feelings of her own. His brother Balt would be furious if he saw this letter. He hated anything that made people out to be a slave or would offend his once-slave wife.
His eyes scanned the page to the proposed date of the wedding. It was only a week away. It turned his stomach so much that he screwed the note up and threw it over his shoulder into his room.
He couldn’t marry without knowing the woman first or even knowing her name. It was impossible. He couldn’t marry without having seen the universe first. He’d never even been into deep space.
A thought crossed his mind, brilliant and glittering like a jewel at first, but quickly becoming tarnished when his better sense said that his parents would never allow him to go into deep space, not even with his brothers.
He sighed and stared longingly at the stars.
Perhaps there was another way.
The bell rang for dinner and he trudged wearily across his room and out of the door, his thoughts still with the beautiful night sky and his heart still fixed on seeing deep space before he was married. Perhaps the other way was the only way.
He sat down at one end of the long dark wood dining table while his parents sat at the other. Even during his meals he was lonely, left sitting what felt like miles from his parents because that was what propriety dictated. He leaned his right elbow against the table top, propped his chin up on his palm and played distractedly with his food.
“ Sebastian!” His mother’s voice rang across the room.
His gaze slid to her. She was frowning so hard he couldn’t see her eyes. She motioned towards his elbow. He rolled his eyes and sat straight, removing his arm from the table.
At thirty four, he had thought he would have more freedom. His life seemed to be getting more and more controlled the older he got. He was tired of being treated like a child and not like the man he was. His parents never saw the real him. They didn’t know him. They only knew the boy they believed him to be—the one they wanted him to be. He sighed again and decided that he would go through with his plan.
He couldn’t get married without seeing those stars and another system, or the blackness of deep space. He wanted to see the things his brothers saw and told him about whenever they came home.
“ Mother,” he said in a cautious voice. “I’m going to visit Balt on Lyra Five.”
She snorted. “You certainly are not.”
“ But the child will be born soon... I would like to be there when it is. I promised Balt that I would be.”
“ Don’t be ridiculous. Kayla will come here to have the child, as tradition dictates.”
He frowned. He hated tradition. Why couldn’t he have been born the second eldest son? He supposed that the less freedom you had the more you longed for it. Kayla had told him as much once, just after her wedding. She’d been radiant with sheer joy. She’d told him that she’d never felt as free as the day his brother had removed her collar and said she belonged to no one but herself.
He wished he belonged to no one but himself.
He was the property of the imperial family though, and of Lyra. Heir Prince.
“ Kayla will not leave Lyra Five. She is intent on having her baby there with Balt and the Terran midwives.” He knew that this slip of knowledge would stir trouble, but he didn’t care. Right now, he wanted to spite his mother for not letting him leave Lyra Prime and this seemed the perfect way.
“ What?” She stood sharply, sending the cutlery rattling when her legs knocked the table. His father placed a hand on her arm. She shook it off. “It was agreed she would come here!”
“ Balt says that Kayla said no such thing and that they were going to have the baby on Lyra Five.”
His mother stormed towards him. He hadn’t seen her this angry since Balt had originally announced his intention to marry Kayla. His brother had guts to go against their mother. Maybe he had the guts too.