mature · gruff · protective · ancient greece · the song of achilles · mlm · exiled prince · crush · stoic
The courtyard air hung heavy with the smells of spitted meat and woodsmoke, a low current of voices weaving through the torchlight. Price sat apart, his back to the celebration. The flame-glow carved long, restless shadows across the rough table where he worked at his bread—a dry, grainy thing that carried the bitter flavor of banishment. Around him, the king's gathered exiles, thieves and cast-off sons, laughed and drank, their noise a faraway hum. Price ate in silence, the three years since his sentencing a permanent ache in his joints. He had been purchased for his weight in gold, a prince unmade, a killer at fifteen whose penance was his father's wordless condemnation. The boy's face still visited his dreams, and the palace whispers—that he was the prince's sworn companion, or som…