Page 5 of The Shadow Prince's Ruin
I hesitate, once more glancing behind him, at the empty road. “If I bend the rules once, I will be obliged to do it again.”
The stranger licks his lips before stepping closer, about to reach inside through the window, but he stops himself in thelast moment. “Nah, I’m a gentleman. There’s no obligation to do anything.”
He is most definitely no gentleman, but I don’t want to argue for the sake of the argument. He’s been friendly enough. “I will agree this one time, but I warn you that it cannot become a precedent.” I discreetly assess the width of his shoulders. He’s… massive. It gives me that tightness in the throat and moths in the stomach, like when I used to take sneaky glances at the royal guards, sometimes even taking my walks at a time when they were likely to bathe in the pond.
The stranger grins and winks at me. “Don’t you worry. I’m real good at keeping secrets. Maybe I could buy you a drink? Or a cookie?”
My neck gets hot under the silver collar. “I do not need to be bribed. I made my choice to serve you out of my own free will. Are you paying cash or card?” There's a tension between us I can’t fully pinpoint, but it’s making me nervous.
The man snorts, shakes his head and bites his lip as he looks at me with a half-smile. “Okay, I’ll just be frank. I can’t take my eyes off you, and I want to talk to you a bit more. Do you want that cookie?”
I stare at him, dumbstruck. “I am not female,” I say, because I’ve learned the hard way that some men approach me because my delicate features confuse them about my gender.
“I know.”
Heat rises up my neck. I wish I was more experienced in these things, but matters of the heart have never been my priority.
But also, what is he thinking? That I, Prince Sylvan Goldweed, will fall at his feet because of a handsome smile and thick arms? Unless… Dread pools in my heart.
“Did they pay you to come here and agitate me?” I ask harshly.
The man pulls up the visor of his cap just enough for the light to catch the green of his eyes. He has really long lashes, whichmake his masculine face even handsomer. “Who’sthey? I just came in for food and got hungry for more than that.”
Thatis blunt. Since getting banished to the human world, I’ve been busy establishing myself and finding my feet. The possibility of being intimate with someone hasn’t even occurred to me. I’m out of my depth and resort to what I know—shutting down a situation before it can overwhelm me. I despise not being in control, and this man is most definitely trying to pull the reins out of my hands.
“I’m afraid you can only buy food here. You must pay or leave.” I cringe on the inside at my own voice. Could I not have been nicer about it? More flirtatious? I bet I’ll be lying in bed tonight and coming up with hundreds of answers better than what I just said, but it is what it is.
The man deflates, but his smile doesn’t falter completely. “Sure. As I said, no obligations,” he adds and opens his wallet before placing paper bills and some change in front of me. As I take the money, he steps away from the window, triggering a motion-activated light that would have long ago switched on if he drove a car.
This time, it’s me who stares, because the stranger's handsome exterior and gravelly voice both pale in comparison to the beauty of the shadow he’s casting. Blacker than the depths of Grief Ocean, it radiates power I have never before seen concentrated in a single human’s darkness. It’s like a beast forced into a cage too small. Not only is it so potent it seems to pulse, but slim dark tendrils extend beyond its edges like abandoned children desperate to find a home. His shadow isn’t just more powerful than any I’ve seen. It’s feral and ripe for plucking, like he’s been bound to an elf before, but their bond was severed death.
“Wait!” I say, even though I know he will be awaiting his food anyway. I’m frantic and desperate to not lose sight ofhim. My heart pounds ever faster. “Are you… someone’s Dark Companion?”
He blinks but steps back to the window. “Ooh, is that some new slang I missed? I could definitely be yourcompaniontonight. And we could do dark, dark things,” he says and winks at me.
He has no idea. Since I arrived among humans, I’ve not seen anyone whose shadow was accessible like his, practically begging for connection. I could bind his shadow to mineright now, and he’d be none the wiser. With such power as my crutch, I’d no longer be my family’s weakest link, the laughingstock of the Nocturne Court.
I reach out, expecting the shadow tendrils to accept the invitation and curl around my fingers, but they remain in place, as if I didn’t exist.
That’s right, the collar around my neck prevents me from using any shadowcraft.
I let out a helpless whine, which soon morphs into a sigh when the huge hand squeezes mine, encasing it in a warm, cozy cocoon.
“In case I wasn’t clear enough so far, I think you’re the prettiest twink I’ve seen in… forever.”
I’ve heard that word before, and while I’m not certain what it means, paired with ‘prettiest’ and the way he looks at me, I’m guessing he’s attempting to compliment me.
My fingers sizzle under his touch, and I breathe a little too fast as I glance from his eyes, to our fingers, to his shadow begging to be claimed. I don’t know how yet, but Iwillget the collar off and bind him to me.
My life would change completely if I had a Dark Companion like him. Banishment be damned, I’d claw my way back to the Nocturne Court somehow.
Only now I truly register what he meant and blush even more furiously. He thinks I’m pretty?
“I finish work in an hour. I’ll just get you your food, and… will you wait for me?” I ask, squeezing his hand, but at this point I’d be willing to break the rules and close early just to make sure he doesn’t wander off anywhere.
“Hell yes. I’d wait on this curb for a week for a pretty thing like you.” He lets out a raspy laugh and pulls out a little square wrapper from his wallet. There’s a ring-like shape inside, but I have no idea what that might be. “You have a place?”
He… doesn’t? Right. He doesn’t even seem to have a car. I have no idea who he is, but the packet looks a bit like the condiments we serve with takeout orders, so I’m guessing it’s food (?). I’m not used to spontaneous decisions, but if I let a shadow like that slip out of my grasp, I’ll never forgive myself.
