Chapter 95: Homecoming

Chapter 95: Chapter 95: Homecoming

Sebastian had expected the flight to be uneventful.

He had not expected everyone involved in getting him onto the aircraft to behave as though he might disintegrate somewhere between the villa and the boarding stairs.

By the time the armored car stopped beside the private jet on Villa Petrana’s rear tarmac, Duncan had asked how he felt twice, Hale had looked at the medical sensor around his wrist three separate times, and Nero had maintained one hand against Sebastian’s lower back from the moment they left the building.

Sebastian stepped out into the mild afternoon air and looked at the aircraft waiting beneath the clear sky.

Then at the security personnel positioned around it.

Then at Nero.

"I am fine."

Nero adjusted the light jacket Sebastian wore over a cream shirt, smoothing the collar where the wind had folded it inward.

"I didn’t ask."

"You were about to."

"I was checking your jacket."

"You have checked my jacket twice."

Nero’s fingers lingered briefly at the back of his neck before withdrawing.

"It keeps moving."

"The atmosphere tends to do that."

Hale walked past them carrying his tablet, his red-brown hair barely disturbed by the wind despite the open tarmac, while Duncan remained several steps behind Sebastian with the small medical case he had apparently decided should never be farther than arm’s reach.

Sebastian looked between them.

"Is everyone planning to stare at me for the entire flight?"

Duncan answered with remarkable composure.

"Only if necessary, my lord."

"It won’t be."

Nero offered his hand at the bottom of the aircraft stairs.

Sebastian looked at it.

"I can climb stairs."

"I know."

"You have watched me climb them for weeks."

"I have."

Sebastian took his hand anyway.

Nero’s fingers closed immediately around his, the familiar smoke and burning wood of his pheromones remaining faint but constant around them as they ascended into the cabin.

The aircraft had been configured for considerably more comfort than anyone required for a domestic flight. A wide lounge occupied the front section, furnished with cream leather seats and low dark tables, while farther back a private cabin had already been prepared with a bed in case Sebastian became tired.

Sebastian stopped in the aisle and looked toward it.

"Nero."

The prince followed his gaze.

"What?"

"You prepared a bed."

"It came with the aircraft."

"With my medication arranged beside it?"

Nero glanced toward the small bedside compartment where several labeled doses and a bottle of water had been placed with suspicious precision.

"Coincidence."

Sebastian stared at him until Nero smiled.

At least the man was becoming himself again.

Once they were seated, the fussing became worse.

Duncan checked Sebastian’s sensor before takeoff.

Hale confirmed the flight time with the cockpit and then asked whether the cabin temperature was comfortable.

An attendant appeared with water before Sebastian had requested any.

Nero buckled his seat belt, then leaned across and inspected Sebastian’s.

Sebastian caught his wrist.

"If you tighten that any further, you are going to create the medical emergency everyone is waiting for."

Nero glanced down.

The belt was perfectly normal.

"I was checking it."

"You are all behaving as though I am one abrupt turn away from death."

That quieted the immediate area.

Sebastian exhaled and leaned back against the seat.

"I’m not saying I don’t understand why."

His gaze moved briefly toward Nero.

The memory of waking after the berserk episode still lived too close beneath both of them for Sebastian to pretend the anxiety had appeared from nowhere.

"But I am fine today. Actually fine. No dizziness, no pain, no instability, no strange readings, and no desire to lie to any of you about it."

Nero’s expression softened slightly.

Sebastian squeezed his wrist before releasing it.

"You can breathe."

"I am breathing."

"Poorly."

That earned him the faintest smile.

When the aircraft finally lifted away from the coast, Sebastian expected his body to react somehow.

It did not.

His ears adjusted to the climb, his stomach noticed the change in altitude for perhaps thirty seconds, and then the flight became exactly what Roberta and Claude had promised it would be.

Ordinary.

Sebastian sat beside the window for the first hour, watching the coastline disappear beneath them while Nero worked through a small stack of documents beside him.

Or attempted to.

Every few minutes, Nero’s hand left the tablet and settled somewhere on Sebastian.

His knee.

His wrist.

