10
“It was just as he said,” Meront mumbled through a mouthful of oats. “Cell ruined by the storm.” He swallowed and reached for his water. After draining it, he swiped the back of his hand over his mouth. “The bars snapped like sticks.”
Imagining those cave cells threatened to rid me of my appetite. I scooped more oats onto my spoon, staring at them as I asked, “Do you think they’ve all been captured?”
No answer.
I delivered the oats to my mouth and looked up.
Meront was staring past me to the table behind ours, bronze brows slightly furrowed. I didn’t turn around. I continued eating, knowing he wasn’t simply troubled by Prince Voran.
Darcen sat at one end of the back table, Voran at the other.
That he’d rather take his chances with the enemy than sit at the same table as Celestine said he was serious about rejecting their bond. It was also futile, as she didn’t arrive in the prayer hall until the breakfast hour had nearly ended.
When she did, she walked straight through the tables to the hall leading to the back rooms.
But she wasn’t on well duty until after lunch.
Noticing too, Meront rubbed his hand over his mouth. “Fuck.”
I concurred with a hum, then finished my water and collected our bowls and cups. “I’ll take care of these and check on her.”
Meront rose when I did, and came close to whisper against my temple, “Don’t get so busy worrying about her that you forget to worry about yourself.”
I needn’t have asked what he meant by that.
He left for training before he could see the warmth rising to my face from his nearness.
After dumping the bowls and cups in the kitchens, I searched for Celestine.
But despite asking a priestess and Alixa, she was nowhere to be found on the ground floor.
I needed to tend to the gardens. The sooner I completed my time, the sooner I could do as I wished.
Not to mention, the younglings often messed about until I arrived.
But I hesitated before the door leading outside, wondering where Celestine might have gone and if she didn’t want to be found.
Celestine was absent at lunch.
Afterward, I found her room empty and checked every aisle of books in the east wing before moving to the north. Even more books sat in stacks upon the bench seats. Raindrops smudged the scenery beyond the yellow windows.
I peered into some unlocked storage rooms, then wandered to a window.
Kneeling upon the bench below it, I placed my chin on my arms on the dusty stone sill. Now and then, a ward would appear in the clearing—forced from the courtyard during their duels with wooden swords.
“Spying on your golden-haired prince?”
Though shocked by his silent arrival and question, I feigned otherwise while still gazing through the window. “I cannot see much of him from here. I was thinking about my friend, actually.” Deciding I’d try to shock him in return, I smiled at him. “And you.”
Prince Voran leaned against the doorway to the stairwell. His hair draped over his wide shoulders, the steel strands glossy. Unbefitting of his severity and his reputation for brutality. But it was the slight groove between his thick brows that captured my attention.
That told me I had succeeded in shocking him.
Good, I thought with another smile I let him see.
He straightened from the stone arch, long legs eating up the hall with slow strides. I was thankful that, due to my head resting on my arms, he couldn’t see me swallow.
But a twitch at the corner of his mouth made me fear he’d heard it.
He stopped beside the bench I knelt on. The handful of feet between us provided a sense of safety I knew I shouldn’t trust. Yet I forced myself to remember that he’d had opportunities to do more than harm me.
Instead, he’d opted to kiss and rescue me.
Although he faced the window, I doubted he cared for the damp grounds beyond. His stare appeared distant, his features immovable stone, even as he spoke. “You were thinking about what you saw me doing in the woods.”
I frowned because while that had indeed accompanied thoughts of him late into the night, I’d been so rattled by everything else that I hadn’t pondered his digging in the dirt much at all.
My silence drew those dark blue eyes. That groove deepened between his brows as he studied my face. His jaw clenched. A muscle feathered in the bladed edge when he gave his gaze to the window once more. “Answer.”
“You didn’t ask me a question.”
He blinked, as if stunned again, and seemed to stop himself from looking at me with an odd jerk of his head. “You’re playing with me.” His low voice hardened, creating a thicker lilt. “You really shouldn’t do that.”
I tensed. “There’s nothing wrong with a little play, but yes,” I admitted. “I have thought about what you were doing in the woods.”
Voran didn’t respond.
Maybe he was waiting for me to divulge exactly what I’d seen. But I just continued staring at his profile. If I looked at him more, perhaps he wouldn’t seem quite so intimidating. Untouchable. And recalling the way he’d crushed that male’s chest…
As monstrous as people claimed.
Then he moved so quickly that all I could do was squeak as my throat was seized, and I was wrenched up on my knees on the bench.
Air puffed from me. Terror froze my heart as I reached feebly for his hand.
His black tunic was the only thing I could see. An exhale near my ear stirred my hair—made me realize he’d sniffed it—just as something sharp pressed into the side of my neck. Numerous sharp somethings.
Claws.
Panic clamped my struggling lungs. My hands wrapped around his thick wrist. Futile. It was like pulling at a stone pillar.
Then those claws dug into my skin.
And dragged.
A scream sat trapped in my throat. My fingers slipped over his smooth wrist, falling uselessly. “You’re h-hurting me,” I whined.
Easing back to see me, he smirked. “Unavoidable, I’m afraid.”
I couldn’t have said anything else if I’d tried. Dots marred my vision.
He loosened his grip.
Only to ensure those claws dragged even more.
Pain seared like fire. Writhing, I wheezed, “Release m—”
“Quiet.” His claws retracted. Though his grip had loosened, it was firm enough to feel my pounding pulse. He stroked it and murmured, “Do you know what we do to taletellers in Valadorn, Princess?”
As the blistering at my throat abated to a sting, I muttered, “I think you’re about to tell me.”
My head was pushed back by his thumb at my chin. “Careful now.” He inspected my burning face. His lips spread into a cruel half smile, eyes flashing as they flicked to my mouth. “People have lost their tongues for much fucking less.”
