Page 49 of Clash of Storms
"No. I'm not surprised." She thought about everything he'd said and done in the past few days. "I wouldn't have thought you a male of honor last week, but then I knew nothing about you. Not truly." Heat crawled up her cheeks. "I hated you, but I did not know you. You were right. I've let my own feelings aboutdrekiprejudice me against them."
"You have good reason." He fed a twig into the fire. "All your life they've looked down upon you for your human heritage."
"You never did."
The crackle of the fire seemed to emphasize the uncomfortable silence between them. Firelight gilded his cheekbones, but there was a stark intensity to his eyes, and it was as if he refused to look at her.
"I did," he admitted. "When I first saw you I was... unkind."
She remembered the night she'd first laid eyes upon him. An enormous, hulking brute of adrekiwarrior looming over her, puffed up with so much arrogance she'd felt even smaller than she was.
"You stopped your brother from hitting me. I did not think you unkind. Frightening, perhaps." Malin shrugged when he looked at her sharply. "You are quite large and intimidating when you wish to be."
"And I spent years thinking you small and meek and timid."
"I am small."
"But not meek. I swear I saw more of the top of your head in those years than your actual face. You had me quite fooled." A teasing note crept into his voice. "But I saw you smile once, when you didn't know I was looking. And I realized you used your timidity as a shield. You knew I hated the endless curtsying."
Malin couldn't resist smiling.
"Just like that," he breathed.
"I might have enjoyed your reaction. A little."
They sat in silence, with him watching her with heated eyes. Had they ever spoken so easily, without aggravation between them?
"May I ask you a question?" he asked softly.
"You may."
Dark lashes fluttered like a fan on his cheeks. "What would you have done if Ihadsaid I was mating with you?"
Malin froze. "Well, I..."Would have panicked, no doubt. She laughed under her breath. "I probably would have fainted."
An uneasy smile slid across his mouth. "Out of horror?"
"Out of shock," she corrected. "It's the sort of thing a drekling girl like me doesn't dare dream about." Malin bit her lip a little wistfully. "I know there's something inside me—I can feel the wind calling to me at times, whispering how lovely the skies would be beneath my wings, if I had them. And when I'm angry, something pushes on the inside of my skin as though it wants to be let out. But it's rare that full-bloodeddrekifind their mates, let alone a half-blood. I wouldn't presume."
"So your shock doesn't extend to me, personally, but the concept of finding a mate in itself?"
Malin shifted uncomfortably. "Well, yes, the idea of it being you seems preposterous. No offense intended—"
"None taken," he replied swiftly.
"It's just... you're aZilittuprince. There are expectations of you. I'd hoped—not that I think of it very often—but I'd hoped for someone gentle. Someone kind. He doesn't even have to be very handsome." She stared into the fire dreamily. "Someone who would take the time to court me, as if I was the most important woman in his world and not merely a conquest."
"You wish to becourted?" Sirius made it sound like the most foolish thing he'd ever heard.
"Of course I do! What woman wouldn't?"
"Flowers? Poetry? Stolen kisses? That sort of thing?"
Why had she even bothered mentioning it? "I'm sure such things are a mere joke to you, but it would be nice to feel so important."
"Youareimportant, Malin. Giving you bloody flowers shouldn't be the thing that makes you feel as though you matter."
"You're missing the point."
