“Anatole doesn’t believe that. And neither do I. I trust you with my life. I trust you with the lives of my people. I trust you with the heart of my son. A great responsibility. But one that you deserve, Miss Carolyn Connors.”
Tearing my eyes away from the blade, I blinked back the tears. There was a decision to be made, and I was the only one who could make it. Either I could sit here, suffering forever and languishing under my mother’s cruelty for the rest of my life, letting it define me, or I could take this sword, learn how to use it, and become something greater than my past.
My fingers tightened around the hilt of the blade.
“Thank you. I promise I’ll take care of it.”
“I know you will. And my son will take care of you. I promise. Just like you'll learn to take care of him. Together, I forsee you becoming a great team.”
✽✽✽
“I want you to teach me to fight.”
It took a lot of guts to face down the Prince of Velkin at all. It took even more guts to show up at his dormitory in the middle of the afternoon, knock on his door, and demand he pay you some damn attention. Everyone in the castle agreed that, even under the best of circumstances, Prince Anatole would kill anyone who disturbed his privacy. Some even rumored that the reason Professor Malloi had an ear missing was because he once tried to rouse the prince for lectures when he didn’t want to go. But…if I was going to save the world with a sword instead of with some old-fashioned detective work, then I guess I needed to start collecting my courage now, before the big battles started.
My courage was certainly getting a workout. Prince Anatole’s chambers, in the tallest, southernmost tower of the castle, were guarded by two fearsome basilisks, who hissed and curled at my feet, waiting for their master to give the order to kill me. But it was my attention that was really getting the workout right about now. Because Anatole stood in the doorway of his bedroom, his bare chest exposed and his eyes glinting as though he were thinking of doing something very, very bad to me now that he had me alone.
The muscles in the base of my stomach tightened at the thought. No. I couldn’t think about that now, couldn’t think about threading my fingers through his hair and pulling him down to kiss my lips the way I’d always dreamed of being kissed. We had a mission, one that didn’t include any wild, reckless nights locked away in his bedroom…No matter how much I wish it did.
Rocking back on his hips, Anatole’s face melted into a confident, even arrogant, smirk, but there was real caution in his eyes. “Are you sure you’re ready for that? You don’t even have a sword.”
Pulling the leather strap from my shoulder, I unleashed the SpellSteel with a smirk of my own. “Yep. I’m ready.”
His arrogance disappeared. Shock replaced it. “Where did you get this?”
“Your mother gave it to me. I promised her I would save our worlds. Now, I need you to teach me how.”
“I don’t know if this is a good idea.”
“Why?” I said, taking a step forward, only to take two back when the basilisks hissed and bared their fangs. “Afraid I’ll beat you?”
With a wave of his hand, Anatole called off the animals, and they slithered back into the twin urns framing the bedchamber door from whence they’d come. Then, he closed the gap between us. My sword drifted down, forgotten at my side.
“No, afraid I’ll hurt you. I’m a warrior, Carolyn. Some times, the instincts are hard to turn off. I couldn’t forgive myself if something happened to you.”
I searched his face and found something surprising there, something I never thought I’d see in him.
“You’re afraid.”
“I am not.”
“You’re afraid that if I learn how to defend myself, I won’t need to share a bed with you anymore. I won’t be afraid anymore.”
He shook his head, his eyes burning. “I would never want to keep you afraid.”
There was truth in that. I could hear it in his voice. But there was also an admission. He hadn’t denied that he was terrified of losing our nighttime hours together. Holding the sword slightly aloft once again, I almost begged him.
“Then teach me to use this thing. If it helps, I promise I won’t stop letting you fall sleep with me. I’m actually kind of used to it now. I don’t mind it.”
Another smirk. His eyes danced. “Is that human for I really enjoy it, please never stop?”
“I’ll stop you in a minute if you don’t teach me to use this sword.”
“Fine. Give me a moment and we’ll begin.”
Just like that, the Prince of all Velkin welcomed me into his bedroom. He disappeared through another far door at the end of the room, leaving me and the SpellSteel alone in the grandeur of his chambers. This wasn’t the bedroom, actually. Unlike most of the dormitories in Castle Bloc, this one had its own sitting room, which was grandly appointed in dark ochres and silvers, and was only illuminated by the small fireplace on the eastern wall. The blade of my sword caught the light and reflected it, breaking up the darkness around me. It reminded me of lightning in a midnight storm.
I had to think of it in poetic terms. Because if I thought of anything else…I’d have to just straight-up acknowledge how sexy it all was.
When Anatole returned, it only got sexier. He hadn’t gone to put on a shirt, but to retrieve his own blade. I tried to mirror his posture, only to fail miserably. At least he was decent enough not to laugh at me. Instead, he moved around me, sheathing his blade so he could stand behind and guide me.
I was painfully aware of his every motion, of his breath against my shoulder, of his hands as they slid against my wrists and adjusted them, as his hips pressed against my backside. We were so close. It would be so easy to turn my face and kiss him like I wanted to. My heart pounded. Could he feel it?
“Okay. Square your stance. Check your posture. Grip the hilt like this.”
My hands allowed themselves to shift under his touch. “Is that good?”
