Blinding white light infiltrated through a slit in the air, a stark distinction against the cityscape around us. I glanced at Gray, who stared at the building across from us in a daze as if nothing unusual was happening at all.
I continued to hang above the rooftop, hoping to the gods that his magic would wear off the moment he stepped through the portal. Even if he released me right now, I’d still drive my daggerinto his throat despite knowing that my Kinetic blade wouldn’t be lethal to him. I couldn’t let him get away with forcing his magic on Gray without her permission.
The fucking audacity.
Once the slit opened into a wide enough gap, Valik held it with trembling arms, a strained grimace on his face, and forced out, “Until next time, Prince,” just as he stumbled through the beaming light, the portal slamming shut behind him.
Gravity took hold of me again, snatching me to the roof. I landed on my feet, regaining control of my limbs. Without thinking, I rushed to Gray’s side. I placed a hand on her shoulder softly. “Princess Gray?” I asked, trying my best to hide the rising panic in my voice.
Gray didn’t pull her lost stare from the building ahead of her, and the wide-open space suddenly felt stifling, making it a struggle to breathe. “Gray…”
Nothing.
I gave her a small shake, and at last, she jolted backward before looking at me with twisted confusion. In a panic, Gray scanned the rooftop, the buildings surrounding us, and then down at the street below before finally settling on me. “How…you kissed me…”
I breathed out a sigh of relief. “Yeah,” I whispered, the air consuming my lungs again. “I did.”
“Why did you stop?” Her voice was small and unsure, as if she didn’t understand how she got there.
“Would you like for me to kiss you again?” I asked, my voice just above a whisper, bracing for the rejection I knew headed my way.
I was scared to breathe. Scared to blink. Scared to spook her with any slight movement. Although, I was hyper-aware of my palm touching her shoulder.
Gray looked down at her feet, blinking rapidly as her mind cleared before meeting my hopeful eyes. “Yes.”
I didn’t hesitate to cup her face in my hands and pull her lips to mine. This time, a bit harder than the last. All the emotion from Valik locking me in a strange magical stasis, the fear and rage of him working his power on her to take her memory of him, and now the anxious worry for her well-being all came to a head as my tongue dipped inside her mouth and swiped against hers, our teeth knocking together. I didn’t care, and judging by her slackening body in my arms, I didn’t think Gray did either.
A whimper came from her throat, and my head rushed from the sound as I took her bottom lip gently between my teeth before finding her tongue with mine again.
My brain was gone, consumed by her scent of vanilla and lavender, the softness of her hair, and my arm wrapped around her waist, flush against my front. She was going to be mine. One day. But at least for now, I could leave my mark so she couldn’t forget me.
Finally, I forced myself to pull back, placing a soft kiss on her lips before taking a step to put some distance between us. Our breaths were uneven and ragged, but I’d never felt more energized and alive. As if her kiss brought me back to life, turning my gray world to saturated color filled with rainbows.
“Let’s get you back to the palace,” I rasped out, my voice gravelly.
The wild look in her eyes only tempted me to take this further. I knew she was a virgin, and I couldn’t and wouldn’t rush anything, especially when I couldn’t give her any commitments until her father was dead. At my words, though, the bright blue in her eyes dampened to a shade of gray, and she dropped her gaze to the rooftop again.
Rejection and disappointment sliced into my heart, followed by the tug on the cord. She cleared her throat. “Okay.”
“I…” I started, lost for words on how to ask her to hold on for me, to give me some time to kill her fucking father, and then everything would make so much more sense.
Aren’t I just the poster boy for sanity?
“I…” I tried again and sighed. “Let’s go, Princess.”
Interlude
Pre-Devolution Day 2009
The door to the interrogation room opened with a screech and slammed with a boom.
Princess Gray shivered in her steely-ice chair as she tried to understand what had happened. One moment, her father dangled her from the ground by her throat, and the next, she was wielding a powerful magic she had no business possessing before she blacked out. The end result was Gray waking on the concrete floor in a fortified room wrought with destruction.
The haunting laugh that came from her father’s chest would never leave her mind. What shocked the princess most upon awakening was how he’d been slumped against the wall as if someone threw him against it. Whatever had happened hadn’t seemed to do much harm to him as he laughed to himself, unhinged.
Not even half an hour later, she sat in the destroyed interrogation room in a new chair that he’d ordered someone to bring in. Gray’s wrist bore the silver magnetic bracelet only those with awakened magic wore. A black one with strangesymbols she’d never seen before accompanied it on the opposite wrist.
The king would return soon, and the princess had no idea of what to expect. All she knew for sure was that a bad punishment awaited her, and it would be different than the times before. The severity of the impending punishment suffocated her. There was no doubt that she’d endure the worst of his wrath after everything that had happened.
