Page 30 of The Autumn Prince

Milo waved his hands. “Wait a minute! Is that actually the king? Trapped in amber? He really did cast the curse?”

“He did,” Incendis said. “I was there.”

Oh, no. The princes gasped or stared, clearly not having known that at all. “He regrets everything,” I started to say.

“But Lars,” Wally said, “or the king was helping me. I could’ve sworn he knew more than he was saying and some of what he did say was weirdly cryptic, but he absolutely helped me.”

“He owned the pub?” Solaris asked, frowning like something didn’t make sense.

“Yeah, he was behind the counter with me.”

Solaris shook his head. “That man looked nothing like my father.”

“I kind of have a theory,” I offered. “Maybe only those of us who were part of the curse, like a named part, could see the real him. Everyone else might’ve seen someone else or the real person he was pretending to be.”

Bridge looked alarmed. “Like he was possessing someone?”

I shrugged. “Maybe? I haven’t seen him for a few days now.”

“I’m right here.”

I gasped and turned to find Lars standing a few feet away, the body of the king still trapped in amber behind him.

Chapter 12

Was he a ghost? Could he be in two places at once? Was this part of the curse?

“Easy does it, kid,” Lars said to me. “I’ll try to answer everyone’s questions, but there’s something else I need to do before I run out of time.”

Had I said all that out loud? My brain was buzzing so fast, I honestly didn’t even know.

Before I could do more than blink, a bolt of ice shot toward Lars. He blocked it with one hand, making the ice shatter into snow at his feet, but it was clear one of his sons wasn’t all that glad to see him.

Flurry yelled out, “One thousand two hundred and twelve people died in the Winter Court!”

Wincing, Lars nodded. “I know. I⁠—”

Water suddenly dropped on him from above, as if someone had upended a five gallon bucket over his head. Lars wasn’t quick enough to stop that one. “Hydris,” he said with a frown as he dripped.

“I stand with Flurris,” the little flower prince said with his hands on his hips. He looked about as dangerous as a sunflower.

His brother’s support seemed to surprise Flurry, but then he took a similar stance, the two of them actually united.

Against their father.

“Um,” I whispered, absolutely not sure if it was in any way my place to speak up at all.

Then I realized Milo was waving me toward him, Bridge and Wally already standing over there. Since Incendis’s gaze was firmly locked on his father, I got it that we humans could stand down and let the princes handle this. Confrontation, conversation—whatever happened now could be the closure they desperately needed.

“Let them handle it,” Milo whispered to me when I stood beside him.

“Yeah, I get it.”

I wanted to mediate or something, tell them how much it would’ve meant to me if my father had ever grown enough to see me one last time. An explanation for why he’d abandoned me? I’d have loved to know it. An apology for not even reaching out when Mom died? That would’ve meant the world to me. But I’d gotten nothing before he died. The princes still had a chance.

Lars sighed and his clothes dried in an instant. Or I supposed he was Citron now, but I couldn’t see him as a king after how he’d messed with me about that burrito. And I still kinda liked him. Please, Lars, apologize to your sons.

“If you’ll let me,” he said, “I’d like to try and make amends in my final moments.”