The Key

Chapter 21

Cas doesn’t think he’ll wait, and the part of Dan that understands why, hates that he understands. Sure, Cas had blamed a mistrust of surrounding circumstances, but beneath that, it’s clear he considers Dan a piece of good luck he doesn’t think he can keep.

Dan understands that, too. He can’t not.

He thinks of Cas the same way.

He just refuses to accept that, not as long as Cas wants him back.

“And because I’m not changing my mind,” Dan says, “I want to prove it.”

Between Bobby and Jo, it’s Jo who understands first. Blade in one hand, she covers her mouth with the other. Her eyes go wide. She looks up at Dan to be sure, and she looks at Sam to confirm. Sam just keeps grinning.

Bobby realizes what’s happening a second later. If a sigh and a groan ever had a baby, then it grew up in Bobby’s lungs and only escaped just now. “Any chance you’re rushing into this?” The way Bobby says it, it’s not really a question.

“It’s actually tradition,” Sam says.

Everyone looks at him.

“What? It is,” Sam says. “Look, the entire point of this party is for all the eligible candidates to get paraded in front of me, all to be sure I’m serious about Jess. If I switched, or if I’d gone into this without Jess, I’d be marrying someone else in a week instead. That’s tradition. If Dan were the mage – well, then we’d have done this four years ago – but if Dan were the mage, we’d all be pushing him to commit.”

Sam grins at Dan all the harder. “Admit it. You just want to get engaged before I do.”

“Not full-on engaged,” Dan says. “Not like engaged- engaged. More like, serious about trying to get there. An exclusive relationship.” The whole arrangement breaks if they kiss someone else afterwards, after all.

“When you send that boy running for the hills, don’t you come crying to me,” Bobby says.

“Hey, you didn’t hear him,” Dan says.

“Son, two days ago you were whining about him not liking you back.”

“I wasn’t whining.”

“It wasn’t about Cas not liking him back, either,” Jo says, having gone back to flipping the blade around in each hand, passing hand to hand, in some pretty intimidating loops. “You said he didn’t think you were serious.”

“Exactly,” Dan says, pointing at her – carefully – while looking to Bobby. “Let’s face it, if I wanted to play around with him until I got bored and gave him the boot, I could. Everybody knows it. And if I’ve got a ridiculous amount of doubt to overcome, I might as well do something ridiculous to match.”

Bobby sighs and looks to Sam. “You gonna be the voice of reason?”

Sam shakes his head and something in his joy makes his floppy mage haircut extra floppy. “Nope.”

Bobby gives Jo a pointed look.

At last, Jo holds the blade still, her hand around the hilt in a reverse grip. She looks up at Dan and, very seriously, asks, “You gonna be all right if he says no?”

“He’s not gonna say no.” Dan knows what he saw last night. He knows what he feels, and he believes in what Cas says he feels. Cas had spoken like he thought Dan would deny the adoration in his touch, and just remembering it tears at something deep in Dan’s gut. There’s a lot of things in an orphan’s life that could do that to a person, and Dan wants to root out every single one for a thorough salt-and-burn.

Jo rolls her eyes. “Sure. But are you gonna be all right if he does say no?”

“I’ll be better than if I don’t try,” Dan says. He’s not letting three months go by with Cas thinking his feelings aren’t properly requited. Or worse: the full six. If Cas doesn’t say yes tonight, that’s fine, because Dan can wait. He really can. He’s not about to go kissing anyone else. “I’d rather have him think I’m nuts than let him think I don’t care enough.”

Jo nods. Behind her, Bobby sighs. Jo reaches back to set the blade down on Bobby’s desk. She nods up at Dan again and says, “All right then.”

Sammy does another stupid little bounce, the nerd.

“Bobby?” Dan asks. “Will you bear witness?”

“I sure as hell ain’t kissing you,” Bobby says, looking a disgruntled kind of concerned. It’s as close to a blessing as Dan’s going to get out of him.

“Thanks,” Dan says. He clears his throat and squares his stance and looks down at Jo. As if in a continuation of their training, she matches him perfectly.

“Dame Joanna,” he says, expression serious.

“Sir Dan,” she says, lips twitching, and Sam’s still grinning like a f*****g i***t off on the side.

“Will you be my Last Unwed Kiss?” Dan asks her.

“I will,” Jo says, and she starts smiling fit to beat Sam.

Dan smiles right back, even wider, and it takes them a second to line things up, Jo standing still and guiding him down with a hand on his shoulder. He presses his lips to hers and they hold there until she pulls away with a giggle that has nothing to do with his s****l prowess and everything to do with the sheer giddy joy of the moment.

“Good luck,” Jo says.

“You’ll need it,” Bobby says.

Dan looks at Sam.