“Yes. Very good.”
The room sparked with intensity. I wanted him closer. I wanted him everywhere. I wanted all of him and to give him all of me. But no sooner did that sensation overtake me than he yanked himself away, crossing the room and unsheathing his sword in one fluid motion. He faced me as if for battle, but his eyes were gentle, understanding.
“Now, we’ll go slowly, and try to gain speed. Match my blows however you can; let instinct guide you at first.”
Oh. I’d been under the impression that there would be some form to it, some kind of skill. We were just going to spar? My grip involuntarily tightened around the sword’s hilt. “That’s all there is to being a good sword-fighter?”
“Don’t tell any of the master sword fighters in Velkin, because they’d probably kill me in my sleep, but most of fighting is just doing your best not to get killed. A good sword fighter is just one who manages not to get killed many, many times over.”
A reply pulled my mouth open. Too late. The fight had already begun. He lunged for me, his sword slicing through the air so fast I barely had time to catch it with my own. Just don’t die, I reminded myself as I tried to meet his next blow. That’s all you can do. Just don’t die.
We went back and forth like that, trading blows and trying to outstep each other. With every step, my heart beat faster and my breath grew shorter. It was like dancing, only with the constant threat of near death…A death I wouldn’t allow. But still, an intricate dance I was more than willing to do with him if he was happy to be my partner. My pride was the only thing keeping me on my feet when my muscles screamed to give out. I couldn’t let him win. I didn’t want him thinking I was some little human who couldn’t fend for herself.
But then…I slipped. A rug had gotten loose from its golden bear-head restraints keeping it in place, my boot had caught the edge of the rug, and then, I was on my back, my sword out of reach, and a man straddling my hips with the edge of his blade hovering over my neck.
“Do you surrender?”
&
nbsp; “Yes.”
He tossed away the sword, his eyes locked with mine. There it was again. That electricity in the air, so undeniable and real, yet so, so invisible. He felt it too. I could see it in his eyes, feel it in the way his legs tightened involuntarily around my hips.
“Good,” he breathed, his bare chest heaving from the effort of our sparring. “I accept your surrender.”
“…Then why aren’t you getting up?”
He hadn’t moved. Not even an inch. But now, without the sword between us, there was basically nothing in my entire world but his lips, which trembled slightly as his eyes flickered down to mine.
“Can I ask you a question?” he asked, his eyes still searching mine. What did he see there?
“Sure.”
“Once, you told me you weren’t attracted to me. You told me you didn’t want to kiss me. Has that changed?”
Our deception lessons. Those hadn’t gone so well for me back then. I didn’t trust that I’d gotten any better over time.
“Do you want the truth or the lie?”
“There’s no difference,” he breathed. “I can always tell when you’re lying.”
Moment of truth. Literally. My heart hammered against my chest. There was no way he couldn’t feel it now.
“Yes. I am attracted to you. Yes. I want to kiss you.”
He leaned in. “…And may I kiss you?”
I didn’t need to think twice about what answer I would give.
“Yes.”
Chapter Twenty
Anatole
I’d kissed before. I’d kissed beautiful elf maidens and fairy princesses and beautiful creatures of every alluring description, the stuff of daydreams and fairy tales.
But not a single other kiss, not in my entire life, managed to set my entire being on fire the way that this one did. This kiss, with Carolyn’s soft, hungry lips against mine and her fragile, sweet body beneath my own, left every other kiss I’d had in almost two hundred years behind.
This was the kiss of two beings designed to be together, of two hearts destined to beat as one, of a King and a Queen who deserve to spend eternity together.
As Carolyn threaded her fingers through my hair and moved against me, the dam holding back my feelings well and truly shattered. There was no more denying it, no more obfuscating or cowering.
I loved Carolyn Connors. Somewhere along the line, the human had stolen my heart and I would not be getting it back any time soon. I didn’t want it back. It was hers, now and forever.
I’d tried for so long and so hard to fight it, but now I wondered why I ever had in the first place. I’d never felt as good or as whole as I felt now in her arms.
Even though I could have stayed in the kiss forever, I understood that humans, sometimes, got breathless from kissing. I pulled away, but didn’t go very far, tipping my forehead against hers, my eyes closed. “That was...”
Even without seeing her, I could hear her sardonic smile playing in her words. “I didn’t realize swordplay was so romantic. Do you always fall in love on the battlefield?”
“If you were across the battlefield from me, yes. I wager I would fall in love there.”
Slowly, I moved our bodies, until I was the one laying on the floor and she was the one resting on top of me. Cradling her to my chest, I marveled at the journey we’d been on…From enemies at first sight to…whatever this was. I couldn’t call it love, not when she hadn’t said it, not when I had no idea if her feelings went beyond attraction. My kind didn’t love lightly; I couldn’t give my soul and my eternity to someone who couldn’t feel the same way. Still…I held her close and thought of the hope that the closeness brought with it. Not just for my own sake, for the sake of both our worlds.
“You know what I was thinking?” I asked, my fingers idly playing with the ends of her long hair.
“What?”
“If I am to bring peace to Earth, I should probably know what it’s like.”
