Chapter Sixteen
Another page filled with another song about heartbreak.
Lina sighed and tossed her pen onto the desk.
Her room was littered with song sheets. Unable to do anything else, she’d poured her heart out onto the paper and written what was probably her very best work, unfortunate as the circumstances were.
“You finish another one?” Zaria asked, entering and tiptoeing around the papers strewn across the floor.
“Two more, actually.”
“How much longer do you intend to mope around in here? Your father released you from this room days ago.”
“I am protesting his horrible treatment of me,” Lina said, lifting her nose. “So I never plan to leave my chambers.”
“And let him win?” The sorceress raised a brow in challenge.
“What do you expect me to do, Zaria? I’m not brave like you or creative like Elda. There’s nothing I can say to change his mind.”
“Oh, you’re plenty creative,” Zaria replied, toeing a song sheet on the floor. “Just in a different way.”
“Little good it does me.” Lina stood and began to pace the room while Zaria used air magic to tidy up the floor. “He doesn’t care what I want or how I feel. It’s always about what is best for Elda. Best for Orion. Best for Carroway. You know I’m not the priority for my father.”
“All the more reason to take charge of your own future, Angelina.”
“How, Zaria? I’m trapped inside this damned castle and—”
“What if you weren’t?” Zaria sat on the bed and folded her hands. “What if you were outside of the castle gates?”
“It still wouldn’t help. Baz is home by now. His mother will not take too kindly to me just showing up in their hall, demanding to marry her heir.”
“I didn’t say you had to go to Orious.”
“Where then?”
“What is the one thing you need to convince your father that you’re telling the truth?”
“I would need to show him that Athera is real. That Elda is happy there and—that’s it! I need to go to Athera and convince Elda to return home, even just to show our father that she’s alive and mated!”
“Exactly.”
“If he sees with his own eyes and meets Drake, that will convince him. It has to!” Lina’s excitement faded and she dropped onto the bed next to Zaria. “Except none of that can happen while I’m trapped in this castle.”
“I think I can help with that,” Zaria replied, looking over at her with a serious expression.
“No, Zaria. I can’t let you. Doing so would be going against your king and that is treasonous. It’s not something you can come back from.”
“I’m just as miserable here as you are, Lina.
” The sorceress took Lina’s hands in hers.
A tear rolled down one of her cheeks. “I feel trapped too. My mate is out there somewhere, and I stayed here because I was worried about you and Elda needing me, but… I must do something. I have to help you. Let me help you.”
“Are you sure you aren’t just trying to find a worthwhile cause to help you fill the emptiness left by your mate being gone?”
“Perhaps.” Zaria wiped her tear away. “But even if it is, helping you will help me too. Once you and that prince are finally together and Elda is with her dragon—once Carroway is at peace again—maybe I can go find Nox. Maybe by then… he will be ready for me.”
“I don’t know if that man will ever be ready for you,” Lina teased. “You’re a lot to handle.”
“Don’t I know it?” Zaria chuckled. “So is that a yes?”
“As crazy as it sounds… yes. Let’s get out of here.”
Zaria nodded. “I will start gathering things we need and make a plan.”
“Should I make an appearance at supper tonight, so they won’t suspect anything is wrong?”
“Yes, that sounds like a good idea. Make sure you anger your father again so when you stomp back to your chambers, they will expect you to miss a few meals after.”
“Angering my father? It would be my pleasure,” Lina said with a smile.
“So then… we leave tonight?”
“Tonight.”
When the three moons of Everealm were high in the sky, the princess and sorceress fled the castle and headed south.
~*~
Brenna found herself humming a tune as she walked upstairs to change for supper.
Rounding the corner, she felt arms reach out to grab her, spinning her around and up against the rock wall behind her.
A pair of hazel eyes glittered down at her and her breath caught, waiting for what she knew was coming.
Kai lowered his head and kissed her. She opened her mouth to allow his tongue to sweep inside, something she had learned that morning was a wonderful new way to kiss.
This was the third time today that she and Kai had found a brief opportunity to sneak away or hide somewhere in the castle together. And those precious moments were the only time they’d been alone at all, since her brother was keeping a close eye on them and giving Kai tasks to keep him busy.
