Page 90 of All the Chaos of Constellations
A noise sounded from somewhere above her, like the clicking of a tongue.
“I told you to let him come to you.”
Prince Drake’s voice floated over her like a cloak of misery. She glanced up at him. The shadow prince stood a few paces off to her right, his arms crossed. He wore his riding leathers, silver chains draped across his broad shoulders, and even his hands were gloved.
She scowled at the man who’d done nothing but wreak absolute havoc the moment he walked into her life. “Go away. Please,” she added, belatedly. “I just want to be alone.”
“Understandable. There’s solace in solitude.” But he didn’t leave. “Unfortunately, the Firelight Festival is almost over. You can cry yourself to sleep in your room, but not on the forest floor.”
Novalise gave a half-hearted laugh. “Your empathy is astounding.”
“It’s one of my finest traits.”
She thought she heard a smile in his voice, but when she looked over at him again, his face was a mask of indifference.
Strange silence settled between them, lacking in comfort, but not exactly hostile either. It was more of an understanding.
She stared out at the faerie pool, where the shimmering water bubbled at the base of the falls. The fire sprites had all but vanished, for they only slept during the daylight hours and dawn was slowly approaching. Scooping up an oval pebble, she slung it haphazardly into the pool. It skipped the surface twice before sinking to the bottom.
“How did you find me?” she asked abruptly, not fully expecting him to answer.
She heard the shifting of his boots over the grass, like he was stepping closer. “Your scent isn’t that difficult to track.”
Novalise scoffed. “So, you’re stalking me now?”
“More or less.”
Another beat of that heavy, all-encompassing silence passed between them, weighted and dense.
“I hurt him,” she whispered, more to herself than the prince.
“It’s in our nature to hurt those we love. Whether intentional or not.”
She dared another glance at his mention of the word that caused her such agony. She never would’ve expected Prince Drake to be capable of such an emotion.
Her nose tingled with the threat of more tears.
“He will never love me after what I said to him.” Her voice cracked, the pain of admittance reverberating through to her heart, fracturing it into tiny shards. She blinked and hot tears escaped from the corner of her eyes. There was no stopping them this time. “He told me to marry you. And that he’ll have the queen break our bond.”
Novalise’s chest heaved and her shoulders trembled as the choking sob tore loose. This wasn’t something she could mend with a practiced smile and pleasant charm. Asher would never love her, not fully and completely. He hadn’t even wanted to hear her apology.
He was lost to her.
Prince Drake heaved a disgruntled sigh, and before Novalise realized what was happening, he’d scooped her off the ground and into his arms.
She sniffled, summoning up the last of her strength in a vain effort to prove she wasn’t another damsel in distress. “I can walk.”
“And I can move between shadows.”
His words were all the warning she had before the world descended into darkness. Cold permeated the air around them as the shadows at his command swallowed them whole. Pressure caved in on her, crushing her against him. She struggled to breathe, her lungs near collapsing as a scream lodged in the back of her throat. The tantalizing scent of his magic, of cedar and burnt leather, assaulted her, and she weakened against the onslaught of his power.
Wrapped in shadows, she was helpless as the otherworldly coldness seeped into her bones. A profound sensation seized her, like her soul had been ripped from her body. It was as though she was being siphoned from one plane of existence to another. Blemishes of colors blurred before her eyes, but the world itself became nothing more than alternate shades of gray, masking them as they moved through the forest.
Prince Drake carried her through the shadows, the speed at which he shifted from one place to the next dizzying. Her head spun and she squeezed her eyes shut.
Terrifying emptiness slowed the beating of her heart.
There was no denying the shadow prince perfected the art of dark magic. He manipulated the occult. Whatever the source of his power, it was not entirely of this world.
