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I rolled my eyes.
“Is this what you wanted to show me?”
He dropped his playful teasing.
“No,” he barked.
But his eyes were on my feet now.
“It’s going to take you forever to walk through these halls in those,” he complained and then, without waiting for a response, he wrapped his arm around my waist and traveled us away from his bedroom.
We reappeared in another bedroom. This one also faced the water, but the tint of the glass was lighter, and I could see the veranda overlooking the beach. The water was emerald green, and the sand was sugar white. There was a wooden armoire on each side of the big bed in the center of the room. I liked the feel of this bedroom better. It felt like the kind of place I wouldn’t mind waking up to.
“Pick something from the one on the right.Pants,” he emphasized. “And no heels.”
He turned and left the bedroom, closing the door so quickly that I had to peek over my shoulder to make sure he was gone.
I opened the doors of the armoire to find an entire wardrobe of clothes that looked like the female version of the clothes I’d seen the Prince wear for training. I decided on a dark emerald-green matching set. The leggings were tight but made of a stretchy material that would allow me to move easily. The matching sports bra had a cute, stringy pattern in the back, but the front was high-cut and supportive. I slipped on a pair of low-cut black sneakers that showed my ankles.
I looked in the full-length mirror that sat perched in a corner and didn’t recognize myself. I had so thoroughly adopted the style of the High Court, the silk and silts and plunging necklines, that I had forgotten that I once used to wear a different kind of clothes. Before, my style had been simple and maybe a little sexy. The green set I wore fit that bill—it was surprisingly comfortable despite its compression and just a little bit sexy with the stringy back of the bra and the sliver of my stomach that showed.
I stepped out of the room, feeling confident. The Prince was leaning against the wall, eating the last few bites of a sandwich. He popped the last bite into his mouth, pressing his lips together and running his tongue across his thumb.
“Hungry?” he asked.
I realized that I had been staring at his mouth.
“Umm, no. Thanks, though,” I said.
“If you want muscles, you have to feed them,” he said matter-of-factly.
“And who said I want muscles?” I asked.
He looked at me with an exaggerated, bemused expression on his handsome face.
“You’re here to train, princess. Your magic. Your mind.And your body,” he answered.
I didn’t bother to correct him and tell him I didn’t have any real magical abilities to train. His gaze purposefully focused on my arms, making me aware of their skinny, undefined shape.
“And I would have thought that you’d want to learn to defend yourself so that next time someone tries to kidnap you, you don’t need me to save you,” he said.
It was like he had slapped me in the face by pointing out how helpless I had been when that lesser fae mystery man had tried to steal me away. But no one had ever offered me the opportunity to learn how to defend myself.
“I do,” I replied fiercely. “But you’re talking like it is only a matter of time before someone tries something like that again,” I said.
He stepped into me, so close that the front of our bodies were almost touching. I had to crane my neck to look into his face, even more so than normal because I didn’t have my four-inch heels to bridge the gap in our height.
“Alarie.”
I felt like someone had knocked the breath out of me. It was the first time he had ever called me by my name. Not princess. It felt like the hallway got darker and that darkness pressed around us.
“I’m only going to say thisonce, so listen to my words. You havesomethingthat other people wantvery badly,” he said, a dark shadow rising around his feet.
“I—”
“I don’t want to hear that you don’t have magic. Don’tevertell me that again. Youdo. And if we don’t figure out how you can use it, you’re going to get yourself kidnapped or killed,” he said.
He stepped back from me, and the pressing darkness receded with him. He looked angry. The muscle in his square jaw twitched. I exhaled a breath I’d been subconsciously holding in.
