I laugh.
All three of them stare at me.
I shrug. “Maybe we’ll find a way out of this still. Maybe there’s a world where we don’t end up forced together. But Ebron is pretty sure you just have some work to do.”
Ebron lifts his head and swings it around to face the three men. They stiffen, eyes locked onto Ebron for a long minute before my dragon looks away. But the tension doesn’t ease.
“What did he say to you?” I ask.
“Nothing,” Prince Alaric says, but he looks troubled.
Whatever Ebron said, none of the three men liked it.
6
Harper
“We haveto get back to the academy,” Prince Gareth demands, looking so grumpy that it’s almost cute.
“Why?” I ask, still sucking on honeysuckle.
“Why?” Prince Alaric repeats, sounding exasperated. “Because we have responsibilities!”
“Not until the ball tonight, which means we haveallday.”
“We could practice more.”
“We practiced late last night. Wasn’t that enough?”
“No, I mean, there’s more we can do.”
“Yeah, but don’t you ever… just relax?”
They exchange another look, like I’m speaking a different language and none of them have a clue what I’m saying, which actually makes me feel sad for them. What have their lives been like that the idea of just taking some time off is so foreign to them? Everyone should know what it feels like just to spend a day lying in the woods, staring up at the sky. Or to camp out under the stars and watch the night pass by. Life can be so short. It shouldn’t just be filled with obligations and misery.
“We don’t really do… relaxing,” Prince Alaric explains slowly.
“Why?” I ask.
“Because we’re Dravari princes,” Prince Lucien answers, looking irritated.
“So that means you’re obligated to never have fun?”
He shakes his head, those brilliant green eyes of his watching me. “We have fun. We get drinks after training. Fuck pretty women. And laugh with the boys.”
“But do you ever reallyrelax? Do you ever lay back and watch the clouds or listen to the wind sweeping through the trees?”
Prince Gareth gives an unhappy laugh. “That’s a waste of time.”
I cock my head. “It’s really not.”
“Let’s just head back before the Hollowborn find us out here so exposed,” Prince Lucien says, irritated.
“You three are afraid to relax!” I accuse. Then I see it in their faces: I’m absolutely right.
“We are not,” Prince Lucien argues angrily.
“Prove it,” I say.