“What did he have you doing this time?” she asked, breaking away to catch her breath.
“Helping Manny and Nunu to prepare more of the gnome’s quarters.”
“How many have awoken today?”
“Four more, I think.”
The gnomes were waking more quickly now, since Brenna’s curse had broken. It was a good sign for the kingdom and the pitter-patter of gnome feet all over the castle was helping to fill the eerie emptiness.
“Where is my brother now?”
“With Nox. Something about renewing light orbs. I hardly listened. As soon as I saw they were distracted, I slipped out. We have a few moments before they come looking, I think.”
“Oh, good,” Brenna said, grabbing Kai’s shirt and pulling him back down for another kiss. It somehow was even better than the last one. She found herself rubbing against his body, unable to stop herself. Like he was a tree she wanted to climb, as silly as that sounded.
He responded in kind, pinning her to the wall and grinding against her.
She could feel how aroused he was, through his breeches.
She’d known only a little about what happened between men and women before becoming cursed.
A few recent conversations with Elda, however, and she had learned quite a bit more about what Kai’s kisses were doing to her and why.
“We should probably stop,” Kai said, leaning his forehead against hers. “I can’t walk around the castle with this giant… Uh, in this condition.”
“It’s alright, Kai. You can say it. It won’t scare me.”
“Is that right, Goldie?” he teased, nipping at her neck before taking her lips in another scorching kiss. “A few kisses and you’re ready to jump into bed with me already?”
“Yes,” she said, her smile slipping. “I am.”
Kai pulled back and looked down at her. “Brenna—”
“I know my mind now, Kai. I don’t want to hold myself back from you. Maybe other people but… not you.”
“I don’t want you to either, but—”
“Is it my brother?”
“No,” Kai said, snorting. “I’m not scared of Drake.”
“Yes, you are.”
“Fine. I am. But that’s not the reason.” He took a deep breath and looked her in the eye. “I haven’t always been… proper with women. I’m a prince, Goldie. I’ve had women throwing themselves at me since I was barely old enough to get an erection.”
“That’s a bad thing? I don’t care if you’ve been with other women. You’re mine now.”
“I know and that’s not what I mean. I treated women like they were toys, Brenna. The worst part is they expected it. Offered themselves to me so they could brag they’d spent the night with a prince. And when it was me doing the pursuing? It was to scratch an itch, nothing more.”
“And you want this to be something more?” she asked, chewing on her lip.
“I want this to be everything,” he replied, his expression so serious that it sent a chill over her.
Brenna chewed her lip even more, but Kai reached up and pulled it out from between her teeth.
“No one gets to bite this lip but me,” he said, leaning down to do just that, nibbling on her lip until she groaned into his mouth and felt her whole body shiver. After another moment, he pulled back and took a steadying breath. “I just want to be good for you, Goldie.”
“You already are.” She grabbed his chin and forced him to look at her. “You saved me, Kai. You broke my curse. You freed me.”
“We still don’t know why, though. I didn’t kiss you like with Drake and Elda.”
“Elda seems to think it’s not the kiss that mattered. It was the feelings attached. She fell in love with his dragonite and kissed him. It wasn’t what she did. It was who she was. She was just the right person.”
“Do you think that’s what happened with us? Was I the right person?”
“I don’t know,” she said, hiding a smile. “Should I try rubbing noses with a few more princes just to be sure?”
“Hell no,” he growled, pushing her tighter against the wall. “You’re mine, Goldie. I’m not giving you up.”
“So possessive,” she purred, giving him a quick kiss. “You sound like a dragonite, you know?”
“Well, it takes one to know one.”
Brenna laughed and wrapped her arms around Kai’s shoulders, rising on her toes to rub her nose against his. He pulled her into another kiss after.
“Ahem,” a gruff voice interrupted them.
Sighing, Kai pulled back and gave Nox a stern glare. “You planning to tattle on us, mage?”
“Wouldn’t dream of it, prince,” the wizard said, smirking. “But Drake is on his way up, so you might want to—”
Before Nox could even finish his sentence, Kai had dropped a kiss on Brenna’s head then disappeared down the hallway. Nox just chuckled and walked past Brenna while she continued to her chambers, humming her song along the way.