“Hey, I’m not looking ahead for this,” Sam says. “I mean, I know you’re doing this in the courtyard while I give my Last Unwed Kiss to Nick, but I don’t know how it goes.”

“You’re annoyingly vague sometimes, you know that?” Though at least now Dan doesn’t have to ask if Sam’s all right with Dan not bearing witness for him.

“Seer,” Sam says in explanation, shrugging. “We’re way less helpful than you’d think. I told you, I just know where you’ll be when I need you, or when something important is happening to you.” He grins, wide and obnoxious, his nose wrinkling. “Besides, there’s some stuff I’m just not willing to risk looking at, and you getting it on is one of them.”

Dan rolls his eyes. “We’re not gonna get it on in the courtyard, Sam.”

“Um, no,” Sam says, “but you two are going to be up in the observatory tower come midnight, and I don’t wanna know.”

Dan points at Bobby and says, “Ha!” Then the time sinks in. “Sammy, midnight. You’re sure?” Cas heads out at eleven-forty, at the latest. Unless…

Unless he’s spending the night.

Cas is spending the night. Cas is going to say yes , and then he’s spending the night.

“Yeah,” Sam says, using that tone where he’s not at all disappointed, carefully so, which of course means that he is. It takes Dan’s brain a second to catch up, too busy running through the implications with Cas.

“Wait, that’s when you’re kissing Jess, right?”

“Yeah,” Sam says again, like it doesn’t matter, which means it does. He smiles and it’s a very good imitation of his sincere one. “But it’s not like I’ll be there for yours either, right? So it’s fine.”

“Sam,” Dan says.

“It’s fine,” Sam repeats.

To the side, both Bobby and Jo have either taken an abrupt interest in the angel blade on Bobby’s desk, or they are very much pretending not to be here for this conversation. Probably a bit of both, in Jo’s case.

“No, I should be there,” Dan says. “I mean, c’mon, man, it’s your birthday.”

“Hey, I’ve f****d up your birthday worse,” Sam says, and that’s… not something Dan ever thought he’d hear Sam say.

“You were two,” Dan says.

“Which is why I didn’t know I’d f****d it up,” Sam says. “Which is why I want you to have this. You should have this.”

“Look, we’ll… We’ll pop in,” Dan says. “Maybe we won’t catch the big moments but we’ll– I’ll be there.”

“You don’t have to–” Sam’s eyes go distant. He starts smiling and looks down and smiles wider and looks back to Dan. “Yeah, you will. Thanks.”

Dan rolls his eyes and definitely doesn’t need to clear his throat. “It’s not a big deal.”

“There somewhere else you want to have this conversation, Your Highnesses?” Bobby asks.

“Nah, we’re good,” Dan says at the same time Sam says, “Sure.”

“Jo and I gotta shower and change,” Dan says.

“I can wait,” Sam says. “Bobby and I were talking anyway. Security stuff. Pretty sure that fire dream wasn’t a vision, but, uh. Yeah.” Then: “What’s with the short sword? Wasn’t that in the boxes you showed Cas?”

“Tell you later,” Dan says. “And don’t touch it without your gloves.”

Sam shoots both him and it a curious look, but he nods his assent.

“Happy birthday,” Jo bids him as they exit the office, which means everyone in the barracks now knows who’s in with Bobby. The corresponding shift in speed and formality occurs, no one knowing for certain when their Mage Prince will appear to judge them all – or if, through his visions, he already has.

Dan rolls his eyes at it all and hits the shower. Jo sticks with him all the way, a bundle of questions about the potential enchantments on the blade, and just as many theories as to its forging. Some days, Dan thinks she should have taken that fire magic of hers and just become a blacksmith instead. He tells her this, not for the first time, and Jo’s eyes get this little gleam to them, also not for the first time.

“Maybe,” she says, because it’s not as if all of them can keep patrolling forever. Then she says, “Hold on, speaking of knives.”

Out of the showers, still in her towel, she digs through her folded pile of clothes. She pauses, snaps her fingers, and then reaches into one of her boots. It’s a small thing she retrieves, almost more handle than blade and not much of that, but it is good iron.

“For luck,” Jo says, offering the small knife, along with a sheath on a leather band. “Mom gave it to Dad as a courtship gift before she proposed. It’s a good boot knife, too. Doesn’t slide around at all.”

People look at them for the exchange, and more than a few of those looks are knowing. Some are curious and none dare disapprove, no matter how obvious he’s been with Cas.

“Thanks, Jo,” Dan says, taking it, and Jo shows him how to put it on so it sits comfortably. He has to force himself to focus, too distracted by the thought of a courtship gift of his own. Something he could give Cas when he visits the university. Not a knife, not for Cas. A portable writing kit, maybe, with little compartments and spill-proof ink bottles. Something to fill to the brim with all the stationary Cas could ever want. He’s pretty sure Sam’s kit is a decade old and still looks good; something else to ask Sam about.

