Chapter 7
Soren
One eye on the princess within, I pace the entrance of the tent as Rally prattles on about the situation outside.
“The crowd has grown past the fifth marker. We have detachments patrolling each sector and marking out tent sites for new arrivals to reduce crowding. Paths have been cleared in all cardinal and ordinal directions…”
I listen with half an ear, probably less. Rally and I have trained together since we were fledglings, and we both know this procedure like our own wings. Next, he’ll tell me about medical tents...
“Medical tents have been erected…”
Then the overseers.
“Overseers from each province are present and assisting…”
And now the stealth guards.
“All stealth guards are in position and—”
“It’s not enough,” I snarl.
My subjects are safe here. Of this, I have no doubt. But the princess? Someone wanted to take her badly enough to brave an attempt in my own palace. Now she’s in the open with nothing between her and another attack but a tent.
Rally pauses, his eyes never shifting from their straightforward position. “Tell me what you need.”
I sneak a glance at the princess. Eyes shut, she sits cross-legged on the bare sand amongst a huddle of attendants fanning her, sponging her skin with cool water, delivering bites of chilled fruit. I watch a slice of orange graze her lips with teeth-grinding envy.
What I need is for everyone to leave. I need her to be safe. I need her with me and me alone because apparently, even Tirenth’s most elite guards can’t keep her secure in her room.
I shove my hands in my hair. “I don’t know.”
Word that the princess found water spread like dragonflame, and now the whole kingdom has turned out to see her.
A human queen-to-be was already a curiosity.
Now, she’s a spectacle, and all I want to do is spirit her away to some hidden cave, wrap myself around her, and never let her out of my clutches.
No, I tell my first form with a deep breath through my infuriatingly small human nostrils, this is why she’s here. She’s here to find water, and she has.
But did it have to be then? Right when I was going to taste those lips I’ve been panting over since the night I first—
“If your wish is to have the crowd removed,” Rally says, breaking through my grousing, “we’ll see it done.”
I rub my face and try to focus on the scratch of sand against my skin. “You know it isn’t.”
My subjects have come to see her, yes, but more than that, they’re desperate to see water. Water is life, and water has been scarce. A good ruler wouldn’t deny them that sight.
“You’ve assured them there will be enough?” I say. “I won’t tolerate disorder.”
He inclines his head. “Yes, every guard has been informed.” I start to respond before he adds, “More importantly, Marta has taken charge of spreading the word.”
“Good.” No one disseminates information faster than a female. “Please thank her for me.”
I squint out at the dying sun, then turn my eye back on the princess, her brows drawn together in concentration. She’s been at this for hours. Surely, she doesn’t intend to keep going past sundown. She looses a sigh as one of her attendants blots her forehead.
“What are they saying about her?” I ask.
Rally crosses his arms over his chest. “That she will turn our desert into a paradise. That you are a wise king for bringing her.”
“Do they believe we’re fated?”
“Some.”
“And the others?”
Rally glances at me from the corner of his eye. “Anyone who is a danger to her will be addressed.”
A growl rises to my throat. “Don’t play games with me.”
“I’m not. You know what they say, Soren—that she’s human. That she has no right to rule here.”
I’m distracted from my rage by yet another sigh from the princess, this one brought on by someone adjusting an errant lock of her hair.
“She’s tired, and the attendants are distracting her,” Rally says.
“What? How do you know that?”
He answers my bafflement with a grin. “I’m married.” He claps me on the shoulder. “You’ll learn.”
I don’t know how anyone could learn to decipher all that from a sigh. Nevertheless, she does look tired.
“Go then,” I say, my eyes still on her. “Report back here for any disturbances that require me.”
“I’ll make sure they don’t get that far.”
With a bow, Rally walks out into the village of tents that has sprung up around us.
The palace is still fully manned, but I ordered a considerable portion of staff here to ensure the princess’s comfort, though that number pales in comparison to those beyond.
Besides the paths kept clear by the guards, we’re ringed in on all sides by rows upon rows of tents.
For a moment, I gaze out at these. I watch campfires spring to life as the sun sinks. Listen to the sound of laughter, of celebration. Imagine their relief, their joy.
Turning within, I go to stand over the princess and her entourage.
“Leave us,” I say.
They rise immediately. The princess’s eyes meet mine briefly before she begins dispensing smiles and thanks to her attendants. They beam as if she offered them a crate of gems.
“Of course, Princess.”
“Anything you need…”
“We are most honored.”
When the last one is gone and out of earshot, she lifts tired eyes to me. “Thank you,” she says.
I lower myself to the space across from her. “You could have asked them to leave anytime you saw fit.”
“They’ve been so kind,” she says, rubbing an eye. “I didn’t wish to be rude.”
“You’re exhausted. No one would take offense.”
“I’m sure you’re right.” With that, she shuts her eyes in obvious concentration.
“You need to stop,” I say.
“Your people need water.”
Her eyes startle open as I reach out a finger to lift her chin. “They will be our people, and they are strong.”
A swallow travels down her elegant throat while a blush rushes up her cheeks. “Let me draw a little longer,” she says in a breathy voice that fills me with a maddening urge to lie her down right here. “Then I’ll rest.”
With great reluctance, I release her. “If you must.”
Shutting her eyes, she falls silent once more, and I watch as her breathing turns rhythmic, like a warrior in meditation before battle. After a moment of this, she raises an eyelid to peek up at me.
“Would you rather I go?” I say.
“No.”
“Are you saying that to be polite?”
Her cheeks quiver with a smile. “No, Your Majesty.”
“It’s Soren.”
“No, Soren.”
She closes the eye and continues her meditation, allowing me to drink in every available inch of her, and I do so with rumbling pleasure. We’re fortunate my first form was somewhat sated by the fight, because the man in me is hungry enough just looking at her.
“Aren’t you getting tired?” she asks.
“Just hungry, Princess.”
She gestures innocently at one of the many platters her attendants left behind. “The apricots are particularly good.”
“Are they?” I pluck a piece up and bite into it, savoring the velvety skin on my tongue as I study her mouth.
On impulse, I reach out and touch the second half of the fruit to her lips. She draws a quick breath, eyes still shut, but her mouth opens and she allows me to slip the bite inside, to drag my thumb down her bottom lip as I withdraw.
“You appear to be blushing again, Princess.”
“Do I?” she says in that breathy voice.
“You seem to do it quite frequently.”
I chuckle as her color only deepens.
“You aren’t being fair,” she grumbles.
“I never claimed to be.”
Delicious tension pulses through the air, and I’m suddenly possessed by the singular urge to drive it higher, to drive her as mad as she has me. I lean forward, ready to claim that kiss I bargained so high for, but she stops me with, “You asked me about your guards. How I bested them.”
I pause where I am. “I did.” Though I couldn’t care less if she convinced them to cartwheel with her right now.
Her eyes open shyly on me. “Like this,” she says.
And crooking one finger, she draws me to her like a hound on a leash.