Sage turned his head to face Taro. Oxley's words repeated over and over in his mind. "An ivy plant?" he questioned.
"Yeah. And then that murder weapon ended up in my brother's bedroom." Oxley crossed his arms, glancing between them both as Sage leapt to his feet.
"What the hell is this?" he asked with a hammering heart. He pointed at Taro who's eyes were wide and confused. "Explain yourself, now!"
"You . . ." Taro leapt to his feet too and pointed at Oxley. "You used me to murder a person?" he yelled. "A person? An actual human being?"
"Well, you were very conveniently at the scene." Oxley narrowed his eyes. "Sorry about trying to kill you as well, I was just sure you were a guard of Patrick's or something until I did some digging."
"That was you who tried to kill him?" Sage shouted and gripped his hair, remember the panic of waking up to Taro in his broken pot with soil scattered all over the floor. "Taro, you told me that what happened to you was an animal attack!"
"Because I thought it was!" Taro edged closer and Sage edged back. "I had been in the pub a few streets down from the one Oxley usually goes to. I was with my mum at first, but I stayed behind with the owner who had gotten their hands on illegal plant food. If it's mixed with boiling water, it gives the green a feeling of being drunk. I tried it and passed out on the wall on the way home. I felt something rip-" Taro's breath wavered. "I felt something ripping me apart, I only assumed it was an animal because Mrs Beecham found me on her way to work by the country roads. I thought a fox had dragged me to a field or something. They hate the green, they know we're different to other plants."
Sage scrunched his eyes shut. He rubbed his forehead, feeling it creasing against his palm. "They said Patrick was strangled. They said there were marks on his neck, and it was probably done by a cord. So, my younger brother used my boyfriend to kill him, and then later tried to kill my boyfriend." He shook his head at Oxley. "Did you know he would've been a green, but you didn't mind using him to kill Patrick anyway?"
"Yeah." Oxley glanced guiltily at Taro. "I apologise for almost killing you, and I apologise for trying to kill you. But that was risky to just sit there on the wall like that, all planty and stuff. Anyone could've just taken you home."
Taro wrung his hands. "I was used to kill a man."
Sage trembled from head to toe. He felt as though he would pass out. "I need air." When he tried to leave, Taro grabbed his arm.
"I had nothing to do with this, well not out of choice!" he said in a panic. "Do you believe me?"
He glanced to his brother who stood with loosely crossed arms and a half-bored expression. A furious rage boiled inside of Sage. He suddenly wanted to slap him across the face. "Of course, I believe you," he said to Taro, but kept his cold eyes on his brother. His hand dropped down Taro's hand and they linked fingers. "Why would you keep me in the dark about all of this?"
"Because I didn't think you could handle it."
"Why not?"
"Because-" Oxley sighed and looked down to his feet. "You can barely handle a few reporters lying about you. I thought this would just tip you over the edge. You've been on the brink of a breakdown for ages. A gay king, we can manage. But a mad king . . . "
Sage shook his head. Does anybody apart from Taro know who I truly am? "We used to be really close." Sage trailed his brother up and down. "Now we barely know each other. When did that happen?" He left with Taro beside him.
They walked in silence to the gardens and sat together in the middle of the large field. Grass had been freshly cut, leaves were falling from trees in the corner of the fields, rustling the air. Sage could hear a quiet buzz of voices in the distance and wondered if the crowds were still calling his name beyond the wall.
He laid back on the grass to look at the sky- white and grey and very grey in the distance. "I should really stop getting so surprised. The Greenthenors are not short of stories about betrayal."
Taro laid next to him. He inhaled deeply and murmured, "A storm soon."
Sage turned his head. Taro's green eyes were bright in the daylight, but darkened with the stir of a memory he had clearly tried to forget. "Did you honestly think that an animal had done that to you?"
"That was my first time drunk. I had felt hands on my vines, but the more I thought about it, the more it felt like teeth, maybe." Taro pursed his lips and closed his eyes. "Maybe it was Patrick biting to get free."
Sage quickly loomed over him. He rested a hand on Taro's cheek. "What a horrible thing."
"I guess I shouldn't have had that illegal plant food."
