Page 45 of His Princess Brat
Chapter Twelve
Azid
It only took asking half the palace and finally tracking down that surly assistant that Mazi was so inexplicably fond of, but I finally found my friend in his office. Once more, he was hunched over his map. He must have given up trying to find a way to bring his country out of the tourist trap economy that it was in, because in those few seconds between my walking in and his noticing me, he tossed a handful of scaled-down trees, houses, and people inches into the air while making soft exploding noises. He quit when he saw me.
“Hey.” He straightened up, scrambling halfheartedly to put what trees and people he’d just thrown back into their proper places. “Norah wants to know if you’d like to have a private dinner with us tonight. I mean, you did come all this way to visit us and we’ve hardly had much of a chance to talk. Sorry about that.”
“You’re a king,” I excused. “Your being busy is understandable. Besides, I’ve been busy too.”
“Oh, yeah?” Reaching over the map, he straightened up a crooked line of houses. “Doing what?”
“Screwing everything up.” Honesty was best, or so his mother had always told us. I couldn’t believe I’d made such a mess of things already. And with Mazi’s own cousin too, however many times removed she might be.
Surprised, Mazi stood up. “How did that happen? Is it bad?”
“That’s what I was going to ask you, but I’m almost afraid to think it might be in the most colossal way possible.” God, I felt awful. For him, but mostly for Pita.
“Okay.” Sinking back into his seat, Mazi visibly braced himself. “What happened?”
“I got caught,” I said bluntly. “In the stables.”
Blinking, Mazi cocked his head. “Doing what?”
I winced. “Your cousin.”
His eyebrows shot up. He didn’t say anything, not for almost a full minute. “Is that it?”
I winced again, but his mild reaction gave me hope this might not be as bad as I feared. “It was up the butt.”
“Was it consensual?”
“Dude.” I drew back, insulted that he’d even need to ask.
“Well, the way you came in here...”
“She’s a princess, Ma!”
“This isn’t the dark ages, Az. She could do you up the ass, and I’m not sure it would matter.”
Relief washed through me. “I was kind of hoping you’d say that. I assumed if sex was an issue she’d have said something to stop me, and she never did. But the way everyone else is reacting...”
Mazi groaned. “Oh, for the love of... everyone as in who? Remember, this is a court. People here are rich and bored, and they love to gossip. Ignore it. God knows, I do.”
“Yeah, well.” Coming around the table, I sat down next to him. “Ignoring it is kind of hard when that witch of a woman runs off laughing. By the time we got back to the palace, everyone else was pointing, whispering and laughing at us. I mean, I can take it, but Pita...”
