Jutting out his lower lip, he nodded. “And as far as your safety protocol goes, I won’t be kept a prisoner.”
“Are you sure you wouldn’t enjoy that?” I teased, unable to resist temptation.
His neck strained as he swallowed, but he didn’t take the bait. “And if it’s just the two of us in your fortress, then you have to spend time with me or give me something to do. I don’t like to sit around all day and stare at the walls. I need to be active, especially if I’m not going to be drinking.”
“Noted. You’ll have a daily schedule to follow and much of your time will be spent with me anyway, since we’ve established you’re not an assassin.” I waited for him to confirm it.
“Or am I?” he said with a rakish grin.
How I longed to smack his impertinent ass, but I resisted his provocation. “Now, there is the matter of your retinue and your guardsmen. Do you wish to bring any of them along with us?”
“No, even those who are loyal to me will soon turn into spies for my mother, and neither of us wants that.”
He was a clever young man, able to anticipate his mother’s next moves. “Then you will be truly alone.”
“I’ll have my summoner,” he said, referring to an enchanted mirror that allowed us to converse with others at a distance. “Besides, I thought I had you.”
I nodded slowly, my entire being responding to the vulnerability in his voice. “Indeed. You do have me, Cedrych.”
He studied me closely, perhaps to determine if I was being deceitful. I was not. I greatly preferred this cunning version of Cedrych to the dolt he’d been attempting to sell me during our last encounter.
“You’ve changed,” he said at last.
“So have you.”
“The reason I bothered you so relentlessly when we were younger was because I hated being excluded. And when you came to visit, all you seemed to do was push me away in favor of my brother.”
“Godfried and I are closer in age,” I reminded him.
“I don’t care. I didn’t like it and I wouldn’t stand for it.”
I envisioned him adding a little foot stomp that he’d been so fond of employing when he was younger and didn’t get his way.
“It wasn’t my intention to make you feel lesser,” I told him.
“I wanted you to notice me.” He lowered his eyes, then turned toward the window again. “I hate feeling invisible,” he said quietly.
Cedrych was the middle child, often forgotten and easily swept aside, especially after his father died. But it’d be impossible for me not to notice him, then or now. I laid a firm hand on his knee. “I see you, Cedrych, and I’ll do my best to make you feel seen while we’re together.”
He shrugged but gave the hint of a wry smile. “I suppose I’ll find out soon enough if you are a man of your word, Lord Vasil.”
“Challenge accepted,” I said and silently added,brat.
Chapter 4
Prince Cedrych
“Do not disappoint me.”
Those were my mother’s parting words as I boarded Lord Vasil’s ship bound for the Isle of Wyn, leaving behind the only home I’d ever known. She’d said it as if expecting precisely that outcome, daring me to do it. Were she and the lord conspiring against me?
I studied my somber new master from across the ship’s deck. His dark skin was bathed in moonglow and the soft light glinted off the widow’s peak in his inky black hair as he gazed coolly across the choppy waters to where we were headed. Like their lord and master, the Cysgodion Cliffs cut a stark outline in the night sky. How could I reconcile that harshness with the intimacy we’d shared in the palanquin back to Crystal Castle?
Why did I tell him all of that? What was I thinking? Can he really be trusted?
My misgivings barrelled through me with as much force as the tumultuous waves of the Lunar Straits as we crossed the boundary of fae lands and into the elvish. The Arcane Isles were an archipelago made up of two large islands and a myriad of smaller ones. The fae ruled the western Isle of Dyn, andthe elvish and vampyre ruled the eastern Isle of Wyn. The north, known simply as the Northern Realm, was inhabited by nomadic tribes of ogres and giants, better suited to survive the mountainous terrain and harsh winters. To the south was the Shimmering Sea, where merfolk frolicked amongst the many inlets and lagoons. Interspersed throughout the Arcane Isles were countless other clans and territories, such as the shifters in the Dragonback Mountains where my ex was currently shacked up with a halfling minotaur, but their populations were smaller and more widely dispersed.
Leaning heavily against the side of the ship, I tried to keep a lid on my dinner, but did not succeed. Bent over the ship’s gunnel, I vomited until only bile flowed into the sea. I’d never been good on boats, but my seasickness seemed especially bad at present. I’d tried hovering in flight on the upper deck but only ended up exhausting myself. Lord Vasil had offered twice to ease my symptoms, but I’d refused, too stubborn and too proud. I’d already revealed too much. What more did he expect?
