AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Arrogant much? But I don’t roll my eyes like I want to. Arrogance aside, he’s actually opening up. “So that’s why you had to follow through on the Nocturus with Rhaegar? Some sort of power trip?”
He regards me through his dark lashes, a muscle twitching in his temple. “That was different. I was protecting you from Rhaegar. He’s dangerous.”
I’m too stunned at first to say much. Rhaegar, dangerous? Besides, the prince makes it clear on a daily basis he despises me. Why would he care if I was hurt?
“What if I don’t need your protection?”
He chuckles, the sound low and throaty. “Like with the orc?”
Touché. “Okay, fine. But can I ask you something?”
He pauses from picking bits of dried mud from his no doubt outrageously expensive black boots. “Haven’t you been for the last five minutes?”
“How did you know I was in trouble? In the forbidden library?”
He sighs, his bowed lips pressing together as he straightens. “I felt it—your fear.”
“Felt it?” Adrenaline floods my senses as I remember being inside his head, feeling his emotions. Was it like that for him too?
Oh my God. What if he could see inside my head?
“What else do you feel when you’re around me?” I ask, digging for the truth. “Anything . . . weird?”
What I really want to ask hovers on the tip of my tongue: Do you experience an inexplicable sense of familiarity when we’re together, Prince? Does your heart feel close to exploding whenever I’m near? Do you ever dive straight into my head on accident—or on purpose?
But I don’t say any of those things, for obvious reasons. He stares at me, the fading sun highlighting the indigos in his hair, the hint of steel-blue in his eyes. His Adam’s apple bobs low as he swallows.
Then he jerks to his feet and stares into the setting sun. “We should probably head back now. The others will all be done.”
I sigh. “You haven’t been listening at all, have you? There is no raverous snake. At least, not here.”
His eyes narrow. “This game grows old, Princess.”
The sharp edge in his voice tells me it’s time to explain. That plus it’s almost dusk. “We need the venom from a raverous snake,” I begin, hoping it sounds more logical aloud than it does in my head. “But the raverous snake can only be found in a tiny region of the Spring Court.”
“So . . . there is no raverous snake?”
I glance down at the hemlock swamp below, a grin lifting my cheeks. “It’s like this game they play where I live called snipe hunting. They take the fool into the woods looking for the snipe, but the snipe doesn’t exist. It’s a fool’s errand.”
The way his eyebrows gather says he’s not convinced. “Then where do we get the venom? It must be possible since there have been prior winners.”
A roar comes from near the waterfall, the sound making every hair on my body stick straight up.
“From him,” I say, grabbing the flute from my pocket. “The chimera. He comes out at dusk to hunt.”
Wow. Saying that aloud sounds way worse than in my head. Comes out to hunt . . . and there’s only one thing here to hunt currently.
Us.
I can see the wheels turning behind the prince’s eyes. When the truth hits him, he smiles, the first true smile I’ve seen from him. “Chimeras are made up of a lion, a goat . . . and a snake for its tail.”
I could swear his voice sounds impressed.
“Yep. The textbook doesn’t say what kind of snake, but there’s mention of the serpent’s milky white venom being used for powerful spells . . . just like the raverous snake.”
“So, you brought us to the den of a chimera, the most dangerous mythological creature in the Summer Court, armed with only a flute?”
Okay, maybe I was getting ahead of myself when I thought he sounded impressed. There’s definitely anger in his voice now, and major judgement.