After, dried off and back in civilian clothing, Dan checks back in on Sam and Bobby. He interrupts a conversation about the trickier parts of being a good husband, but that might be for the best. Even all these years later, Bobby still gets this look when he talks about Karen for too long.

Dan retrieves the angel blade – not that he believes it really is, just yet, but it’s as good a name as any – and nods Sam out. They make their goodbyes to Bobby, and Sam follows Dan to the corner of the armory that Cleric Jim favors.

“Birthday boy doesn’t have anything better to do?” Dan asks, not sure what to make of his new and, frankly, looming shadow.

“Dad gave me the day off,” Sam says with a grin, as if that answers Dan’s question. “So what’s the story with the short sword?”

Dan summarizes while Cleric Jim looks through the available sheaths. He’ll commission one to fit properly, Dan quickly decides. Cleric Jim agrees, but they find something that doesn’t rattle or pinch. It’s in brown leather, not black, which won’t go with his belt or gloves but will match his mask. Good enough. Dan jots down the angel warding pattern while Cleric Jim takes the blade’s dimensions and Sam makes aesthetic suggestions. Between the three of them, they get a good design for the blade’s future home.

“Do you think they were real?” Sam asks after they’re done, the blade and temporary sheath riding on Dan’s hip.

Idly fingering the hilt, Dan shrugs. “Cas does, pretty seriously. Kinda feel like I’d have to read half a library just to argue with him coherently, so I’ve stopped arguing.” He pauses. “For now.”

“When you get that reading list, I want at it, too,” Sam says. Then he grabs Dan’s arm and says, “C’mon.”

“C’mon where?”

“Just c’mon.”

They walk in silence, Sam purposeful, Dan doubtful, until they go into the gardens instead of passing by them.

“You’re on,” Dan says the same second Sam says, “Race you.”

Sam f*****g bolts into the hedge maze, his long legs eating up the distance between them and the entrance. But once inside, it’s all sharp turns and rapid reorienting. They each take their own path and they take them at full speed. Birds burst out of the hedge as Dan darts past. He breaks into the center of the maze at the same time Sam does, each spotting the other across the flower-lined square.

Dan dives for it and Sam dives after, and this is how Dan winds up crowing his victory sprawled on a flat bench, belly against stone, his brother crashing over him.

“Too slow!” Dan shouts. Sam tries to shove him off the bench but Dan holds on, even with the blade’s hilt digging into his side. Finally, Sam gives up with a groan. Dan sits up, Sam sits down, and they both take a minute to breathe, Sam panting hard.

“Thought you’d have been gone long enough to forget the way,” Sam says.

“I’m not gone that much,” Dan says.

“You’re gone most of the time,” Sam says.

Dan shrugs a little. “That’s patrol for you.”

Slowly, the birds return. A willow warbler stares down at them from the top of the hedge before fluttering off in disdain. The breeze is slight but good, almost enough that Dan’s jacket doesn’t feel too warm. With a sigh, Sam tugs off his gloves and pockets them.

“I wish you were around more,” Sam says.

Dan shrugs a little more. “Not sure I fit the castle anymore, Sammy, an unpolished ruffian like me.”

Sam laughs as if that’s a joke. “Yeah. Right.” He leans back, bare hands flat on the bench behind him. He looks up at the clouds and sighs again. “Dan, I’m getting married in a week.”

“Yeah, I noticed.” The sighing is a little unexpected, though. “You only love the crap out of her.”

“I do,” Sam agrees immediately. “It’s just… I’m getting married in a week , and my wife doesn’t even know you. Not really.”

“You’re the only thing Jess and I have in common,” Dan says. “And I guess you’re right. I’m not around that often.” He’s gonna have to warn Cas about that. “Though I get the feeling she wouldn’t like me all that much anyway.”

“It’s not that she doesn’t like you,” Sam says, which means he’s definitely talked this over with Jess already. “She’s just… protective of me.”

Dan pushes a laugh down into a grin and tries to make it look amused. “And, what, she doesn’t like that being protective of you is already my job?”

Sam smiles back, but it quickly turns… Not sad. Not exactly. He shakes his head. He looks away in a way that makes Dan look at him. “She thinks I should stop trying to live up to you so much.”

Dan stares. When that doesn’t work, he tries blinking. He goes back to the staring. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Sam shrugs and goes back to looking up at the clouds. His body language remains open, exposed, but only because his hands grip the bench too tightly behind him. “Forget it.”

“Uh-huh. Right. Sammy, you don’t bring up s**t you don’t want to talk about. What the f**k are you trying to live up to?”

