Page 53 of Falling Princess

I snatched up my bag and obeyed.

There was a sticky squelching from behind me. I retched. It’s not the sight of blood that got to me, but the sound made by extracting blades from flesh. I run.

Lorcan is a killer. What does it say about me, that it makes my heart flutter?

CHAPTERSEVENTEEN

As promised, Lorcan caught up with me at the stop just as the tram pulled up. I’d bought him a ticket from the machine, a perfectly banal task that felt jarringly normal. I moved into the center of the nearly-empty car and collapsed into a double seat, expecting him to take the one next to me. Instead, he sat in the one directly behind me.

Just like he does in class.

I turned sideways to peer at him over the back. He seemed unperturbed by the violence of the afternoon. He’s hardly even out of breath. Words tumbled uselessly through my mind, adding up to nothing but fractured sentences. Eventually, I came up with the ever-eloquent, “Thank you.”

His gaze cut to mine. “You don’t have to thank me.”

I glanced around, then leaned as close as I dared over the seat back to whisper, “You killed three men. I owe you a great deal more than simple thanks.”

He shrugged. It should be maddening. Four days ago, that reaction would have sent me into a tailspin of ire. Today, though, it doesn’t. Everything has changed. It’s going to take some time for me to adjust.

“It’s my duty. I signed up to kill or be killed. I knew what I was getting into when I chose this.” Lorcan’s gaze held mine, unwavering.

“Does it bother you?”

“Killing?” he asked, quietly, and I shivered. He’s remorseless. “No. They made their choice, and they would have chosen to hurt you. Killing them doesn’t bother me in the slightest.”

I studied his face for an entire block. There’s no hint of shadow in his eyes, only a bright determined purpose that’s exhilarating and terrifying in equal measure. He’s somehow walled off this part of himself. Lorcan’s gaze flicked to me. He shifted uneasily in his seat. I continued staring; I can’t seem to stop.

“How did you find me?”

Instead of answering, Lorcan pulled out his phone, tapped an icon, and held it out to me. I forced myself to quit gawping at him and take it. A small blue dot on a map of Edinburgh traced its way up the same street we are currently traversing. “Sas put tracking software on yours before she gave it to you. It’s accurate within three feet, unless you’re inside certain kinds of buildings. Or in Auralia. Or your battery’s dead.”

Just like in Beijing.

“You knew where I was this whole time.” I handed it back, feeling defeated. “The Black Sheep Cafe, the stationery store, the park—you were watching me the entire time.”

His silence is the only confirmation I need. It was all an illusion. Despair settled in the pit of my stomach. I was never really free, only given my head for a few days, like an unruly horse.

A few blocks later, Lorcan finally added, “I only needed to use it once, until you went to stay with Cata. I’m not...I don’t stalk you.”

“You never needed to. You’ve been within two meters of me the entire time we’ve been in Scotland, except during my brief escape to the library.” After today, if I ever let him out of my sight again, it will be under duress.

Uncertainty shaded his expression. “You’re not mad? About the tracking?”

“No. I’m only angry with myself for causing you to miss class as well.”

Lorcan smiled faintly at that. “I don’t mind.”

I couldn’t help but smile at that. “I bet you don’t.” He’d rather be out playing with sharp objects than cooped up in a classroom, clearly. I glanced at the street sign and said—unnecessarily, I’m sure; he knows exactly where we are—“This is our stop.”

My hands were surprisingly steady as I let us into Cata’s rented house.

Alone.

I didn’t have the slightest idea what to say or do. My knee hurt and my bottom ached where I landed on it twice; I deserved worse than a bruised butt. I’d like to take a hot bath, but it means being away from my appointed knight, and I’m not quite ready for that.

If my feelings toward him were complicated before, they’re both simpler and more fraught now. Clarity as to my personal feelings about Lorcan clashed with the fact that nothing has changed where Raina is concerned.

The least I can do is not let my emotions make this mess of a situation worse. The feeling will pass.

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