Page 5 of The Night Prince

“Lake?”It took Finley a moment to remember the last time they’d been at the lake.The lake was outside of the protective dome so going there at night was unwise at best and that was the only time they’d have gone there since the invasion.But then he cast his mind back farther. “When we were twelve?”

“Yes, I got so sick, remember?And my parents wouldn’t take me to the doctor though you wanted them to?”Declan’s breathing was coming much more evenly now, but he was still curled into an almost protective ball, twitching away even from the lamplight.

Finley’s brow furrowed, but he finally nodded, “I remember.We were at the lake all day.I had no idea you’d gotten sun poisoning because you didn’t look burned or even tan.”

In fact, Declan’s skin had remained as pale as always, but when they’d gotten back to Declan’s house that night, his best friend had started to sweat and shake profusely much like he had on the walk over to the Dawn.Then he had fallen into a feverish, half-dazed state, thrashing on his bed.Finley had called for Declan’s parents in a panic.

“He needs a doctor!Or the hospital!”Finley had cried out.

But Declan’s parents, while they had reacted swiftly with cold compresses and ice water, hadn’t whisked Declan to the hospital.In fact, they’d been dead set against it. Their faces showed grim determination.

“No, Finley, they couldn’t do anything for him that we can’t do here,” Declan’s mother, Alexia, said firmly, tucking a blanket around her shivering and sweating son. Finley could think ofdozensof things a doctor or hospital could do, but she continued, “He just needs fluids and rest.”

“But he looks…” Finley’s tongue clove to the top of his mouth.Looks like death, he’d wanted to say, but couldn’t form the words.

“It’s just sun poisoning,” Declan’s father, Tyler, added as he placed a cool compress on Declan’s forehead that stopped his best friend’s thrashing.“Declan will be fine by tomorrow.”

And Declanhadbeen fine the next day almost as if it had never happened.But he’d never spent that much time in the sun like that again.He’d go to the lake, but wear long sleeves and sit in the shade.He would only go swimming when the Sun was nearly down or fully extinguished.

“Do you think you have sun poisoning again, Declan?”Finley asked as he pulled himself out of the memory.

Yet even as he asked it he knew that sun poisoning would have taken much longer to occur.The walk from their home to the Dawn had taken only fifteen minutes, not to mention that Declan had been mostly covered up for all of it.So it was impossible for Declan to be sick from that.Yet the symptoms were eerily similar.

“It felt like that.But it happened too fast,” Declan echoed Finley’s earlier thought.“But I wonder…”

“Wonder?”

Declan rubbed his hands over his thighs.He straightened up in the chair, apparently recovered, which had a whoosh of air leaving Finley’s lips and the panicky vise around his chest easing.

Declan explained, “After you went home that night, I overheard my parents talking.They thought I was asleep.Despite what they said to you, they were really scared about me.My mom’s voice sounded strangled when she said to my dad that they’d been foolish to let me go out in the sun for so long.That they’d warned them about this possibility.And what would have happened if they’d had to take me to a doctor?”

“Warned?Who warned them and why?”Finley pieced together.

Declan’s teeth raked over his lower lip as if he wasn’t sure he wanted to say what he did next.“Yeah, someone told them that too much sunlight wouldn’t be good for me.As to who, I got the impression that it was the people they adopted me from.”

“From the Ukrainian orphanage?”Finley blinked in confusion.

His best friend had been adopted from a Ukrainian orphanage when he was ten-years-old.Declan’s birth parents had died in a car crash and neither had any living relatives so Declan had been sent to a cheerless, desperate institution. Declan had told him he had no memories of that time or his life before then whatsoever.

Alexia and Tyler had adopted Declan and brought him back to Lightwell. Declan’s adoption was also why he hadn’t gone to public school for the first year they’d had him, wanting to teach him English and acclimatize him to life in America.

Declan bobbed his head in assent.“Maybe I showed sun sensitivity before they adopted me.I’ve never liked the sun that much.The night is better.”

Finley’s forehead furrowed.“Why were they worried about taking you to a doctor?”

Declan shrugged.“They were always freaked out about even taking me to get my shots for school.”

Finley’s confusion grew.“So they never talked to a doctor about your sun sensitivity?”

“No, they kept doctor’s visits as short and to the point as possible.”

“Well, that is strange and unfortunate! You could have been diagnosed by now if they had.” Finley tapped his lower lip as he considered what might be causing his best friend distress. “Xeroderma pigmentosum is a genetic disease where ultraviolet rays can cause massive harm, but you would’ve had much worse symptoms than you’ve had if you had that. I mean, even certain kinds of lightbulbs can harm someone with XP.There’s also something called Sun Lupus, but that results in a skin rash–”

“Of course you know all of this off the top of your head.”Declan smiled at him.

Finley shrugged this time.“I read something once and I can’t forget it.You know how I am.”

“I do and I’m glad for it.But I don’t think I have either of those diseases,” Declan said.

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