Sam looks at him then, Dan’s confusion mirrored on his face. “What?”

“No, you brought this up, you’re the one who knows what he’s talking about,” Dan tells him. “What are you talking about?”

Sam’s face does this thing Dan can’t wholly parse, something with eyebrows and frowning and eyes flicking from side to side, like he’s reading a book of his own memories. Finally, Sam says, very unhelpfully, “Dan, you were going to be king.”

“No,” Dan says slowly. “You and Cas have a chat about ancient history while I wasn’t looking? ’Cause Knight Kings haven’t been a thing for like a thousand years.”

“That was a thing?” Sam asks, blinking and leaning in. His hands go from the bench to clenched atop his thighs. “Really?”

“I guess?” Dan says. “Ask Cas. If you’re not talking about that, what are you talking about?”

Sam looks down and deliberately opens his hands, laying them flat on his legs. “It’s just, when I was little. You were going to be king.”

“We thought I was going to be king,” Dan corrects, wanting off the subject about twenty minutes ago. “Big difference.”

Sam shakes his head. “No, I mean.” He shakes his head again with a harder flop of his long hair before leaning forward, forearms on knees. He leans heavily enough that when he looks at Dan, he has to look up. “When I was little, you were going to be king . That’s how it was. I was born and it was ‘hi Sam, your parents are king and queen, you were ostensibly named after an ancient king but actually after your grandfather, and this is your brother Dan who will be king.’ And that’s… how the world was.”

“But it wasn’t,” Dan says.

“But I thought it was,” Sam says. He says it like this is the important part, so Dan tries to listen as if it is. “And then, one day, they told me I’d be king, and no one thought to tell me that you wouldn’t be until I was four.”

Dan doesn’t mean to laugh. Not really. It’s not a loud laugh or a long laugh or even an amused laugh, but he does laugh. “Dude, no one should have needed to tell you that.”

“Dan, I was four,” Sam insists.

“I knew you only get one king at a time when I was four,” Dan says. He doesn’t remember, but he’d definitely bet on it. “Like, at the most , you get a king and a prince consort.”

“Dan,” Sam says, and Dan leans forward too, forearms on knees.

“Fine. What’s your point?”

Twisting his hands together, Sam watches his own fingers. “It’s something I went over a lot with Chuck when I was in training. Trying to get a handle on my powers and why they work the way they do. His are all bound up in stories and come out verbal and written because of all his own crap, but me, I mean, I didn’t even know how to read yet when mine started.”

“All right…” Dan says, still waiting for this to make sense.

“What it boils down to,” Sam says, “is that when I thought we were going to be kings together, it wasn’t scary. I figured, whatever I didn’t know how to do, you would know how to do. And maybe, someday, I’d know something you didn’t. And it would work that way. But then – I think it was my tutor – someone told me that it was just gonna be me, and that was…” He shakes his head, swallowing. He looks at Dan, and his eyes are too bright. “Dan, that was the scariest moment of my life.”

Dan looks back at him. At this tower of a man, a mage with a double talent, a rare seer and an unheard of vessel, and what Dan sees is a boy trying very hard not to cry.

“So, yeah,” Sam continues, rubbing at his eyes, once, twice. “I started always knowing where you were. Where you would be.”

“Was this the month you had to sleep in my bed?” Dan asks, trying for levity.

Sam pauses. “I’d forgotten about that. That wasn’t really the part that stood out.”

“Visions would do that,” Dan agrees.

Sam shakes his head. “No. I mean, what you told me.” And he looks at Dan like Dan should remember.

“To f**k off?” Dan guesses.

Sam laughs like it’s entirely a joke. “You don’t remember?”

“Not even a little.”

Hands now clasped instead of twisting, Sam says, “When I asked what you were going to do if you weren’t going to be king, you told me you had a more important job. The most important job in the country.”

Just like that, Dan knows. He knows the exact words, but it’s not his own mouth he remembers them from. “The king ensures the country’s future. The Knight Prince ensures the king’s future.”

“Yeah,” Sam says, and he looks at Dan in a way he doesn’t deserve.

“You sure Dad didn’t tell you that?” Dan asks.

Sam laughs again. “No, it was definitely you.”

“Huh.” When Sam looks at him funny, Dan adds, “Dad’s the one who told me that, is all.”

“Really?”

“What, you thought a – what was I – an eight-year-old could come up with something that weighty?”

“Uh,” Sam says. “Yeah, actually.” He looks down and then smiles a little ruefully. “Fine, point taken. But I’m pretty sure the rest of it was you.”

“Sam, if you think I have any idea what I told you two decades ago, you got another think coming.”

“...That was two decades ago,” Sam says. “Wow. We’re old.”

Dan snorts. “You turned twenty-five today, calm down.”

“You’re almost thirty.”