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 Eighty-Nine: Kenet

89: Kenet

“My prince, this is… this was not in the plan,” Bear said nervously.

“Rescuing my father most certainly was in the plan,” I answered as I picked my way to the top of the Snake Ladder.

“You gallivanting off alone was not in the plan,” he clarified. “And, I’m sorry, my prince, but I will not fit down there.”

Indeed, it looked as if his shoulders would get stuck after only a few steps. “I am just going to have a look. If I can, I’ll speak with him, and then bring him with me back to you. We must get him out of the mage’s clutches.”

Bear looked miserable, but resigned. “I shall wait here, my prince.”

“Good.” I put my hand on his shoulder. “Thank you again for your loyalty and your sacrifices, Bear. I would not be the man I am today were it not for you.” I stood on tiptoe to press a kiss to his cheek, and then quickly descended the stairs.

I reached the spyhole above the portrait first. I could not see my father, but this view did not extend all the way into his private chamber. I strained to hear.

I heard a muffled crack, as if someone had been struck with a whip. My heart in my throat, I hurried the rest of the way into the room.

I crossed the hearth where once Jorin had been savagely beaten because I had been late. There were few places in these rooms, I realized, where he had not taken some kind of punishment for me. But who was being whipped now?

I slipped into the antechamber to the bedroom and peered through the open door.

There was my father, kneeling on the floor, his head bowed into one hand, sobbing softly. He was stripped to the waist, and it took me a moment to absorb what I was seeing. He was facing the door, his trousers were open, and his cock was hanging free.

While I watched, it rose. It was impressively thick and many men of that girth would not have been able to gain such a rigid erection. He removed his hand from his eyes and reached to stroke it, then gave a strangled cry, and flung his other hand upward.

At first I thought the motion some kind of spasm, but no. He held a short whip in that hand and it cracked loudly in my ears as he struck himself across the back. He sobbed again, and struck himself again, then a third time, and at last his erection began to flag.

“Jaiks, I’m sorry,” he mumbled.

But a few moments later, his erection returned to full glory, and his sobbing returned full force. This time he struck himself quickly, three times in succession, and then when that did not seem like enough, he quite suddenly unleashed the fury of the whip onto his cock itself.

I could bear to see no more. I stepped into the room. “Father!”

He looked up at me, wild-eyed.

“It’s me, Father. Kenet!”

He struggled to his feet, looking at me in disbelief. “Am I already dead? Are you some shade, come to take me to the netherworld?”

“No, Father. I’m alive and so are you. I… I have been fighting to save Trest. There is far too much you do not know.” Remembering something Bear had once told me, I hurried to the mirror that stood upon his dressing table and threw a shirt over it.

He turned away suddenly, pulling his trousers closed. “I… I cannot bear for you to see me this way. It is… disgraceful.”

“It’s not your fault, Father,” I said softly. “The mage has been manipulating you for years. Not just with words but with magic. He tried to bind me as a slave, but I escaped the attempt. He will still do it, though, if I fall into his clutches.” I took up another shirt and encouraged him to put his arm through one sleeve.

“The mage?” Some comprehension, or at least hope, seemed to dawn in his eyes. “But then, why are you here? Kenet, you have put yourself in danger!”

“I know, Father, but someone had to come rescue you.”

“I need no rescuing! I am the king of Trest! This is preposterous…”

“Yes, yes, I know,” I said, rubbing his upper arm with my hand. “Please, Father, you must come with me.”

He followed me a few steps and then stopped again. “Where? Where are we going?”

“Somewhere safe.” I realized that all my explanations were going to go nowhere. Anything I told him was likely to be too much for his mind, which seemed as frail as his body had become. Was it his own self-hatred and fear of his desires that had eaten away his health, or had Seroi encouraged his loathing to fester and spoil in his heart? Both, I thought. Both.

I took him by the hand, but he would not come when I tugged.

There was a knock at the door. Seroi? Or a guard?

I could handle neither. “Please, Father, please.” I drew a deep breath, steeling myself for what I was about to say, and for what his reaction might be.

“If you love me,” I said, “then you must come with me.”

He hesitated just a moment, as another knock came on the door, but then he nodded. “Of course,” he said, as if I had just made the most logical statement in the world. “Of course, my son.”

I pulled him into the Snake Ladder just as a guard finally pushed in the door. “My king! The castle is under attack!” He searched back and forth. “My king? Are you here?”

For a moment I thought I would have to put my hand over my father’s mouth to keep him from answering. But he stayed silent, and then guard went to search elsewhere.

When he was gone, my father whispered, “I disgraced Captain Jaiks earlier. Perhaps he sent that guard to kill me. Seroi warned me that there would be an attempt on my life. Oh, except…” He seemed to realize that he had tied himself a logical knot and fell silent.

I thought about Jaiks stabbing the chair; mad though my father’s words were, I could not entirely dispute the sentiment. “We have our own guards,” I said. “Ones who are loyal to us and not the mage. Bear is waiting above us.”

“Bear?”

“Yes, Father, my old guard, whom the mage tortured after my escape.”

“Ah yes, I remember that now. A… cruel, cruel business. He will not be pleased to see my face again.”

“He is loyal to the crown, Father.” And he knows the mage has been twisting you, I thought. “That is all that matters.”

“Yes, you are right. I… I can no longer see right and wrong, my son. You must be the one to tell me, for I can trust neither my eyes nor anyone else now.”

We climbed until we reached Bear again. “Whatever Seroi has been poisoning him with, it has weakened his mind as well,” I said. “And we overheard a guard say the attack has begun.”

Bear knew how to be gentle and speak to the simple. I was surprised my father hugged him and soon all three of us were moving.

* * *

Impatient to find out the fate of Kenet and Jorin? Book one (chapters 1-56) is now on sale for only 99 cents in ebook from all your favorite retailers or direct 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.