Welcome to The Prince’s Boy by Cecilia Tan, a tale of a prince and his whipping boy ensnared in a plot of dark erotic magic. Warning: explores themes of dubious consent and situations of sexual jeopardy. NSFW.

A new chapter appears every Wednesday. This week is Chapter Twenty-One: Kenet

21: Kenet

I was on time for my meeting with my father, as I had been every time since the winter. We met on his private terrace, high up the side of the castle. Sometimes the castle itself seems like a mountain, as if it formed there by the forces of nature rather than by the work of human hands. From the terrace I could look down one side and over the gardens where I had seen Bear and Jorin practice in the spring.

Father’s gaze was for the horizon, so close to us on this side thanks to the mountains. I had often heard it said that no army would find a way to us over those mountains and through those trees, and I remarked on it.

“That is why they attack us by other means,” he replied.

“I have heard about the blight in the south,” I said, trying to sound more like one of his advisors than like the boy I had so recently been. “Although there is still talk about a battle that took place on the Serde? At Tiger’s Mouth?”

My father hissed as if in pain. “If you want stories of battle and glory, go down to the guard barracks and listen to them. But the tale of Tiger’s Mouth is not one of glory.”

“What happened there?”

“So few survived, we are still not sure,” he said, leaning heavily upon the stone wall with both hands. “I suspect that the Night Riders took advantage of some freak occurrence of nature. Even a mage like Seroi could not single-handedly wipe out a garrison of five hundred men.”

“What is the Night Riders’ most dangerous weapon?” I asked, wondering if there was some spell or fighting technique they used.

“Lies,” he said, surprising me. “They are masters of deception and when they infiltrate a town, they spread deceit and distrust. They create rumors against the crown, undermine the local governors and lords, set the people against each other… which weakens an area such that when they attack, the resistance crumbles.”

But surely a garrison of soldiers would not be deceived by lies and political propaganda? I opened my mouth to say so, but he had turned toward the doorway and led me into his quarters. There he poured us each a glass of chilled nectar and bade me sit at the ornate table in the parlor. His bedroom was beyond another door; this room was furnished in rich style, with a table that could be set for four or replaced with a larger one, accompanied by a chest of serving things topped with a gilt-edged mirror. A maid had once told me that my father had brought the furniture back from Pellon. Now I wondered if he had acquired it during the tour he and my mother had taken.

I sat gingerly on the edge of the cushioned chair and sipped from the glass. Falla nectar and honey and the deep chilled water from under the mountain.

“How are your preparations for your coming of age ceremony progressing?” he asked. “Seroi has kept me in the dark about the details.”

I looked up in surprise. “Did you not have such a ceremony, too?”

“I did, but mine was different from yours. I had different magics worked on me as a youth than you.”

“Oh.” I felt the heat starting to come to my cheeks as I tried not to think about what Seroi was doing to me to undo the suppressive spells that had kept my sexual urges in check. If not for this meeting with my father, I would have been in his tower today, this minute, doing who knows what to abase myself for the privilege of release. “To tell you the truth, he hasn’t told me much about the ceremony either, but we do prepare magically. I believe when the time comes he’ll tell me what to say and what to do.“

My father nodded, and I could see the indentation in his forehead that the crown he normally wore had left like a dueling scar. “He certainly did for me. He will not give you the chance to fail.” At that he chuckled. “I will tell you this much, if he has not. The actual ceremony will be performed in the woods, with just him, me, you, and perhaps two or three others present.”

I sat up straighter suddenly, not because this news dismayed me, but because I felt the distinct sensation of a hand coming to rest on my crotch. I glanced down, wondering if I were going mad and had forgotten where my hands were. But no, one was around my glass, the other on the arm of the chair.

“Bear and Captain Jaiks, perhaps, to ensure we are not ambushed,” my father went on, oblivious to my distress. The hand began to move, stroking me through my leggings. “After we return to the castle, there will be an official sort of ceremony in front of all assembled, but it is just a formality for the court. The true ceremony will have already been performed.”

“I-I understand,” I said. The sensation intensified, and then there was a sudden pinch right at the cleft of my cock head! I yelped, sloshing some of my drink into my lap a moment later to cover why. I leapt up, setting the glass down, rubbed at my leggings with my tunic. I tried to brush the sensations away, but they continued. “Clumsy! An insect bit me and now look what I’ve done.”

My father chuckled indulgently. “You will need a steadier hand for dinners with other heads of state,” he said.

I sat back down quickly, now trying to use the table to hide my groin from view. I hunched over. “Yes, definitely,” I agreed. “Sergetten didn’t teach me that part of manners. Will he return soon, you think?”

“I do not know,” my father said, his face suddenly grave. “You should not speak of his absence if you can help it. I wish as little attention be paid to it as possible. If anyone should ask you where he has gone, you must say he went to research one of his arcane interests, and then tell me who it was that asked.”

“Y-yes, Father…” The sensation of the hand—wrapped around my cock now and stroking me with quick tugs—made it difficult to speak.