A scoff tickled my bare chest. “You’ve been to Earth before. I saw the pictures.”
Ah, yes. Of course she’d seen me in my full Velkin attire, witness to my father signing the peace accords between our peoples. Peace accords I swore I would break one day. That was all in the past. In this moment, I was occupied not with thoughts of how to shatter the peace, but how to prolong it, how to fully love the people I had hated for so long, just like I loved…or was beginning to love…Carolyn Connors.
“Yes, I’ve been there, but I don’t know what it’s like. If you’d only spent a few hours in Velkin, would you know what it’s like the way you know it now?”
“Of course not.”
“Then what if we went? You and I. What if we went to Earth and visited, just for a day or two?”
When my father and our royal delegation had gone to Earth, we’d stayed in the glistening landscape that was London, in one of their finest hotels and waited on by the most attentive of servants. I would take her there, have her show me the world and have her carefully, meticulously looked after. There wasn’t much I knew about Carolyn, but from what I could gather, she wasn’t a woman used to being taken care of. And she deserved it. She deserved all of the fine things that life had so long denied her.
The enthusiastic agreement I’d expected never materialized. Instead, she pushed herself up off of me, her brow furrowing as she looked down on me like an indignant school master. “We can’t just go to Earth.”
“I’m a prince,” I said, placing my hands behind my head so I could better put on the smug persona I knew got under her skin. “I can do anything I want.”
She rolled her eyes, just the reaction I was going for. Much cuter than the annoyed school teacher look. “Arrogant bastard.”
“You can show me your world,” I encouraged her. “I could meet your people.”
“I don’t want to go back there.”
“Why not?”
Her arms crossed over her chest and she pulled completely away from me. I followed her, sitting up to better take in what she was about to say. The tenor of her voice shook; whatever was on her mind, it was serious.
“Listen, being a normal human on Earth isn’t like being a prince in Velkin, okay? I didn’t have tons of people hanging on my every word and parents who gave a damn about me. I didn’t have anything. I don’t want to go back.”
“Carolyn...Do you want to talk? Something is bothering you.”
I reached for her, but she flinched back, tightening her grip on her own knees to make herself somehow even smaller than before. “No, I’m fine.”
In all my life, I’d never heard such a blatant lie. She hadn't gotten any better at telling untruths, not even after our tutoring. But this wasn’t a time for teasing or pointing out her flaws. This was grave; this was real. Whatever was on her mind weighed down on her like a boulder she was trying to lug around on her own. I couldn’t allow that. Slowly, I reached out and let my fingertips brush across the smooth plane of her cheek. She leaned into the touch.
“You don’t have to hide from me. Not anymore.”
“My mother was…” For a long moment, she struggled for the words. “She wasn’t good to me. She took pleasure in hurting me. And no one on Earth cared. Not one person. Here on Velkin...Sure, there’s Ariedre and that crowd, but here people actually care about me. People actually see me. I don’t want to go back and remember what it’s like to be invisible again.”
Her every word pierced my heart. She’d come here to escape, to find solace…and I’d made her feel unwelcome, made her feel like she didn’t belong, made her feel like an enemy.
I’d hurt her. And I’d wanted to hurt her. A wave of sickness washed over me.
“You must have hated me for the way I treated you,” I muttered, more to myself than to her.
“I didn’t hate you. I was used to it.”
A dagger straight to my heart would have hurt less. “That’s even worse.”
Her eyes sparked with the promise of a new idea. “Let’s just s
tay here, okay? You can take me to the Vampire’s lairs or introduce me to a dragon or—”
“There must have been something about Earth you liked. Anything at all.”
She considered the query. “…You’re going to think it’s so stupid.”
“I think most human customs are stupid, so yes. Probably. But I won’t think you’re stupid and that’s the important thing.”
Her lips tugged with a smile. It was almost enough to stitch my heart back together. “There’s this video game that I used to like to play. I would search my mom’s car for loose change so I could go to play it. It was, like, my one ray of sunshine back then. I wouldn’t mind going to try playing it again.”
“Do you know the best part about returning to a place with terrible memories?”
“What’s that?”
“It gives you a chance to make entirely new ones. Happy ones. Ones that no one can ever take away from you.” Rising to my feet, I offered her my hand, praying she would take it, praying that she would trust me enough to. “Come on, little human. Take me to Earth.”
✽✽✽
An hour later, I found her on the front lawn of Castle Bloc, where the albino pheonixes played in the darkness. The Earth clothes on my body tugged uncomfortably at my skin, but if it meant helping her find her love for her home planet again, even a little bit, then it was worth it. Besides, no matter how accepted the existence of Velkin was, I still wanted to blend in on Earth. During our visits during the peace process, I became intimately acquainted with the human paparazzi. Our encounters from those days were not ones I wanted to repeat.
“You look…” Carolyn’s cheeks went pink as she took me in. I held out my arms in an oh, it’s nothing pose as I approached. “Wow. You look almost human.”
“One of the Earthlings in our Human-Velkin relations class loaned me the attire.”
“How’d you swing that?”
Magic Exchange: A Supernatural Academy Romance (The Velkin Royal Academy Series Book 1) Page 16
