Chasing The Cure

Chapter 29: Set In Stone

"This is insane!" Kenric exclaimed. "All of it. This weapon...it needs to be destroyed. I will not allow it to eat at Archie's goddamn soul. I refuse to let it do that!"

"It cannot be destroyed, at least not by you," Sir Christian spoke. "And we need it to kill the witch if you want to save the King."

"The King?"

"No need for false pretenses now," the knight sighed tiredly. "As my mother said, Prince Frederic was too young, and I doubt if you were the one to use it then you would wait so long to try and find a way to break the curse. So it has to be King Godric."

"I...it does not matter. We will find another way to kill the witch. I will not lose Archie in order to save my brother," Kenric stated.

"We will see about that," the blond muttered. "There you go. You know everything there is to know now."

"Why did you not tell me? Why keep all this a secret for so long?" Archie questioned.

"Would you have believed me?" Sir Christian shot back. "If I told you how our lives are intertwined? How your father became a monster that killed hundreds? You would have thought that I was out of mind!"

Archie could not help but admit that the knight was right. There was no way in hell that he would have believed a word of it had they not been where they were now. On any ordinary day, he would have thought Sir Christian was a madman spurting crazy stories. But they were beyond that point now, and Archie had no choice but to swallow the truth about his origins.

All this while, he had thought that he was the son of a mere handmaiden. Born and brought up in the castle, and destined to die working at the stables. He hadn't the slightest clue that there could be so much written in the cards for him. It all seemed absurd to him, still.

Everything he thought that he knew, he was now questioning. As he looked at Kenric, he saw not only the man that he was in love with but someone that his supposed family had been at war with for centuries.

"I need a moment," Archie mumbled as he stood up, walking out of there before either of the men could stop him.

Archie walked for a while until he reached a clearing. He sat on a broken log, looking up at the night sky. His entire world had turned upside down in a matter of hours, and he was on the verge of breaking from everything that he had just learned.

Archie did not know for how long he sat there, alone, just thinking and thinking though his mind felt muddled. Cloudier than the sky that coated even the moon. Until he was finally broken from his trance by the sound of footsteps approaching him.

"Archie?" Kenric called out. Archie turned around to glance at him, as the prince walked to him, sitting beside the stable boy. Kenric kept his hand on top of Archie's, squeezing it reassuringly.

"Please tell me that I am not the only one who thinks all of this is deranged," Archie spoke softly. "I am losing my mind, Ken."

"Today has been...a lot, so I do not blame you," Kenric replied. "I do not know how I feel about everything myself."

"Christian said that my family is gifted but from the sound of it, it seems like they— like we are cursed instead," Archie whispered. "How am I supposed to make peace with that?"

"We will get there, Archie. We will figure all of this out."

"I do not want to lose my soul," Archie admitted his biggest fear. "I do not want to become like my father. Hurt the people that I love. Hurt you."

"You will not do that," Kenric stated, his voice determined as he shifted to face his lover. "Look at me, Archie."

"But what Christian said—" Archie turned to meet eyes with the prince, who kept his hand on the stable boy's cheek.