“Are you well, my son?” he asked, brow furrowing with concern.

I clutched my stomach, a lie rolling easily off my tongue. “I think perhaps something I ate at midday was not good.”

“Go to your rooms and I will send a nurse there to meet you,” he said, rising and pulling a bell cord near the door. “You look flushed. Is it the return of the fever you suffered so recently?”

“Doesn’t… doesn’t feel like it…” I got up hurriedly as a maid opened the door in answer to the summons. “Sometimes… the spells that Seroi casts…”

My father did not hesitate. “Take him to Seroi,” he barked at the maid. “I will see you at banquet, Kenet, if you are feeling better.”

“Yes, father.” I hurried out, ahead of the woman who trailed after me, flustered. She closed the door behind us and then chased me into the corridor. I slipped onto a settle there as the hand that stroked me continued, hidden from her view by my tunic and my hunched position. “I will… I can make my own way there…”

She fanned me with her apron and pressed one cool hand to my cheek. “If it’s the Lord High Mage you’re needing, I can fetch him here for you, Prince Kenet.”

I shook my head. “My father jumps to conclusions. It’s merely something I ate. I’ll go to my own room.”

“If you’re sure, my prince.”

“Yes, yes, I’m sure.” I got to my feet and hurried down the corridor and then once I was around the corner, slipped into one of the secret passages behind a tapestry that hung to the floor. My goal was not a shortcut to Seroi’s tower, but merely to get out of sight.

I freed my cock from my breeches, moaning as the sensation increased all the more. Magehands. This had to be Seroi’s doing! I groaned again, as the sorcerous touch kept me on the edge of coming without actually being enough to take me over. I tried to take hold of my flesh myself only to find the way blocked by the invisible hands.

I do not know how long I lay there, my back against the tunnel’s wall, before I realized that only Seroi would be able to give me relief. I began to crawl in the direction of his tower, knowing this back passage would at least bring me out near the courtyard of the Tour Tapestry.

Jorin wouldn’t be able to find me here, I realized. Only I had the touch that would open the doors to the secret passages. I hadn’t realized that at first, but Bear had told me once I’d asked him why I could and Jorin couldn’t, that it was a matter of royal blood. There were spells one could put on locks and doors and boxes and things such that they would only open for us. The Rose Gate, he said, was the largest of them all.

I passed through a part of the tunnel that was completely dark, but I pressed on, getting to my feet and hurrying, then hugging the wall at the bend, trying helplessly to rut against the stone itself, but to no avail.

I was lying at the bottom of a few stairs, desperately but vainly trying to rub my cock against the floor, when the secret door there opened and Seroi scooped me up in his arms. His real hand took hold of my cock then as he kissed me, his tongue darting into my mouth to coax more hungry moans from me.

“My prince, my prince,” he said, his voice soothing in the dark, “there is no need for you to suffer so. I am here.”

“Seroi.” My voice was rough and dry. “Please. I need release.”

“I know, my prince. I know. You must have missed me to be in such a state.”

I was thrusting into his hand, which was wonderfully slick, his grip firm. “Was this not your doing? Were you not… touching me magically?”

“While you met with your father?” He gave a scandalized hiss. “No, my prince. This magic is your own doing. This is your need calling to me.”

I whimpered, needing to come more than ever and fearing now that I would not be able to, even with him stroking me as he was.

“Your magic runs deep, my prince,” he crooned. “Your needs, deeper. Else you would not have opened the door here for me.”

Oh. I was the one who opened the door? Just by wishing? That didn’t feel right but what did I know of magic? “Please, Seroi, I need to come. Please make me spill.”

“Indeed, my prince, I am surprised you have not yet. But perhaps all your body’s cravings have not yet been met.” He lay me back on his robe then, and knelt between my knees, licking the head of my cock and then suckling in earnest while his fingers scratched at my hole, stabbing me suddenly and prying me open. I cried out with the sharp pain but also the sudden rush of ecstasy as my orgasm broke loose. Release at last! He sucked up every drop with not a complaint about its flavor and I counted myself curious enough to pull him up to kiss me, his mouth on my mouth. But I tasted mostly the sweat from my own upper lip.

When he pulled back it was to stroke my hair tenderly. “I will teach you the proper way to ask for a kiss later,” he murmured. “For now, it pleases me that you desired one. Expressing your desires is very important for you right now, my prince. You must not hide them from me.”

“No, my lord,” I said, weak from the sudden release after being held on edge for so long.

“You are beautiful,” he said, as he picked me up in his arms. I was surely too large for that, but he must have had some magical strength to carry me thus. He carried me through the passages and somewhere in the darkness I fell into a deep sleep.

* * *

Can’t wait a whole week for the next chapter? Skip ahead: download book one (chapters 1-56) for a mere 99 cents from Amazon or from Circlet Press!

About the author: Cecilia Tan is the award-winning author of many erotic books and stories and the founder of Circlet Press.