Cael woke to the feel of Rowan's large, calloused hand stroking gently through his hair.
The touch was so soft, so achingly careful, that for a moment he forgot everything — forgot the locked doors, the guards outside, the gilded cage he was trapped in.
Rowan was already dressed, loose white shirt open at the collar, sleeves rolled up to reveal strong forearms.He looked devastatingly handsome — impossibly so — with his hair mussed from sleep and a tender smile tugging at his lips.
"Rise and Shine," he murmured. His thumb traced the curve of Cael's cheek, lingering. "I let you sleep late. You looked too peaceful to wake."
Cael only managed a small, awkward smile. His throat felt tight.
Later, in the sunlit terrace, Rowan fed him by himself.
Soft pastries filled with cream, slices of fresh peach, little sugared plums that stained Cael's lips red. Every time Cael hesitated, Rowan coaxed him with a low voice and warm fingers brushing against his lower lip.
"You must eat. Look at you — thinner than you should be. I'll have to fatten you up."
When Cael laughed shakily at that, Rowan's eyes lit up. As if that tiny sound was the most precious treasure he could ever be given.
⸻
Next day,
Rowan didn't so much as glance at the stacks of ledgers and letters his attendants brought.
Reilan and Kael, his trusted left and right hands, tried once to press the matters of trade agreements, military drills, diplomatic tensions.
Rowan simply waved a lazy hand from where he sat on a plush divan, Cael curled against his side, reading a book aloud at his insistence.
"You handle it," Rowan said, not even looking at them. His deep purple eyes were fixed wholly on Cael, lips curved in an adoring smile.
Reilan swallowed, bowed stiffly, and retreated.
Kael lingered only a moment longer before following — because there was no one in this estate who didn't know: when it came to Cael, nothing else mattered for love sick Rowan.
⸻
That afternoon, Rowan took Cael walking through the manor's private gardens.
Not a single guard followed them inside the hedged sanctuary, but Cael knew — from the faint movements in the distant treetops, from the way the birds startled and flew — that watchful eyes were always there.
Rowan guided him carefully over the winding paths, pointing out flowers that are Cael's favourite.He remembered...No!Memorized all the things Cael like since they were young.Every single details.
At one point, he plucked a pale bloom and tucked it behind Cael's ear, gaze soft, utterly besotted.
"Beautiful..." he whispered.
Cael felt a painful warmth in his chest, mingled with guilt. Because he was still watching the lines of the hedges, wondering how he could slip away — even now, when Rowan's happiness shone so bright.
That night, Rowan held him tighter than ever in bed. One arm locked around Cael's waist, the other hand tangled in his hair, keeping him nestled under Rowan's chin.
"Promise me you'll stop looking at the windows like that," Rowan whispered, his voice almost breaking. "Promise me you'll stop trying to find the doors. Just... stay with me. Be mine."
Cael could only nod faintly, throat too raw to answer. Because how could he tell Rowan that even now, a tiny part of him still searched for escape?
But Rowan smiled — radiant, devastating, full of such unholy joy it hurt to see.
Because to Rowan, even the smallest nod was enough.
Enough to keep him happy even it was just a lie.
Rowan's pampering didn't stop at warm baths and careful meals.
When Cael settled on a chaise by the window to read, Rowan pulled over a chair — far closer than necessary — and simply watched him.
Watched as Cael flipped each delicate page, watched the tiny crease in his brow when he was confused, the faint upward curve of his lips when a line amused him.
And when Cael finally looked up with a soft, questioning smile — "What?" — Rowan only shook his head, dark eyes warm and worshipful.
"Nothing. I could look at you like this forever."
⸻
That evening, he brushed out Cael's hair himself.
The wide-backed brush slid through the dark strands in long, slow strokes, untangling every knot with careful patience. Rowan's big hand followed the brush each time, smoothing down Cael's hair with a kind of hushed wonder.
"You've always had the softest hair," Rowan murmured, almost to himself. "I used to watch you tuck it behind your ear when we were children, and I'd wonder how it would feel between my fingers."
Cael's cheeks warmed, eyes lowering, heart twisting painfully with old affection and guilt.
Because this was Rowan. His brother.And no matter how frightening he was, some part of Cael would always remember the boy who held his hand at night when the thunder scared him.
⸻
Rowan refused to leave him, even for a moment.
When his attendants tried to draw him away for urgent estate matters, Rowan simply sat back in his chair, Cael nestled half across his lap, and said in a calm, final tone:
"Get out"
They could do nothing but bow and flee.
⸻
Even when Cael took short naps in the late afternoon sun, Rowan was there.
He would carry Cael to bed if he started to doze off in his chair, then lay beside him, propping himself on one elbow just to watch the rise and fall of Cael's chest.
His fingertips ghosted across Cael's cheek, his lips brushing his brow in fleeting kisses.
"You have no idea," Rowan whispered once, voice cracking, "how many nights I woke up reaching for you. How many times I thought I felt you there, only to remember you were gone."
_______
Cael stayed quiet.
Let Rowan hold him.
Let Rowan feed him, dress him, brush his hair, kiss his temple, whisper endless, soft, terrifying promises.
Because what else could he do?
Rowan's world began and ended with him.
And Cael had nowhere else left to run.
It had been four days.
Four days wrapped in Rowan's tender, suffocating world. Four days of sweet touches and whispered devotion that made Cael ache in ways he couldn't even name.
But something had started to gnaw at him.
A faint, creeping realization that reached past the warmth of Rowan's embrace and sank icy claws into his spine.
⸻
No one knew he was here.
Rowan had hidden him completely from the world.
The servants never spoke a word of it — too terrified of Rowan's displeasure to even risk a whisper. The estate ran on hushed fear, every pair of eyes carefully averted from the rooms where Cael walked, guarded at all hours by silent knights.
Rowan has hidden Cael from the world.
________
Then, finally, the outside world forced its way in.
A crisis had erupted in the capital — some tangled snarl of alliances and merchant feuds that only Rowan's iron will could untangle.
So the dukes and lords came to him.
Rowan didn't want to leave — his hand hovered on Cael's cheek like it was painful to pull away — but duty demanded it. The estate's main hall filled with desperate noble voices, their carriages cluttered in the courtyard like panicked insects.
Rowan knelt by Cael's chair in his office, pressing one last kiss to his temple.
"I won't be long, Stay here.. I'll be back soon"
Then he was gone.
⸻
The door shut behind him with a quiet click.
For the first time in days, Cael was alone.
Except he wasn't truly free.
Four knights stood outside the door — eyes fixed straight ahead, swords ready.
If he so much as stepped too close, he knew they'd block his way.
Rowan's orders.
⸻
So instead, he wandered the office.
It was familiar in a painful way. Once their father's — now Rowan's. Heavy dark wood, polished floors, old portraits whose eyes seemed to follow him.
Cael trailed his fingers over the edge of the great oak desk, then to the bookshelves lining the walls. So many of these books he and Rowan had read together as children — pulling them down, reading half aloud, falling asleep on the rug in tangled piles.
A tiny sad smile ghosted his lips.
⸻
But then his fingers caught on something.
A tiny uneven gap in the back of the shelf.
Curious, he leaned closer — and found a hidden catch.
With a soft click, a narrow door swung open behind the row of books.
Inside was a small recess, just deep enough to hold a bundle of old letters.
"What are these?Why its here?"
He pulled them out — and read just out of curiosity.
As soon as he saw the contents of that letter, Cael felt like the world had turned upside down