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I pursed my lips, not wanting to say the wrong thing. I wanted to scream, scream, “I can’t be stuck here!” They hadn’t even brought food yet beyond a few pieces of bread and cheese that I’d found upon waking from one of my many short dozes. I was going to go crazy.
Instead, I sucked in a steady breath and pushed out the air from my mouth slowly, controlled. “Okay.”
“It’s not okay,” Noah said immediately. “For some reason the queen is just as caught up in this craze as the rest of the palace, and I don’t know why.” He began pacing again, this time pausing to lean against the cell bars. He studied them and shook his head. “I’m only the prince. I still fall under her rule.”
My body slumped forward. Right now, asking him to free me was useless. Noah wore his presumed failure on his face like a branded curse.
Instead of reeling from defeat, I moved toward him and placed my hand over his that was gripping at the cell bars. “Everything is going to be okay. It’s not your fault.”
“How good of a leader could I be if this hysteria is happening under my watch?” Through his frustration, there was an edge of fear. And I wasn’t sure if it was for the Unseelie, or fear of his abilities as a leader.
I remembered Aleita in the cell, and while she hadn’t made a sound, the last thing I needed was for a servant to think the prince was weak.
“Your mother and father’s watch, Your Majesty.”
I wanted Noah to look at me, acknowledge me in some way so that I could subtly let him know we weren’t alone. But he continued avoiding my gaze.
I leaned my head to the side, attempting again to gain his attention.
“I won’t stop trying, Cora.” He moved away from the bars and I took a step back, startled by how quickly he pushed away from his pensive position. “I promise you, I will not let anything happen to you.”
His gaze didn’t meet my eyes. No. Instead, his intense stare was on my lips.
My heart thudded and then, without warning, Noah was up against me.
He shifted me toward him with his hand at the small of my back and placed a far too quick kiss on my lips. It was over before I could truly process what had happened, but the movement felt as though it seared the feel of his lips on mine permanently.
He left abruptly, closing the cell behind him and not sparing a look back. I stared at his retreating figure, pressing my fingers to my lips in hazy awe.
It had been too fast. Not anything like the passionate embrace of some wild novel. Instead it had been short, more of a promise, that was all.
I took a step away from the bars, my fingers still hovering above my mouth.
The only thing that broke my trance was the snarky voice behind me.
“Well if I didn’t believe we’d make it out before, I certainly do now.”
