6 #2
Deciding I’d rather live in fear and take my chances with the bad tidings, I reached for the door when he said, “No need for cowardice.” We were so close, his murmur, thickened by his accent, glossed my temple. “For you, I can try to be gentle.”
The terror those words elicited widened my eyes. My neck curled back so I could see him.
“I’m not a coward. I’m just…” My fingers slipped from the handle as my racing heart got the better of me. “Confused because honestly, why are you in here?” I amended, “With me, that is. You believe my father killed yours, and we are at war be—”
“So much talking.” His dark blue eyes brightened until I could almost see every intriguing edge of his features. “Are we not supposed to kiss?”
Goddess, those eyes. It was like deep night suddenly became day.
I shook my head. “Well, yes. For ten sec—”
“So let us kiss.”
But as he caught my chin with roughened fingers, my stomach hollowed. I blurted, “Why?” I searched his face, all the more frightening in the dim. “Why do you want to do this?”
The way his brows fell heavily had me wondering if I’d annoyed him. After a moment, he muttered, “I’ve never played.”
“You’re lying.”
He was the same age as me. Surely, he’d played Featherfate before.
“I’m not, but it hardly matters.” His head lowered as he tilted mine. “We will kiss now.”
More words spilled from me in a panicked rush. “But it does matter.” I nodded to remove his fingers from my chin, but they remained as I prattled on. “This actually matters a lot. We’ll be talked about later. Possibly for weeks.”
His eyes narrowed. “Are you finished?”
I certainly wasn’t. “You have a reputation for…” My nose wrinkled. “I’ve heard you rob the wealthiest in your kingdom for your uncle. That you drain traitors upon steel poles in the city streets and drink their blood straight from the pails beneath their feet.”
“I’m failing to see what this has to do with our lips touching.”
“I’m trying to explain why I cannot do that.” I forced out, “K-kiss you, I mean. Which, really, I’d think you’d understand. Your uncle has dragged us into war to steal my father’s title, and I cannot…” I tried to take a much-needed breath. I failed and wheezed, “I cannot breathe.”
“Because you talk too fucking much.” Then his incredibly warm hands swallowed my face.
And he kissed me.
My chest caved in with a startled and noisy breath.
I wasn’t sure what I’d expected, since I never expected to feel his mouth against mine. I hadn’t had any inclination, nor the time, to so much as consider what kissing Voran Valadorn might be like.
But I never would have expected such gentleness from someone so murderous. Such soft lips for a giant and terrifying male.
His mouth merely sat carefully upon mine.
Instinctively, my lips pressed into his.
His did the same to mine. Once, then twice. After the third time, his hands tensed at my cheeks and jaw before he sighed and opened my mouth with his.
He should have tasted bitter, horrid, his tongue a poisonous leaf slightly brushing my own. But when he withdrew to meld our lips, all I tasted was something sweet. Something I wanted to taste again.
A type of magic I’d only read and daydreamed about.
Too afraid to touch him, I seized his tunic at his sides. His sharp hip grazed my inner wrist when I pushed onto my toes and became more than a hesitant recipient. Breath shivered between my lips as they skimmed his.
His own exhale came with what sounded like a curse in the old language.
He tilted my head back farther, our eyes catching. The warmth of his body pressed flush against mine.
Then the dark exploded with light.
Mercifully, Haynes blocked us from view, leaning against the door as I moved away from the prince as much as I could in the tight space.
“Well, well…” A wildness danced in Haynes’s rust-colored eyes. One that mirrored my heartbeat. He turned to holler, “No bad tidings for these two.”
But there was no clapping or laughter or jeers. There wasn’t so much as a snicker as we emerged.
Without a backward glance, the Valadorn prince strode straight out of the west wing.
My lips tingled as I sat beside Celestine.
She offered me the feather, questions clouding her blue eyes. I shook my head, then blew the feather for fate to select the next player.
I didn’t want to stay.
I wanted to hide in the east wing or my room. I wanted to properly digest what had just happened without so many eyes attempting to skewer me. They couldn’t judge. Not when none of them had stopped me from going into that cupboard.
Not when, once I was trapped in the dark with the enemy prince, some of them had even laughed.
Remembering gave me the courage to lift my chin.
The feather had chosen Darcen. He twirled it between his thick fingers as he grinned. “Nothing will top that, but…” With a shrug, he tossed the feather above him, then blew as it drifted back down. “Let’s see if the goddess can prove me wrong.”
A challenge Avyshla might have heard—for the feather floated onto Celestine’s lap.
My eyes slid to my friend’s face. But she was already rising.
Darcen gave Meront a look I couldn’t decipher. One of concern, maybe. But the prince of Moongold just grumbled, “I’m beginning to loathe this game,” while pulling at threads in the carpet and staring straight at me.
I frowned.
Darcen stood. Dragging a hand through his hair, he walked between the chairs to the cupboard. Celestine was already inside.
I bit my cheek.
Since we’d all reunited on the isle, the way she’d watch the Coraldeen prince often had me pondering if something between them had changed. At least for Celestine.
Alixa scooted closer to Meront. She whispered, “I think we kissed for more than ten seconds.”
“Did we?” he asked, still looking at me.
Unnerved, I gazed down at the olive-green pants I still hadn’t grown used to wearing and picked a blade of grass from them.
It did nothing to dissuade Meront. His searing gaze made my skin itch as I thought about Voran and his all-black attire. As I wondered how he got away with not wearing the archive-issued clothing—one of the requirements for those who sought refuge.
And if he had any duties, I hadn’t heard about them.
But none of my wonderings stopped my thoughts from returning to what I’d just done. Not only had I survived being trapped in a cupboard with Voran Valadorn.
The enemy had given me my first real kiss.