanted to check to be absolutely sure. "Woah...Mikhos you were right." My suspicions had been correct. Everything outside of the Idorian palace and capital was falling apart. Two starving children wearing nothing but a few rags tossed a sorry excuse for a toy ball back and forth. Their mother was in front hanging a few more rags up on a thin laundry line. I approached her. Time to turn on the charm.

"Excuse me ma'am," the woman looked up. Her gaze was weary.

"I haven't seen you...around before," she spoke slowly, her voice heavily accented.

"I'm not from around here. My names Sam. I was just a bit curious about this village since I'm looking for a new place to stay. Is it nice being so close to the capital?" The woman sighed softly.

"Obviously things could be better for us. But...this village ain't that awful compared to where they be livin' even farther north." Gani's mouth was hanging open in shock.

"It gets worse?" The woman nodded.

"You two are obviously not Idorian. You from across the sea?"

"Yes..."

"Well let me tell you...you do not want to stay here my friends. I don't...I don't even know if I'll have enough food to feed my children within the month's end." She spit. "It's all that damn Sultan's fault. He's crazy, everyone in the kingdom knows of it. He'll run this kingdom into the ground and there's nothing we can do to stop it." Tears were beginning to swell in her eyes. "To think...a man like that can have feast after feast...he's even building a summer palace... all while my children starve. I hope he rots in the pits of hell."

"What's your name?" I said softly. The woman wiped her eyes on her dirty sleeve before looking up to meet my gaze.

"Tatsiya."

"Thank you for speaking with me," I gave Gani a little nod. "Come on, let's go, I've seen enough." We walked in silence a bit until we had made it out of the village and back into the capital city.

"As soon as I can and want enough gold sent to that woman to keep her children fed for a lifetime." Gani bowed his head.

"That is kind of you sire."

"It's not kind of me, it's just. I think it's safe to say I will not be going through with this marriage it's too much of a financial risk. Idorian land may be vast but it's not worth it. It's dry of resources and wealth and the way Jaasim is running it, in no time the people are either going to rebel or another country will come take it over and my investment in Idoria will vanish. It will be easier to just marry into another country where the gain will be equal. Well...this trip was a total waste of time." Gani shrugged.

"Well maybe not a total waste of time." I noticed he was smiling.

"Is something funny?" He shook his head.

"Nonono...just uh...I'm sorry if this comes out wrong I'm just...kinda happy you're not getting married." I arched a brow.

"Why?" He sighed softly, his gaze darting to the ground.

"Because...if you had gotten married then I would have..." He stopped walking and suddenly he grabbed my hand and began to lean in. It took me a moment to realize what was happening until it was too late and his lips were gently pressed to mine. I drew back almost immediately, avoiding meeting his gaze. Shit, I should have seen this coming. I had never been good at this stuff. Luckily, Gani understood instantly.

"No?"

"No."

He nodded slowly.

"Is there...someone else?" He attempted a laugh. "You know what? It doesn't matter. I just...I wanted you to know I have feelings for you, I always have. It's totally fine if you don't feel the same way...I don't care what the reason is, it's none of my business. Plus it's stupid of me to try to do something like that so soon after her death."

"Thank you for understanding." He shut his eyes for a moment.

"You can talk about it with me you know, it's been less than a year. I won't tell anyone anything about it. If you just want to get the whole real story off your chest you seriously can just go for it."
"What's there even to say?" He shrugged.

"I heard word that you two ended the relationship the day before she died. You discovered she was having an affair right?" I could feel myself tense at that. I had tried to block as many memories of Mira out of my mind as I could over these last months after her death and all these discussions with Nicky and now Gani weren't helping.

"I don't really want to talk about it. I don't think there's much to say on the matter." Gani nodded slowly.

"I came to the funeral, I don't think you saw me. It was lucky there was even enough left of her to bury."

"It's my fault." Gani looked up now, surprise on his face.

"What?"

"It's my fault she...fuck. You know what, never mind. Let's just...let's go." Gani luckily understood that I had brought the conversation and topic to a close. That's what made him a good friend, he knew to drop things and to just walk beside me.