The back of his neck.

Once, inexplicably, his thigh.

Sebastian eventually looked down at the large hand resting there.

"Are you verifying that I haven’t vanished?"

Nero continued reading.

"Yes."

"At least you admit it."

The hand remained.

Sebastian let it.

Hale occupied one of the seats across the cabin, reviewing security reports through an earpiece, while Duncan eventually surrendered his vigilance enough to take coffee near the rear compartment.

The flight passed without incident.

Sebastian ate.

He walked once through the cabin to prove that he could.

He refused the bed.

Nero looked disappointed by that last decision but survived.

By the time the pilot announced their descent toward Altera, the late-afternoon sky had turned gold.

Sebastian moved closer to the window.

The city appeared gradually beneath them, sprawling across the landscape in pale stone, glass, and dark green avenues before the royal district came into view near its center.

He recognized Dax and Christopher’s palace immediately.

He had seen it enough times, but the aircraft did not descend toward the royal residence.

Instead, it continued farther east.

Sebastian looked at Nero.

Nero had stopped pretending to work.

"My palace has its own landing grounds."

"Of course it does."

"You sound disappointed."

"I was hoping we might have to use a normal driveway eventually."

"That seems unnecessarily inconvenient."

Sebastian smiled and returned his attention to the window.

The Crown Prince’s palace emerged beyond a wide belt of landscaped grounds, separated from the main royal complex by enough distance to make it clearly independent without placing it outside the protected central district.

It was not what Sebastian had expected.

He had imagined something darker.

Instead, the palace combined pale stone with long sections of glass, broad terraces descending toward gardens, and dark roofs broken by modern extensions that had clearly been added long after the original structure was built. It was elegant without resembling a ceremonial monument, large enough to house the Crown Prince’s household while still looking like somewhere a person might actually live.

Sebastian understood immediately why Nero had called it home.

The aircraft landed smoothly.

Nero’s hand found his before the wheels had fully slowed.

Sebastian looked at their joined fingers.

"You managed an entire flight without a medical disaster."

"I am exceptionally talented."

"I was referring to me."

"Mhm."

The palace staff were waiting beyond the private arrival pavilion, though someone had sensibly kept the welcome restrained. No ceremonial line, no press, no officials demanding Nero’s attention before he had even reached the building.

Only security, household staff, and several vehicles for the short distance from the landing ground to the palace entrance.

Nero stayed beside Sebastian throughout it.

When they entered the palace, Sebastian slowed.

The central halls were brighter than he expected, their pale stone softened by dark wood, modern artwork, and enormous windows overlooking interior gardens. There were royal details everywhere if someone knew where to look—silver Sahan insignia worked discreetly into doors, old portraits placed between contemporary pieces, and the Crown Prince’s crest embedded into the floor beneath the main staircase—but none of it overwhelmed the space.

Nero watched Sebastian rather than the palace.

"Well?"

Sebastian looked around.

"I’m deciding."

"That sounds dangerous."

"It looks like you."

Nero’s eyebrows lifted.

Sebastian glanced toward a massive abstract sculpture occupying one side of the entrance hall.

"Expensive, slightly threatening, and convinced it deserves more space than everyone else."

Hale coughed behind them.

Nero smiled.

"I knew you would like it."

They passed through the formal section quickly, following a quieter corridor beyond a secured set of doors where staff traffic thinned and the palace changed character.

The ceilings lowered slightly.

The artwork became more personal.

Sebastian noticed photographs among the paintings now, books left on narrow console tables, and a dark coat hanging carelessly near one of the side entrances in a way no formal royal residence would have tolerated.

Nero touched his access ring to the final security panel.

The doors unlocked.

He looked at Sebastian.

Something in his expression had changed.

The excitement was still there, but beneath it sat a vulnerability Sebastian had rarely seen from him.

This was not another palace tour.

Nero was bringing him into the part of his life no ceremony touched.

"Ready?" Nero asked.

Sebastian looked through the opening toward the warm light beyond.

Then he took Nero’s hand.

"Yes."

Nero opened the doors fully.

Together, they stepped into the Crown Prince’s personal wing.