Page 101 of A Requiem of Fire and Ice

I drink in the atmosphere of music, hearty food, and beaming faces. I’m reminded of home for a moment. The Kingdom of Crystal had a week of street fairs, where families looked at Christmas lights, ate as they walked, and listened to Christmas carols. Sadly, I never went for pleasure; instead, I stayed close to Dad while Typha and Mother entertained themselves with things I wanted to join in.

I want to experience this. The girl inside me needs this moment.

Linking my arm with Prince Reen, he goes stiff as I drag him by the arm and pull him toward the crowd until I’m consumed by it. The crowd feels alive, leaving a vibrant feeling in the air. A group of elemny dance in the street, holding hands and moving to the beat of the music.

I eye Prince Reen and nudge my head toward the dancers. He gives me a do-it-and-you-will-fucking-die-tonight look. With an irritable sigh, we keep moving through the crowd until we find the food trucks with salivating street food. My mouth waters at the meaty, juicy burgers marinated in thick sauces and loaded fries smothered in gravy and sprinkled with crisp bacon.

“Do you, as an ice elemny, enjoy warm food?” Prince Reen asks.

“Yes. But we don’t like hot drinks,” I say. “What about you? Do you like anything cold?”

He grimaces. “Not really, no. But I’m not opposed to it.”

“So…” I point to the burgers and say to the chef, “Two loaded burgers and slush drinks, please!”

“That will be thirty-two.”

I step aside with a wicked grin and say, “All you, Reen.”

There is a battle in his mind, and I know he’s irritated with my spending spree today, but he moves forward in the end and taps his card. He does, however, mutter his complaints about the fact that I stole Astin’s money, so I should have more than enough to pay for my own shit.

The man gestures to the tables beside his food truck. We sit at the table with a colourful umbrella in the middle, covering the stars in the sky.

On the other side of the food truck, dancers sway to alluring, sad symphonic music that pulls at heartstrings. Two air elemny, with love and adoration in their silver eyes, gaze at each other as they dance seductively slowly.

“Who do you think will cause the other to die?” I ask, turning back around to look at Prince Reen. His intense red eyes fixate on me. “What?”

He rolls his eyes toward the dancing couple and twitches a smirk. “Commonly, they both usually agree on dying together instead of watching their lives decay.”

I purse my lips. “Are you tethered, Pri—Reen?”

“No.”

“What would you do if you were tethered to someone?”

“I’d put them in the cells so far down underneath the castle, where they cannot see the light, feel a thing, or cause disruptions to my life.”

I make a face. “You wouldn’t want to try at least to co-exist with them?”

“They would be nothing but a weakness to me. I don’t enjoy feeling out of control of my own emotions.”

I want to persist because I want to know what makes him tick and why, but the man comes with our food and sets it down before us.

As I take a sip of my drink, I eye Prince Reen. He’s looking at the slushy with a curl of his lip. Then I notice the ice melting along the edges. I take the cup from Prince Reen’s hands before it turns into a sloppy mess. He seems irritated when he looks at his hands as if they’re a weapon too hot to hold anything fragile and cold.

I move the cup to his mouth and say, “Take a drink.”

“Since meeting you, I have had a mental list of reasons to kill you. This humiliation will be another.” Prince Reen takes a sip, cringes, sits back, and then rubs his forehead. “That’s disgusting.”

I bark a laugh before taking a sip. “Tastes like raspberries. I wish we had cake for dessert, though.”

“Cake?”

“I never had cake before,” I admit. “I never had a birthday to have cake.”

“Not even Typha’s?”

“I wasn’t allowed.”