"Oxley knew you were a green and still used you in your vulnerable state, knowing it would hurt or even kill you. And then he tried to kill you again." Sage frowned hard. "I'm so shocked that my parents were so easy to accept what he had done."
Taro opened his eyes and copied his frown. "What I went through was traumatic, but in some way, I helped to kill a guy who would've tried to kill you. Yeah, it's all majorly fucked up, but . . . I'm still alive and so are you. Oxley has done this to protect you, and obviously himself. He's still a massive knob though. And I really don't like him." Taro sat up, forcing a smile. "I had a feeling it was Oxley who might've knocked me off your nightstand and trampled on me in the night. He looked pretty surprised when he next saw me. I just assumed he knew I was a green and hiding out in your room."
"Why didn't you say anything to me?"
"It was just a feeling. I didn't want to cause rifts between you and your brother." Taro leaned back on the palm of his hands and looked to the sky. "I'm pretty lucky, I've stared death in the face twice, and both times you've fixed me."
"I'm just passionate about plants."
"That's obvious." Taro's eyes glimmered with mischief. "Look who you're dating."
Sage smiled, but glanced around, wondering if anyone was watching from the large Palace windows. "Anyway," he said, shuffling closer, "I thought Devil's Ivy was really hard to kill."
"We can be, but it depends on whether our human side is in good health too." Taro also shuffled closer. Their hips touched and their faces were close. "Sometimes when I'm around you I just feel . . . " he shook his head as if saying it aloud would sound odd.
"You feel what?"
"I feel like I'm getting stronger. I just feel like it's easier to grow around you."
"That's nice," Sage said with a warm chest.
"Yeah, but it's also unusual."
"Is it? Why?"
Taro shrugged. "No idea, but I want to find out."
"How?"
Taro shrugged again. "Didn't you hear what your brother said about you? Something about Patrick not wanting a prophecy in power. What do you think that means?"
"Prophecy in power?" Sage repeated. "He could've been talking about my mum."
Taro's low hum didn't sound so sure. "She just makes me feel uneasy when I'm around her."
Sage chuckled. "She has that influence on people."
"So does your dad. Your parents are intimidating."
"They are." Sage tilted his head. "Are you okay with being here? If you're too uncomfortable then I'd be more than happy to go-"
"I'm fine. We've not even been back for a day. If I really can't handle it, then I'll be honest with you."
Sage nodded. "Okay. Just as long as you're sure."
"I am. And they know about the green, so I won't have to pretend that I'm not hungry or anything at your mealtimes."
Sage laughed. "I hadn't even thought about that." He nudged Taro's hip. "How're you feeling? You haven't turned into your plant yet today."
"I'm okay for now. Maybe when the rain comes, we should go to your room. You look like you could use a nap. No offence, of course," Taro said, nudging him back.
The rain fell soon after their conversation withered into a soft windy silence. They lounged in Sage's bedroom for a while, and he felt guilty that he still thought of it as just his bedroom. Taro sat in his pot on the bedside table for almost two hours while Sage drifted in and out of sleep, then sat on his windowsill to read a book. Part of him wanted to go and pester Oxley and yell at him some more about what he had really been up to.
My little brother is a murderer. His stomach churned. Patrick would be a murderer if he wasn't, and I'd likely be dead. Why am I so oblivious to everything around me? He stared from his window for a long time, thinking about his future with Taro and with the crown. He wouldn't yet be King for years, and he couldn't pass the throne to Oxley when his time did come because he didn't want it. He wondered whether Taro really wanted that royal life. He wondered about the ancient agreement that his kind and the Royals made many years ago. He wondered whether the agreement had been simple words or crafted from something more.
"You once talked about the ancient agreement being bound by magic," he said when Taro changed back to his human form and joined him on the windowsill with tired puffy eyes and ruffled blond hair. "I would've disregarded that as a massive myth if someone else had told me the same thing."
"Is that what you've been thinking about?" he asked, stifling a yawn.
"Yeah. Well, I just think that if I'm dating a green, I should know everything about your history and our history. You said that sometimes you're drawn to the royals. Where we go, you go, that's what you said. Maybe that's why you feel good when you're around me."
Taro sleepily reached out and rested a hand on Sage's knee. "I've been around your family now. Trust me, it's just with you. There's something interesting about just you."