A Prince's Pride

*Aaron*

I ride away from Crown City, only glancing back once. The sun glints off Milo's crown as he stands, watching me. I don't need to turn back again to know he watches me until he can't see me anymore. 

"Stay near me at all times, Your Majesty," says Oswald as we pass through the city gates. I know he's worried about attacks from the Red Hand before we leave the country, but I'm not so worried. 

The Red Hand wants to destabilize the monarchy in Midoor. Killing me would be a blow to it for sure, but attacking Milo in the palace would be far more effective. This is the argument I used to convince Delgara to stay with Milo and keep most of the Crown Guards with him. Milo won't be happy when he realizes security on him is increased, but he can't overrule my orders, so I'm happy. 

The countryside passes as the days wear on. It's a four day ride from the capital to the northern border, if you take breaks into consideration. 

We reach the crest of a hill just before the border of the Lower Reach. The slope downward is steep and the border is obvious. 

The luscious green fields of Midoor make way almost instantly to dark brown grass. From here, the way the Lower Reach recedes into the Earth is obvious. Some of the lower mountains are lower than our current point, though the highest mountain, Mount Zannir, which houses the capital city of Luxom, towers above us. The city is situated inside the mountain itself, so it's impossible to see. 

This is also one of the issues we have to solve. How to get to the city. Over a hundred years ago, the mountain was carved out and a city was built inside. Getting to it won't be easy. The tunnels that lead in and out of the city are heavily guarded, though spies within the Lower Reach believe there are underground tunnels used to evacuate the Royal Family and high ranking government officials. They wouldn't want to draw attention to these tunnels, so they'd be less guarded. 

My unit and I move slowly down the hillside, not wanting our horses to slip and fall. We have extras, but not many, and they will be needed by many of the infantry units that first arrived here. We expect that many of the horses died in the battle on the border.

When we cross over the line dividing the countries, I feel a chill creep up on me, though I know it’s not from the weather. The Lower Reach’s lower climate won’t become apparent for another few miles. Still, being in King Zannir’s territory sends goosebumps erupting over my flesh.

*Milo*

I can feel it. I can feel the magic inside me, just as Piper had said. It’s warm and it’s definitely reacting to her own power, though I don’t understand how I know that. I just…do. 

“But how?” I ask. “How can I have had magic, but not know it?”

“Before magic was outlawed, there were people who would travel the country, testing babies in hospitals.”

“Are people only born with magic?”

“No, it can be taught, but not everyone can learn it. You have to have a spark of magic inside you that can be ignited, though it can’t be detected until it does.”

“You realized I had magic when I woke up in the infirmary the morning after I took Elaine’s medicine,” I say. 

She nods. “I was trying to find out if you had been enchanted in some way, but I was able to sense your magic. You’re extremely powerful, Your Majesty. I can’t truly detect how powerful you are, not until you begin training. This is why I decided to stay. I want to teach you to use your powers.”

I hesitated, not sure what to do. True, Piper used magic to heal Aaron and if I had that power, who knows what I could accomplish with it. Yet at the same time, I’m not sure I can trust Piper. What if this is a trick? What if she’s using magic, right now, to make me think I have my own?

“No offense,” I say, “but how do I know you’re telling the truth? You could be using your powers on me right now.”

“I suppose you have no reason to trust me,” she says, “but I can’t use magic without speaking or using an enchanted object.”

She notices my eyes snap to a simple black ring on her finger and smiles.

“I guess that doesn’t prove anything,” she says, lowering her hand. As she does, I feel the balloon in my chest deflate some, but it doesn’t vanish completely.

“Wouldn’t I have known before today? Known I had magic?”

“Not necessarily. Not on the surface. But there would be a part of you that would have been able to recognize magic when you saw it. Your mind would have been more open to it and you would have been able to recognize it.”

“The old woman,” I say, almost absentmindedly.

“I’m sorry?”

“During the coronation carnival, there was an old woman who gave a prediction to me and Aaron.” It’s only just now that I realize Aaron never told me the full extent of his prediction. I should have asked him. “I believed her prediction straight away and a lot of it came true.”

“Exactly. You probably recognized innately that she was a true seer and so it was easy for you to believe it.”

“And what happened to Aaron at the Mission Inn. I knew it wasn’t magic. At the time, I thought it would have just been a poor way for you to prove its existence, but I knew it wasn’t magic somehow.”

“Yes, well, I’m not sure what that was,” says Piper. “Have the guards found the barmaid yet?”

I’d forgotten about the search for her but since she hasn’t been brought before me, I suppose not. I shake my head at Piper.

“I think we should begin your training at once,” says Piper. “If you’ll allow me to, that is. I know you don’t trust me. I can see it in your eyes.”

“What is your sister doing here?” I ask.

“She wants to bring the collective back together.”

“Collective? Is that like a coven?”

“Of a sort. It’s complicated. We’ll get into the specifics of magic later, but think of a group of witches like a potluck. In a coven, everyone brings their own dishes of varying sizes and can pick and choose who takes from it. It’s impossible to take any food—any magic—from another without their permission. If you choose to leave the potluck, you take your food with you, and only your food.

“In a collective, all of the food—or magic—is thrown together in a big pot. Anyone can take from it at any time, no matter where they are. If you leave the collective, you take a part equal to your number in the group.”

“Let me put it another way,” Piper continues, no doubt seeing the confused look on my face, “if a very weak witch were to join a coven of three, making it four, and decide to leave, she would leave with only the power she brought to the coven. In a collective, she would leave with one fourth of the entire power of the group, greatly increasing her own power, but weakening the others.

