There was a beat of silence.
The prince’s voice seemed changed when he next spoke. Softer. “I pray you will forgive me that I cannot, miss. These packages are very important, and I fear they’ll be destroyed in the rain.”
For a moment, Alizeh wondered whether this wasn’t a cruel trick; no doubt he’d come to arrest her for vanishing illegally into the night. There seemed no other plausible explanation.
Certainly the prince of Ardunia had not braved a torrential downpour to personally deliver a stock of trivial goods to the lowly servant residing at Baz House? And at this late hour?
No, she could not believe it.
“Please, miss.” His voice again. “I should only like to return the parcels to their owner.”
Alizeh felt suddenly awake with fear. She supposed a different person might be flattered by such attentions, but Alizeh could not help but be wary, for not only did she doubt his motives, but she couldn’t imagine how he’d known to find her when she’d said but a few words in his presence.
She swallowed, squeezing her eyes shut.
Then again, what did any of it matter if there was a chance she might be returned her parcels? To Alizeh, those packages were everything; without them, her immediate future appeared nothing short of disastrous. If the prince had comeall this way only to torture her, she couldn’t see what he might gain by it, for she was perfectly capable of defending herself.
No, what confounded her above all else was why the devil had shown her this young man’s face.
Perhaps tonight she would finally know.
Alizeh took a deep breath and turned the lock.
The door groaned as it opened, bringing with it a shower of windswept rain. She quickly stepped aside, allowing the prince entrée, for he was, as she suspected, soaked to the bone. His arms were crossed tightly against his chest, his face obscured almost entirely by the hood of his cloak.
He closed the kitchen door behind him.
Alizeh took several steps back. She felt horribly exposed meeting him like this, without her snoda. She knew there was little to hide, not now that he’d already seen her face in full, had borne witness to her strange eyes.
Still. Habit was hard to overcome.
Wordlessly, the prince unhooked the satchel from his body and held it out to her. “The packages are within. I trust they’re all accounted for.”
Alizeh’s hands were shaking.
Had he really come all this way only to deliver her a kindness?
She tried to affect calm as she opened the bag and was uncertain of her success. One at a time, she withdrew the packages, balancing them carefully in the crook of her arm. They were all there, only slightly worse for wear.
Alizeh couldn’t quell the sigh of relief that escaped herthen. Fresh tears pricked her eyes and she blinked them away, composing herself as she returned the bag to its owner.
The prince froze as he accepted the satchel.
He appeared to be staring at her, but with much of his face so hidden from view, Alizeh couldn’t be sure.
“Your eyes,” he said quietly. “They just”—he shook his head an inch, as if to clear it—“I could’ve sworn they just changed color.”
Alizeh retreated farther, putting several pieces of furniture between them. Her thudding heart would not slow. “Please accept my sincerest gratitude,” she said. “You’ve rendered me an unaccountable service by returning my packages. Truly, I do not know how to thank you. I am in your debt, sir.”
She winced.
She should have saidsire, should she not?
Thankfully, the prince in question did not seem to take offense. Instead, he pulled back his hood, revealing his face in full for the first time. Alizeh took a sharp breath and a step back, catching herself against a chair.
It was mortifying, truly, that she could not bear to look at him.
She’d seen his face in her nightmare, but rendered in real life the effect was entirely different; he was startling to behold in the flesh, the sharp planes of his face illuminated by firelight. He had piercing eyes the color of coal, his olive skin so golden it seemed to glow. Indeed there was something almost unnaturally illuminated about him—as if he was limned with light around the edges—and she could not pinpoint its origin.
