Page 26 of Rising Out of the Darkness
“You owe me for breaking our deal.”
“I do not?—”
“Go now.” His body crowded my space and he pointed in the direction of the fire. “Youwillgo, and youwillsit on that log until I tell you to move. Are we clear?”
Fuming, I turned and stormed off towards the direction of the fire. The whiplash of this man’s moods was infuriating.
Once I made it halfway to the fire, I looked over my shoulder in search of the Lord of Grumpiness. Finding him nowhere in sight, I made my way over to the closest tent that needed to be built and got to work.
Pressing my hands into the ache of my lower back, I admired my handiwork. With the help of Killian, who smirked when he saw me going against Declan’s orders, we were able to construct two tents. When he had to leave to organize a perimeter watch, I managed to construct one fully on my own.
However, I was regretting the last one as my body cried out in pain. My thighs burned from the long ride—a ride that I wasn’t accustomed to, since this was the farthest I’d ever traveled out of Lostburrow in my twenty-three years.
Pine needles crunched behind me causing me to jump. With a wince, I glanced over to see Liam walking towards me.
“Don’t worry. The pain will get easier the longer we ride. By the end of this trip, you’ll be a true horsewoman.”
“Well, I sure hope so,” I said with a huff as a tendril of hair flew off my face. “The last thing we need is for the infamous Light Phoenix to fall off her horse to her untimely death. The king would be enraged he missed out on the opportunity to do it himself, and pure chaos would reign over the realm.” I deadpanned.
Liam’s eyes widened, then he burst out in a deep, bellowing laugh. “Where does all that sass hide within such a small thing? You keep on surprising me, little lady.”
“First of all, there is nothing ‘small’ or ‘little’ about me.” I motioned my hand over all of me. “I’m almost as tall as you.”
He grunted, though I caught a slight upturn of his lips.
“Second, with all this power, I feel I have a great responsibility to keep everyone on their toes. Or, at the very least, entertained.” With a devious smile, I bowed my head and spread my arms out wide for emphasis.
He started rummaging through a satchel that hung over his shoulder. Holding a flask up to my mouth he said, “Drink, it’ll help with the pain.”
Normally, I proceeded with more caution in my life, but I was tired, sore, and cranky. At this point, I’d take anything to help tackle any one of those situations.
Lifting the bottle to my frozen lips, I tilted my head back, letting the warm liquid fall down my throat. Searing pain flooded my throat, causing me to cough uncontrollably. My nose burned and my eyes watered as I tried to regain my composure.
“Already trying to torture our prisoner, Liam?” a deep voice purred from the side of me. On the opposite side of the fire stood the prince, with hands on his hips and smirking at my misfortune.
“Not on purpose, Your Highness. Just introducing Elena to the medicinal properties of whiskey.” Liam grinned and sealed the cap back on tossing it back into a satchel, then turned around to head back to whatever he was doing before.
Before he got too far away, I shouted after him, “Next time you plan on torturing me, at least give me a little warning.”
“We’ll see, little lady, we’ll see.” He strode away, his shoulders shaking with mirth.
Clearing my throat, I inhaled a deep pull of cool air to try to chill the burn. I could already feel the warmth of the whiskey flowing over my body. Everything felt a little bit lighter and a fuzzy feeling began to thrum inside my head. Maybe when Liam returned, I could persuade him to allow me another swig of it. Just for medicinal purposes, of course.
As I smiled, a chill rippled throughout my body, the awareness of a heavy presence looming. My gaze shifted beneath my lashes, only to find the prince sitting across from me on the other side of the fire.
The flames whipped wildly between us as he glared through them at me with almost the same intensity. Heat rippled across my skin, not from the fire, but from within my traitorous body.
Something about this dark, destructively handsome man made me unable to peel my eyes away from him. No one, not even Will, had ever looked at me in the way the prince was looking at me right now, like I was some puzzle that he was struggling to solve.
As the intensity of his stare deepened, it became difficult for me to tell whether he might rip me to shreds or leap over the fire and rip off my clothes. Surprisingly, option two felt rather intriguing to my body.
What am I thinking?
The man in front of me was the son of the most vicious, deplorable king. He was the Lord of Shadows, his dynamis commanded darkness, and gods only knew what else lurked inside him. This man was dangerous, period. Nothing about him should be intriguing. Clenching my thighs together, I broke our gaze lowering my head to the ground to try to knock some sense into it. “So, are you always this grumpy?”
“Are you always this insolent?”
“Hmm,” I paused, the next words burning on my tongue. “I save it for contemptuous, arrogant bastards like yourself.”Catching the darkened eyes of the prince across the fire, I tossed him a sarcastic smile.