“My sister and I were in a very powerful collective and we were the two most powerful witches in that group. We disbanded our collective when magic was made illegal and both lost a great deal of our power. She chose to lock hers away in a magical crystal known as a phial and was able to gain that strength back the moment magic was legalized again. I allowed mine to fade, never truly believing magic would be made legal again.”

“Magic sounds very complicated.”

“Oh, it is, as I explained to your husband only yesterday.”

“Aaron asked for information about magic?”

“Yes, he did. I can teach you everything I taught him. Imagine what having a powerful practitioner of magic sitting on the throne could mean for Midoor.”

“I still don’t trust you,” I say. There’s no point in hiding it. 

“Then learning how to use your powers would be a good thing for you. If you could use magic as well, it would enable you to fight against anyone trying to use magic against you or King Aaron.”

I guess that’s true. 

“Very well,” I say. “We’ll begin at once.”

“Right…right now?” she asks.

I nod. “Unless you have something better to do.”

“Alright. Let me think of where to start.”

“Let’s start by you telling me everything you told Aaron. We’ll work from there.”

“Alright. There are three levels of magic users,” begins Piper.

*Two Years Ago*

*Aaron*

Milo makes a soft gagging sound as he moves his head down on my cock, letting it slip into and fill his throat. I love that sound so much. I look down at him and our eyes lock on each other’s. We’ve only been hooking up secretly for about a week, and every time has been so magical.

Milo pulls his head away from my cock, but keeps stroking it as he sucks one of my balls into his mouth. I’ve never had someone do this before and I can’t believe how amazing it feels. His tongue glides over the skin of my sack, sending shivers up my body. 

“Wait,” I gasp, “what are you doing?” He’s sliding his tongue down my gooch, moving toward my ass.

“You’ve never been rimmed before?” he asks, looking up at me from his position between my legs on my bed.

“I don’t even know what that means,” I admit to him. I’ve only been with two other guys, so I’m fairly inexperienced.

“Let me show you,” he says with a grin. He puts his hands under my knees and pushes my legs up. I help him, replacing my hands with his and pulling back so my ass is as exposed to him as I can make it.

He kisses next to my asshole and, I don’t know what it is, but my nerves are on fire in the best way possible. He replaces his lips with his tongue, sliding it over the skin, until it touches my hole. I gasp as his tongue circles my hole. A gasp that turns into a moan when the slick, warm muscle of his tongue touches the entrance. He licks, sending a wave of pleasure over my body.

“Holy fuck,” I gasp as the licking gets faster, each swipe of his tongue injecting me with pleasure. “That feels so good,” I moan. 

Milo pulls away from me and pushes a thumb against the hole, pressing into it. I let out a whimper as he works, eventually sliding his thumb inside. He looks at me with lust in his eyes, knowing he has me right where he wants me. His thumb leaves me with a small pop and he spits, landing a glob of saliva right on my hole.

A moment later, he’s slid two fingers inside me and starts pressing my prostate. His tongue felt amazing, but this feels like heaven.

My cock starts twitching with each press of my prostate and a glob of precum oozes from my cock, sliding down. Milo bends forward and licks up the secretion with an expression of relish on his face. He presses my prostate harder as he wraps his mouth around me again and swallows me down. I start bucking, moving my ass over his fingers and my cock down his throat.

“Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck,” I gasp. I hate that he can make me cum so quick. That I can do nothing about it. I feel my orgasm build as my balls tighten against my body and start shooting into his mouth. He pulls back and spits my cum into his hand, then starts stroking his cock with it, his fingers still inside me.

He looks down at me as though I’m a priceless piece of art, something to be loved and admired. I’m actually shaking as he massages my prostate, sending bolts of electricity racing through my veins. He strokes harder and faster, his fist slamming into his body as he pants and moans my name softly.

“Aaron,” he moans, “you’re so fucking hot. You like my fingers inside you, Aaron?”

I nod. 

“You’ll like this even more, Your Majesty.” I can’t help but roll my eyes. In the instant that I lost sight of him, he moved down to my ass and starts to push his cock inside me. I let out a moan that’s a little too loud and he stifles it with his cum covered hand. 

I’ve never tasted my own cum before, except on the tongues of guys who’ve blown me. I start to lick the cum from his palm and he twists his hand as he fucks my hole so I can suck his fingers clean.

He stares at me, entranced, as he lays into my hole. I can tell he loves watching me eat my own seed.

“I’m going to cum!” he says suddenly. He pulls out and starts stroking his cock, then stands so he’s aiming for my stomach. He loves seeing my abs covered in his cum. His body jerks as he rubs his cock, then he lets out a groan a moment before several ropes of thick, hot, white cum spray over my abdomen. 

He moves back down and slides his cock into me, then fucks me until he goes soft.

Author’s Note: 

I wanted to let everyone know that these next few chapters are going to be longer than you’re used to. With everything ramping up, I had considered omitting sex scenes in some of the upcoming chapters to keep them the same length as I usually aim for (3,000 – 5,000 words). However, I realize this is mainly an erotica site and while many of this story’s fans don’t mind the few chapters that stray from that, I do want to make sure I appeal to the wider audience here and will do my best to include a sex scene that also adds to worldbuilding in each chapter. Because of this, there may be an increased period of time between some uploads.

Sorry for the extended delay with this chapter. Things have been really crazy at work since I’m quitting. Thank you, once again, to everyone who is still enjoying this story. I can’t tell you what a privilege it’s been to write this and get to interact with you all. Don’t worry, we’re not near the end yet! I still have plenty more coming. See you in the next chapter!

-Ottie