He was sitting too still.
I knew that type of fear. The type that you’d been taught to hide.
I shook my head, hurriedly. “Would they whip you?”
I pulled a face, reaching around to touch my own back, where the welts were still fresh from my recent whipping by Caligo in the academy.
Lanlin zeroed in on the movement, before baring his fangs. “I wish that I could feast on the blood of those who have laid their unworthy hands on you. I would toss their bodies to the Void Devils, so that their souls scream for eternity.”
Huh, graphic.
Also, impressively violent.
I flushed, not knowing how to reply.
I was the unworthy one, a wicked beast…evil.
Uncle told me that. So did Caligo and the other instructors.
They were helping me. If they didn’t, then I would be a danger to the rest of the kingdom, deserving of being shut up in the cold and dark.
Yet why should talking to an animal mean that Lanlin should be harmed?
How was that dangerous?
Lanlin played with his gloves. “I am cursed. I am not allowed to use my Power. The Priestesses would lock me up and starve me of blood and touch. But…” His mischievous gaze lifted to mine. “I was never good at following orders, right?”
“I won’t betray you,” I passionately swore.
I knew what it looked like to be cruelly trained. I knew what this fellow prince was not saying.
I had never met anyone who understood what it was like to be an outcast prince with feared powers.
A sense of powerful kinship surged through me.
Lanlin backed away from me, looking down. “Everyone says that, Relius. Everyone betrays you.”
I growled, shuffling closer to him on my knees. “I swear, on my horns.”
I grabbed Lanlin’s hand, meaning to bring it to touch my horn.
There were few more serious oaths, apart from blood or wing oaths.
I was shocked when Lanlin snarled at me.
He wriggled out of my hold. “Don’t touch me.”
My stomach sank. “I’m sorry.”
He looked wild, before he ran his gloved hand through his long hair and forced himself to stillness yet again. “I mean…you can… I d-didn’t…” He savagely bit his fang into his lip, before rubbing his gloved thumb through his own blood. Then he held it out to me. “On my blood, we shall never betray each other.”
I lowered my horn, allowing him to be the one to reach out and swipe the blood over my horn.
A blood oath as well.
I shivered.
I had never taken one before. It was unbreakable. We were now bound.
