Ira had had a lot of time to think on what he had done, the carelessness of running off to Tortuga on an impulse because he had suddenly endured the idea of being her savior. Mostly, he was full of insufferable and infectious regret. He had known better and Jinx had specifically told him not to sacrifice Silvertip for Bones, though he still did not see it as a sacrificing of one for the other. Even so, he had gotten no where near Bones and his own idiocy had nearly cost him his life though he had a sinking feeling the more time that ached by like the pulse of blood beneath a bruise that it would cost him much more than his life. How he had even been romanced the idea of playing the dark Prince Charming was still questionable and beyond that it had been stupid. He was a harbinger of death and destruction and it was proven time and time again; now he was left to face the consequences of his actions from this end of it, as well. He knew he had to face them, knew that regardless of what would come to pass that he would accept them because he deserved them.

He paused for a moment as he paced — having decided since his lesson with Kaname in the Heartwood previously that he would linger near it — to scratch at the wound on his neck. The skin was red and agitated because he had no idea how to properly care for it beyond cleansing it with salt water though for all Ira knew could have been doing more damage than good. It had started to scab though and he was careful to avoid tearing it open. It was an ugly thing and hated that he had to wear it on display for everyone to say like a giant neon sign ‘hey he failed’. It was humiliating and bothered him because he was a shallow creature who did not fancy ever bearing a scar of any type. It was why he favored the secrecy and discreetness of killing with poisons. It kept his claws from getting dirty.

Ira’s back leg lowered from his neck when he heard a familiar voice summon him in a howl, adrenaline spiking through his heart causing his veins to feel frozen as his heart dropped and then sprinted with anticipation even as his ears laid back against his skull. Jinx. Knowing he could never ignore her summons he made his way to her, pace slowed by the heaviness he felt in his entire body at the anticipation of seeing her again. He wanted to see her, of course, it was why he had went looking for her, but at the same time he didn’t because he felt nervous. Nervous for what was about to unfold wondering if he really wanted to know. He shrugged through the forest, and overgrown brush lowering his tail into a submissive pose when he found her, hating that his face betrayed his guilt, because he was guilty and he did feel remorse. He swallowed, his breath getting caught in the middle of his throat as he hindered with trepidation on if he wanted to greet her verbally or by closing the distance between them before he decided neither and stood silently there like a child who knew they had done wrong waiting for the scolding to begin, or the invitation to speak.

He watched remorsefully with his heart beat hammering in his ears which had slicked down to lay against the angles of his skull as Jinx exposed her teeth and bristled at him, his body sinking lower, tail tucking between his legs in full blown submission to her, pronounced by the exposure of his throat to her. The pallid Princeling winced as the action tugged at the scabbing wound on his neck but held it nevertheless. It was a rare display, and Ira would have, under normal circumstances hated how vulnerable he was. How stripped bare and exposed inviting a death blow if she had decided to deal it…but this was Jinx; even furious with him she was still the only mother he had ever known and he still loved her. “I went to Swiftcurrent Creek like I had originally asked permission to do but when I got there Bones didn’t answer my calls. Eventually, someone did and told me that she’d been kidnapped, stolen back to Tortuga,” Ira braved a peek at Jinx’s face before diverting his eyes again, his voice calm even though he quivered with his remorse and the sinking and terrifying fear that no matter what he said she would not forgive him.

“I…it was stupid. It was an foolish impulse. I thought…,” He took a deep breath, afraid his voice would crack and not exactly from his puberty. “— that I could save her. It was a grand vision in my head that I would be the hero and that she would come to live in Silvertip and everything would be fine.” Except it hadn’t gone at all how it had played out in his mind and everything was so far from fine it wasn’t even remotely humorous. “They caught me and attacked. I should have never done it. I shouldn’t have disobeyed you just because I thought I could be a hero,” At that Ira did laugh though the sound was harsh and without mirth. “I’m sorry. I never meant…I’m not a traitor. I would never …my loyalty is to you. Only you.” Where he realized it should have stayed only to her from the very beginning. He didn’t regret the time he had with Bones but he did regret going after her. “It was idiotic and it nearly cost me my life. I promise I’ll never do it again. I’m not like that ignorant stupid arrogant cur Majesty, please, please believe me.” He felt like a dirty and hungry beggar instead of a Prince. Maybe he had lost the right to that title. Maybe he had lost the right to everything. He didn’t know but expected he was due to find out very shortly.

"I will do anything it takes to prove it to you," He gasped. "Anything." He was already planning on trying to poison Erika's children if she was, indeed pregnant. If she wanted the babes mangled and bloody corpses he would bring them to her. Even as he promised it he had no idea of any ramifications his pleading might be attached too, though he didn't care at that point. He didn't expect her trust blindly put into him but he was willing to go to the ends of the earth to earn it back...if she would let him, or if there was anything to earn back.

This was going about as well as Ira had subconsciously feared and accepted it would, which was to say: not very well at all. She was angry at him, she deserved to be angry at him. He had went off and done a stupid thing. He accepted that fact and intended to learn from it though it seemed learning from it would without a doubt being in the hardest way. “No!” He protested, the word bursting from his lips in his panic. “No, I didn’t abandon you. I know going after her was wrong and stupid but I didn’t abandon you. I wouldn’t. Not ever,” She was the only family he’d ever had (that he could remember) and the fear of losing her because of his own stupidity had swollen within his chest like an ugly monster that was attempting to claw it’s way free of it’s prison of flesh and bone. “Even if it would have worked I was going to come back…I would never leave you.” Because on the scale of who mattered most to him it was Jinx though he understood how that could have been morphed by his own teenage stupidity and by the recent betrayals she had suffered. “I am not like them,” Ira hissed in his rising panic, his breath coming out in quick rasps and pants, his pupils dilated with it. “I am nothing like those traitorous curs,”

“Majesty always was as worthless as a pile of dog shit,” He had tried to be all high and mighty with Ira only to have Ira laugh in his face which had led to a growling match that would have been toe to toe with the reaction of a three month old being told off. He had liked to brag but as far as Ira had always been concerned that was all it had been: bragging. “And his whore is better off gone. I will tear the sniveling fetuses from her womb myself.” Even if, which he had a sinking realization that was probably going to happen, he would probably go after her and her children as ill guided revenge. Because why should someone else be happy when he wasn’t? “I didn’t abandon you…I promise I didn’t. Bones is dead to me.” It was cruel and caused the pain in his wound to flare though it was likely less of that and more because he had shifted his weight lower to the ground, hating himself.