Page 19 of Gifted to the Alien Prince
Thadron’s jaw tightened, his gaze fixed somewhere past me, where the lights shimmered in the sky. “I have duties to uphold. Boundaries.”
His words were clipped, but his eyes betrayed him—holding onto something just as tightly as I was.
He escorted me back to the ballroom. Once there, he turned abruptly and walked out, leaving me standing alone among the guests, my heart bruised with a longing I hadn’t seen coming.
I cast a glance outside, where the northern lights continued their silent dance, indifferent to the storm I felt within Gelverin Keep.
Chapter Seven
ISA
The memory of kissing Thadron lingered in my mind days after the Aurora Walk. No matter how I tried to shake it off, the feel of his lips, the warmth of his breath mingling with mine, stayed with me. The unexpected tenderness made me feel as if something had awakened inside me. Yet just as that feeling stayed, so did my mixed emotions of when he apologized for kissing me and then leaving me in the ballroom. It felt like we were back where we started. I caught a glimpse of the whole part of him, right before he returned to the same stiff resolve he always wore.
The date of the gift exchange loomed like a distant star, its light growing brighter and more insistent with each passing day. My stomach knotted at the thought of it, a mix of nerves and excitement circling like twin moons in my orbit. But there was no turning back. I had my duty from the Wanderstar Fleet and committed to taking part in the festivities.
One morning, the air was thick with the anticipation of the upcoming journey. The royal family prepared to ride through a nearby forest to reach their winter palace, and I was going with them.
“It’s a tradition we mark the night before the winter solstice,” Thadron explained.
“It’s on December twenty-fourth,” I noted. “And your winter solstice would be when I celebrate Christmas.”
I couldn’t ignore the tight knot in my stomach as I thought about the gift exchange. I still had the Book of Frost for Thadron. Most of the stories and poems centered around winter, friendship, and unity. After what he’d told me at the ball, the battles he’d fought and the losses he still carried, I worried it might be the last thing he wanted.
I took a steadying breath and tried to focus on the task ahead for me. I was going to the winter palace...and I was supposed to get there on a frostgrazer.
“You look worried,” Thadron noticed, as we gathered in the courtyard.
His eyes met mine with his unreadable calm. He was dressed in a heavy green cloak lined with fur, his posture relaxed yet commanding. The frostgrazer Enrinu beside him snorted a puff of steam into the cold air.
My smile was faint. “I’ve ridden horses, but not essentially a giant elk.”
“It’s the same,” he assured. “Trust your balance, trust the frostgrazer.”
He held out a gloved hand to help me mount the smaller frostgrazer beside his. I settled into the saddle, gripping the reins tightly. The animal’s muscles shifted beneath me, powerful and sure.
Thadron swung onto his own mount with effortless grace. He glanced over, his expression softening. “You’ll do fine, Isa.”
We led the procession out of the courtyard, the crunch of frostgrazer hooves on snow-packed ground marking our departure. The air was sharp and bracing this afternoon. The forest unfolded before us, its trees cloaked in frosty icicles.
As we rode deeper into the woods, the chatter of the others fell away, muffled by the thick blanket of snow. The quiet wrapped around us, a serene kind of stillness that settled in mychest. Thadron’s shoulders seemed to loosen, the tight lines of tension fading bit by bit.
“You seem more at ease out here,” I observed.
He kept his eyes fixed on the path ahead. “It's peaceful. No expectations, no politics. Just the rhythm of the ride, the quiet of the forest.”
I looked around, the beauty of the landscape sinking in. The trees stood tall and proud. Shafts of pale light filtered through, making the snowflakes glimmer like tiny jewels. My breath misted before me, but the cold didn’t bite. The lining of my coat kept me warm.
I glanced at Thadron, his profile stark and strong against the soft whites and silvers of the forest. There was something different about him here, a quiet vulnerability that the bustle of the keep never allowed. Out here, away from the weight of duty and expectation, he seemed... lighter. “I can see why you like it out here.”
He turned to me then, his eyes catching a glint of the pale sun. “It’s one of the few places where I can breathe.”
“I can understand. That’s how I feel about my shop.” Warmth filled me as I thought about the shop back on Kajal, my sanctuary in a universe that constantly demanded more.
Thadron and I rode side by side through the winding forest trails, the frostgrazers’ steady breaths and the soft crunch of snow beneath hooves the only sounds. I found myself relaxing, letting the forest’s quiet majesty fill me.
I turned to the prince, my heart beating a little faster. The silence between us felt charged, like the air just before a snowfall. His eyes met mine as the first snowflakes fell. His look was steady and searching, and I wondered if he felt it too. What was this fragile thing forming between us?
The silence of the snowfall seemed to hush the world around us as we arrived at the winter palace a couple hours later. Thewinter palace emerged like a dream from the snowy forest, its delicate spires and archways covered in a veil of ice. It wasn’t as grand or imposing as the main keep, yet there was an intimate beauty here. I grasped the serenity of the palace, nestled within the wilderness.