“Naria.” Lukas’s voice filled my ears.
Gasping, I steadied myself and stepped back. Lukas stood before me dressed in a dark shirt and breeches set while his strong hands held me by my shoulders.
“I’ve been looking for you since dinner,” he said, concerned. “Where have you been? What is all this?” He glanced around the ballroom.
“I…” My voice trailed off as embarrassment burned my cheeks.Actually, no.I shouldn’t be ashamed of what I’d done. Today was a good day. Together, my friends and I had helped so many people.
“It’s a temporary clinic,” I explained, standing tall. “I didn’t have any meetings today and there were a lot of people asking for our help so we helped them.”
“Naria…” Lukas sighed, wincing. “This is all very noble of you but are you not afraid of how this might affect your image?”
I tilted my head.
“You’re supposed to be making a name for yourself here as a queen,” he continued, eyes darting around. “Instead I heard from Marigold that you’ve been ruining Queen Cora’s ballroom and filling the palace with people from the fishyards.” He lowered his voice. “Rumours are being spread about you, Naria. And not nice ones either. I’ve been trying my best to quell them but it grows increasingly difficult when you spend your time doing things like this.”
Anger curled in my throat. “I’m helping people,” I growled. “Is that such a crime?”
“No.” He pressed his fingertips against his brow, exhaling. “But all the time you’re walking around in a bloodstained gown, you’re not helping yourself. People need to respect you, Naria. You’re a princess,” he argued.
“As if I’d ever cared what others thought of me,” I scoffed.
“You should when it affects me.”
I blinked. His anger settled as he took another deep breath.
“Listen,” he exhaled. “As long as you’re fulfilling your duties and trying your best with the other rulers, I couldn’t care less how you spend your time here. I want you to be happy, Naria. And if running around with leaves in your hair makesyou happy,” he paused to brush some nightbriar from behind my ear, my skin tingling, “then please, run as many temporary clinics as you’d like. But…” My breath stilled at his now serious tone. “I need you to understand that since we are engaged, your actions affect how people see me too. And I won’t dare repeat some of the comments people have said to me in regards to your… behaviour.”
My eyes narrowed. Inside me, fury melded with the tiredness from working all day into seven awful words that I should’ve never said, but still they came out, harsh and cold.
“Well perhaps you shouldn’t marry me then,” I replied.
Hurt flashed in his eyes as he drew back, but then his gaze caught on something else. Within seconds, his jaw tensed. Any hurt melted into darkened fury.
“What ishedoing here?”
I spun away. Arenn’s tall frame leaned against a sandstone column, metres from where Lukas and I stood. A bitter smirk pulled at his lips while his arms folded over his chest.
“I wondered what was taking you so long,” he said to me. Then he met Lukas’s steel gaze. “Good evening,Your Majesty.” His words were followed by a mocking bow.
Lukas stiffened before taking my arm and pressing me close to his side. “I told you this morning to stay away from her,” he snarled at the faery prince.
“Must’ve slipped my mind.” Arenn shrugged.
“You’ve spoken today?” I glanced nervously between them.
Lukas scoffed. “I found him earlier today skulking around your bedchamber. I told him if he didn’t leave thepalace immediately, I’d have him dragged out.”
“And I said I’d like to see you try, boy king,” Arenn laughed. “Now please,” his tone was short as he stepped away from the column, “return my princess to me and run along back to whatever meaningless task you’ve been occupying yourself with.”
Lukas held me tighter. “Naria doesn’t belong to you.”
“Oh?” Arenn chuckled. “But she’s yours, is she?” He stepped closer as my knees began to tremble. “We are connected, my sweet Naria and I.” With a grin, he raised his wrist to show off the two matching crystals, identical to the pair on my own arm.
“Stop,” I begged him.
But Arenn ignored me, teasing the crystals with his fingertips. “She can sense me and I can sense her. Like when she’s sad, hurting, excited… full of desire.” With a devious grin, he lowered his arm. “Can you do that?” He tilted his head. “Can you sense her late at night when she’s lying awake in bed? Thinking thoughts that I wouldn’t dare to repeat out loud?”
“Stop!” I almost screamed. Tears were building in my eyes, but I blinked them away.
