Page 40 of The Night Prince

“Why did you stop me from feeling it?”

He shrugs. “To see if I could.”

“How?”

“I caged my pain.” He stares at my hand and I feel a pulse of his curiosity. “The more pertinent question is why doesn’t wolfsbane burn you? It gave me a rash even before I was bitten.”

“I was dosed with it throughout my childhood. Perhaps I’m immune.”

“I dose myself with it too, and yet I cannot counter the effects entirely.” He shows me his wrist—the skin is red and bumpy, as though he’s been stung by a nettle. “Perhaps if you’ll allow me to run some experiments on you—”

He grabs my wrist, and I stagger back. “Absolutely not!” Even if I’d not seen his ghastly books, filled with the horrible things he did to Wolves to sate his curiosity, I would not do anything to appease him. “Stay away from me.”

I try to pull away, but his fingers tighten. The amusement in his eyes disappears, and that dark thread pulses around my soul. I follow his gaze to my fingers. My cheeks flush. My fingernails are torn, and there are bloody tracts down the sideswhere I’ve ripped off skin with my teeth. It’s a habit I didn’t used to have, I’ve just been feeling anxious, lately.

“Let me go!” I jerk my hand from his grip.

His expression becomes nonchalant once more. I could almost believe I imagined his reaction. He cocks his head to one side. “Are you scared?”

I tilt my chin up. “Of you? No.” I probably should be—considering who he is and all he has done.

His gaze dips to my pocket, where the vial of wolfsbane is cool against my thigh through the fabric. “I’d keep that on you at the feast tonight. I don’t like the way some of Lochlan’s clan are looking at you.”

That’s why I got it in the first place, you patronizing snake,I want to snap at him.

Heart thumping, I turn my back on him and head up the stairs.

Some of my tension unwinds when Callum rounds the corner at the other end of the corridor. “I was looking for you...” His eyes darken when Blake emerges. They haven’t spoken since Blake bit me. Both men halt, Blake only a few feet behind me, his body heat warming my back. “Blake.” Callum’s voice is low and guttural, almost a growl.

Blake’s expression is unreadable. “Callum.”

Callum’s features are like stone. “I know you’ve never had a father to teach you such things, but biting a woman without her consent is not how a real man behaves.”

Blake goes completely still. His handle on his caged feelings flickers, and my vision temporarily darkens as his emotions flood me. He’s upset. Callum’s blow has landed. Iremember what he told me once, about how his father forced himself onto his mother.

“No?” Blake says, his voice like shadow. “Speaking of biting, have you seen your little pet’s fingernails, lately?”

It’s Callum’s turn to still. A muscle flexes in his jaw as his gaze snaps to my hand. Heat floods my face as I curl my fingers into a fist. Callum’s throat bobs. I don’t know why, but Blake’s jab seems to have hit Callum just as hard.

Blake strides past me, then Callum. He turns. “If you want to keep a pet in my castle, Callum, look after it.”

He disappears around the corner.

Callum takes a deep breath, then crosses the space between us. He takes my hand, gaze taking in the torn skin around my cuticles. I try to pull away, but he laces his fingers with mine and tugs me toward the end of the corridor.

“What was that all about?” I ask.

“Come on,” he says softly. He leads me back to our bedchambers.

When he has shut the door, Callum runs a hand over his mouth, then sighs. “There are a few things I need to tell you about Wolves.”

Chapter Sixteen

“Wolves have something of an oral fixation.” Callum’s voice is as rough as sand.

“They. . . what?”

The fire has just been tended to. It casts its glow onto the side of Callum’s face and turns his skin bronze.

---