“Your reputation is indeed very awful.” Foolish. He still had his hand around my rotting throat.
But I wasn’t just scared. I was angry. Mostly at myself. Ashamed I’d let him get this close, and that I’d allowed my curiosity and his actions to lure me into danger.
“And yet…” A shadow passed through his midnight gaze. “How brave you have become since I kissed you in that cupboard.”
It was probably not the best time to ask, “Why did you do that?”
His grip eased some more. Enough for my blood to trickle and for his thumb to collect it. He smeared it over my fluttering pulse. The callused pad tickled, and my fear and anger slowly gave way beneath a soothing cold. It flowed through me to soak every extremity.
Maybe this was it. Maybe my body knew before my mind.
This evil prince would be my end.
Another brush of his thumb came with his unexpected answer. “I kissed you to anger your golden prince.”
As if those words were kindling to a dying fire, my body pulled taut. My eyes opened wide.
But my surprise was doused by his chilling words.
“We take their ears,” he said. “Sometimes if someone is feeling particularly betrayed, they will have their lips stitched closed.”
Trepidation expanded my chest. It took me a moment to understand that he was talking about what they did to taletellers in Valadorn.
“But I can think of many better things to do with this mouth of yours.”
“Such as?” Reckless, yet now that my shock had waned, I knew it was the need to survive that kept me talking.
It would seem I’d stunned him as much as I could for one day.
His expression didn’t change. “Making you kiss me,” he said with startling quickness. “Making your tongue touch mine.” His lashes, long and a shade darker than his hair, lowered to my dry lips. “Making you choke from something more than my hand around your delicate throat.”
My face instantly caught fire.
He couldn’t be serious. Surely.
As if he most certainly was, he added casually, “So maybe I’ll just take your ears.”
His gaze bored into mine. Deep-sea blue swirled around his pupils.
The urge to look away and scream for help became almost painful to fight. But I forced myself to hold his unwavering stare. Forced my voice to stay light. “I’d really much prefer you didn’t.”
Another twitch at the corner of his lips.
My eyes fell on them. I’d kissed those lips. A monster’s lips. I’d felt their unexpected softness against my own. Not too plump and not too thin. Sometimes, I swore I could still taste him. A warmed and sweetened mint.
His mouth parted. He shifted on his feet.
I made my eyes rise to his. “Luckily for us…” With a practiced smile, I whispered, “I’m rather good at keeping secrets.”
Skeptical, he arched a charcoal brow.
Infusing more playfulness into my voice, I prattled on, “And if you tell me why you were digging in the dirt with your bare hands, I will keep your secret forever.”
He glared down his strong nose at me. A tiny notch in the middle of the bridge told me it had been broken at least once, and badly enough that a mender had struggled to heal it.
Then this vicious prince shocked me yet again. He smiled—so sudden and brightly that more of that cold engulfed my chest. He released me and straightened. “You’ve now given me everything I need, Princess.”
A bit disoriented, I mumbled, “I have?”
As that smile broadened to reveal a sharp incisor and his slight dimple, what he’d meant became clear. He now knew that I hadn’t seen enough in those woods to bother threatening me further.
After all he’d said to me—after he’d just fucking scratched and choked me—I should have been more than relieved. I should have jumped off this bench and fled.
Instead, I heard myself ask, “Why did you save me?”
His smile wilted.
So I teased, “Kissing me couldn’t have been that enjoyable.”
He laughed, melodic and low, and I jolted. His laughter was so unlike the insidiously deep dips and roughened edges of his voice. The genuine sound transformed his face from almost ethereal to real.
But he sobered quickly. “That’s why you were loitering outside my room.”
“I wasn’t loitering.” At his scowl, I conceded, “I suppose I was. I just…” I struggled to explain it, and simply said, “You saved me.”
Silence.
Then he snatched my jaw. “I prefer my enemies…” He tilted my head until our eyes collided. Thumb brushing my chin, he murmured, “Alive and worried.”
I couldn’t have given that a response if I’d had one. Fear burrowed deep within my bones. My chest filled with unused air. But when his eyes narrowed on my mouth, and his bloodied thumb skimmed my lower lip, warmth battled the onslaught of dread.
It won—spreading from my stinging neck into my cheeks.
“Sometimes they are useful.” His eyes dipped to my throat, trailed the flood of heat to my cheeks. “Better indebted to me than dead.”
His frown was so severe, I began to fear the flush of my skin had annoyed him. Then he touched it. His knuckles swept across my cheekbone so gently, a much-needed and hitched breath escaped me.
“And you are now indebted to me, Princess.”
Carefully, I clasped his wrist. “Indebted to you?” Terror returned with razor-sharp wings. I pushed his hand away, my whisper hissed. “You saved me to use me?”
“Why else?”
There were plenty of reasons. Plenty of answers to give him.
I could voice none. It was all I could do not to cry.
“You look…” His head cocked. “Troubled.” For long moments, he surveyed me. Studied me like I was fascinating. “Don’t be, broshklin.” He stepped back. “Once I deem the debt repaid, my mark will heal.”
My hand rose to my scratched neck as understanding dawned and horror drenched me anew. He hadn’t found me alone just to threaten me. He’d cornered me like the wolf he was to mark me.
Muffled laughter echoed up the stairwell and snuck beneath the closed door.
As if leaving a daze, Voran blinked heavily then strode down the hall.
Just before he reached the stairwell, he turned back.
“Oh, and Princess?” He didn’t wait. He knew he had my entire attention—my life in his bloodstained hands.
“Keep those scratches covered. They can be mistaken for a mark from a wolf lover.” A pleased glint brightened his dark eyes.
“We wouldn’t want your fellow wards getting the wrong idea. ”
With that, he vanished.
And I was left gazing at the blood on my fingers.