Page 51 of Somber Prince
Gold shimmer swirled around us both, like tiny transparent fireflies. Or maybe the shimmer was in my mind—beguiling and invigorating.
The intensity proved overwhelming. I jerked away, needing to catch my breath.
His chest rose and fell rapidly too. His eyes were wide open. Wonder, excitement, delight, and desire burned in them brightly, as if all his senses had awoken at once.
He darted his tongue out, licking his lips.
“What is that, Dawn?” he demanded. “What is it that you feel when you kiss me?”
As if I could accurately explain what exactly caused my heart to pound and my stomach to flutter as if filled with a kaleidoscope of manic butterflies.
“Joy?” I blurted out the first appropriate word that came to mind.
“Joy from what? What caused it?”
“You.” There was no other explanation.
He released a long breath. And then, the most wondrous thing happened. His lips stretched into a smile, with a cheeky flash of his white fangs.
The somber prince of the joyless kingdom smiled at me for the first time ever, and I didn’t want it to end. I didn’t want to live without seeing that smile again and again.
“It felt magical.” Happiness shone through his expression. “Who knew you would find me so enjoyable?”
Chapter Thirteen
DAWN
By the time I made it back to the sarai, it must’ve been close to noon already. The opening over the courtyard was closed with solid wooden shutters. Only a few splinters of sunlight pierced through them.
I lifted my face to the shutters above, catching a rare tiny ray of sun on my skin. Thoughts and feelings twisted inside me in a tangled web. I’d kissed the Crown Prince of Alveari Kingdom, a shadow creature from the world I never knew existed.
I’d kissed Rha. Not once. Not twice. He and I stayed on that improvised dance floor for what felt like forever, kissing and grinning at each other like a pair of idiots. And since he could only feel what I was feeling, it meant I was fully responsible for all that madness.
There was only one idiot—me.
But kissing Rha had been exquisite. It’d been both fun and sensual, something I hadn’t experienced with anyone else before.
The moment I had finally scraped enough brain cells to remember that I should know better, I’d pulled away, and he’d immediately let me go. His tendrils had quietly slipped out of the leilatha sockets of my harness, and he released me from his arms. I didn’t need to voice my intention to leave. He’d sensed it.
My feelings about what had happened with the prince remained jumbled, but I smiled at the warmth of sunshine on my face.
From the corner of my eye, I noticed a movement on one of the balconies. Some of the humans must be up. Or maybe they hadn’t fallen asleep yet. Either way, I didn’t feel like talking to anyone right now. Bending my head down, I quickly crossed the yard and went to my new room.
It was more than twice the size of my previous cell. The low platform with bedding was comfortable. Six bed posts held a black canopy. Stretched like a batwing over the thin bamboo rails, the canopy blocked the glowing ceiling, creating a dark, comfy place for me to sleep.
Still, I didn’t sleep well that day. Every time I dozed off, shadows would haunt me. They reached for me from the darkness, like gnarly, grabby fingers, startling me awake. The most distressing part of the nightmare was that I couldn’t decide whether to run from the shadows or into them. I didn’t know where the safety lay.
After tossing and turning for hours, I gave up on sleep completely. I got up, put my new dress back on, grabbed a glass from the stand next to my bed, and went out into the courtyard.
It was evening already. The Keepers were opening the shutters above. The dark sky behind the lattice over the courtyard was streaked with the deep burgundy of the dying sunset. The palace was getting ready to resume its busy nightlife.
I sat on a ledge by a fountain, drinking my water.
“Hey.” Melanie slid down next to me.
I hadn’t even noticed when she’d come out. But my thoughts had been twirling around the shadow prince.
“Did you just return from the royal dinner?” Melanie gave my new dress an assessing look.