Chapter 19 Audryn #2
“Have you eaten any of these before?” I drew back with a frown, unsure I wanted to put unknown witch food into my body.
We’d been told the witches were nothing but evil, yet he’d not only retrieved produce from their lands, but wanted me to consume it.
Maybe he wanted me to eat it first just to make sure it wasn’t poisonous.
The prince chuckled. “Nervous, eh?” Slowly, he brought the item to his lips while keeping his eyes on me. His plump lips wrapped around the tiny fruit. As he bit into half of it, the juice dribbled out of his mouth and onto his lower lip.
I reached out and rubbed a thumb over his pink skin, wiped up the running liquid, and brought my finger to my mouth to share the taste.
The flavor had a floral note mixed with the sourness of a pineapple.
He extended the other half to me. I accepted and popped it into my mouth.
The skin seemed to melt, exposing the inner flesh on my tongue instantly.
My eyes widened as the flavors mixed in my mouth, far more intense than I’d expected from the minuscule thing.
“Which one next?” Ryder eyed the two remaining items on the plate.
“Maybe we should save the others and have one each night?”
He drew back and tilted his head. “What’s the fun in waiting when you can have it all now? Would you save a tin of chocolates to eat later?”
“Of course! Otherwise, I’d only be left with a stomachache.” It shouldn’t have surprised me; royals were known for their overindulgence. From the rumors, he’d had a line of women at his disposal that he regularly gorged himself on.
“Let’s eat this one.” His hand moved to the yellow fruit that had a strip of kiwi fuzz. It was shaped like a yellow squash, but lacked a stem. He brushed a finger across the hair before picking it up into his hands.
“Sure.” I smiled as his eyes lit up.
The prince removed a dagger and frowned; dried blood and gore covered the blade.
Re-sheathing the dagger, he shrugged and sunk his teeth into the long fruit.
He winced, and I waited for him to fall over from whatever toxic juices it held.
Instead of swallowing, he emptied his mouth into a nearby cloth napkin.
“That good, huh?” My lips pursed, imagining whatever taste the wretched item held. Extending the fruit to me, I scowled. “You expect me to try it after I just saw how much you liked it?”
“You may never have another chance in your life to experience the things native to the witch lands. Do you want to pass up the opportunity just because you may not like it? Is it not enough to experience something, even if in the end your experience didn’t match your expectation?”
I considered his words. He was right, and the fruit wasn't the only way he had taught me this lesson. Selecting the yellow fruit from his hand, I brought it to my nose and took a shallow inhale. It wasn’t sweet or tart; in fact, there wasn’t much of a smell at all.
With something so mild, Ryder had likely overreacted to the flavor it possessed.
“What’s the name of this one?”
He shrugged. “I’m actually not sure. Only two names were given to me.”
I eyed the flesh of the yellow fruit suspiciously.
It was nearly the same color as its skin, almost indistinguishable even in texture.
Avoiding the strip of fuzz where Ryder had dug into it, I adjusted and bit into a different section.
The moment the juice hit my tongue, I was overwhelmed with a sickening flavor similar to bile.
Immediately, I spat the contents of my mouth into my hand, saliva a steady stream from my lips.
My jaw tingled from the sick in the back of my throat.
“Not worth the experience,” I mumbled out as I continued to spit the remaining remnants from my mouth.
“Here.” Ryder held a palm under my mouth, but I refused to spit into the hand of a royal.
I shook my head and swallowed down the foulness as my stomach clenched and threatened to give.
In a swift move, he scooped the half-chewed food from my hand and strode to the door.
Fisher stood at the threshold, ready to fend off whatever threat the prince had thrown open the door for.
What he hadn’t expected was for the handful of mush expelled from my mouth to be placed into his hand.
“Fetch a bottle and two glasses,” Ryder demanded, unnecessarily harsh toward the guard holding scraps of regurgitated witch produce. Fisher was unaffected by the request and marched away.
The guard returned minutes later—so fast he’d had to have run to get back so quickly. The last selection of fruit was uneventful, lightly sweetened with an indistinguishable flavor.
Conversation flowed as Ryder told me about the fight at the gates and we drank a deep red wine.
With so many killed, he had to have been underplaying the severity of the actual incident.
Surprisingly, he shared the strategy the guards took, which I would promptly pass on to Jaspar the moment I saw him again.
The local resistance wouldn’t be so careless to attack during the day.
But that didn’t mean there wasn’t something they couldn’t use from the newly obtained knowledge.
As Ryder poured the rest of the bottle into his glass and I finished my first, he stood. Unsure what the proper goodbye might be for a prince, I followed him to the door.
Ryder leaned forward slightly before he stopped himself. “It was a pleasure to spend the day with you, even if we were rudely interrupted for a time.”
“Thank you.” My breath hitched. “I actually enjoyed myself.”
“Actually?” he said and let loose a deep laugh from his belly. “I hope next time you are not so surprised to find yourself enjoying time with me.”