“The Hollowborn that caught me.”
“Why do you say that?” he hedges.
I bite my lip, debating about the wisdom of what I’m about to say. “He smiled. We joked with each other. He even…”
“He even what?” Prince Gareth asks, eyes narrowed.
I square my shoulders. “He kissed me.”
Silence. Pure and utter silence follows my words. The sounds of the forest seem to rush in. Birds. Bugs. The wind whistling through the trees.
“What the fuck?” Prince Gareth says, suddenly angry.
“Brilliant! Just brilliant!” Prince Lucien shouts. “She wants to make peace with a monstrous group of creatures because she likes the Hollowborn that kissed her.”
“I didn’t say that–”
“He couldn’t have kissed you,” Prince Alaric says, brows drawn together. “The Hollowborn don’t have hearts. They don’thave souls. They don’t have a desire to kiss anyone. It makes no sense.”
“Look!” I say, my voice rising several levels. “I didn’t say I liked his kiss. I didn’t think it was some big, important, magical thing. You’re just painting the Hollowborn as heartless creatures instead of people, and I’m telling you that the Hollowborn I spoke to was just a man. A different sort of man, but a man all the same.”
Prince Gareth glowers at me. “Like hell.”
“Makepeacewith the Hollowborn. Fool me once, fool me twice, but fool me a third time? Surely not,” Prince Lucien mutters angrily, like just the idea is insane.
“Our father seems to be considering it…” Prince Alaric says, still seeming disturbed.
“Only because of her and the history books!” Prince Gareth shouts.
Fuck. This is not what I wanted to deal with today.
Turning, I walk casually away from them, then start running like mad. I hear one of them shouting behind me, but I don’t slow. These men might be muscular and tough, but I know how to run through the woods. I’ll leave them far behind.
I keep running long past the time I stop hearing their shouts. Long past the time when I sense them behind me. When I finally stop, I’m alone. Just me and the woods. Breathing hard, I lean against a tree, heart racing. I think back to the kiss with the Hollowborn. I didn’t like it.
Did I?
3
Harper
It’s late.I’m lying in bed, exhausted after a day spent running around in the woods, and an evening back at the academy. Even a dinner spent with the irritated dragon riders wasn’t enough to distract me from my thoughts, especially since the princes weren’t there to keep my mind occupied.
Who would have thought I’d miss having them at a meal?
My mind is raging. No matter what I do, my thoughts keep circling to the princes, and the Hollowborn. I’m not going to pretend to know as much about the Hollowborn as the men who have literally fought them, who have watched their friends die at the hands of our enemies. But I also think that by being removed from the Hollowborns, I have the ability to put aside the past bloodshed and focus on what’s best for the future.
Unless I’m just being naive.
Sighing, I slip out of bed, put on my slippers, and shrug into my robe before closing it over my short nightgown. I’m only a little hungry, but right now I feel like snacking is the only thing that’s going to help me finally go to sleep. I pad out of my roomand into the darkened halls. I pass the occasional guard as I make my way to the academy kitchens. This place, it’s almost nice at night. You know, without all the testosterone.
I catch a glimpse of the training yard and freeze. It’s the training yard where Prince Alaric had hit me, where Prince Lucien had exposed me. It’s the place Prince Gareth had challenged me countless times. It feels like a battlefield, but for reasons entirely different from the ones I’m meant to see.
“They’re a pack of assholes, the lot of them,” I whisper, leaning against the wall.
Will there ever be a day that I get along with the princes?
Against my will, my thoughts turn to Ebron and the female dragons he seems to be taking an interest in. The princes’ dragons. If he mates with them, I’m expected to marry the princes. But even if nature itself dictates this type of relationship, I have no idea if it’ll actually change things for us. Chances are we’ll be married and hating each other.
