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I had just nodded. They didn’t have to know that I had never been well-practiced enough, or cared enough, to expand my powers to their full potential. I knew it was within me, but I wasn’t strong enough. Yet.
On my other side, Shavarra breathed heavily, supporting one end of a cot on her shoulders. Her cropped shirt lifted just enough to see a large blue bruise over her ribs that wasn’t healing as fast as it should. All of her blonde strands were piled in a hastily made bun to keep the hair away from her face. Her attention was focused on the snow-covered path. Perhaps planning her steps helped to distance her mind from the pain.
“Here,” I stopped her. “Let me carry him for a little bit.” The man on the cot was unconscious, so he clearly wouldn’t mind.
“No, you already have enough to carry.”
Shavarra was sometimes too strong for her own good but mostly too stubborn.
A gentle breeze scented with pine passed between us. The trees that stretched overhead shaded us from the sun leaving us in winters wicked cold. Against our skin, it was only a mild annoyance but the wind itself sent a shiver down my spine.
“You’re injured.” I flicked my finger at the hem of her shirt, meaning to point out the bruise. The material rose enough to reveal the indigo bra underneath. My lips lifted into a cheeky smile.
“I’m bruised,” she panted. “Notinjured.”
“Oh come on, princess, move over.” I snuck a shoulder under the cot, bumping my hip against hers to move her out of the way. The weight of the cot combined with the weight of the backpack made my bones feel like they were moaning in protest.
Her cheeks flushed and she moved, playfully swatting my arm. For a moment she walked in silence next to me, glancing from the ground to my face. In turn, I watched where I was stepping and then briefly made eye contact with her. She was amusing sometimes.
“What?” I finally laughed.
A shy smile warmed her still blushing face. “You’ve never called me princess before.”
I lifted my eyebrows. She wasn’t wrong. For so many years I had been prince, and princess had been a title I was never willing to give to anyone. I had reserved it for Ryker, stuck so stubbornly in my head and my heart, but for once, princess wasn’t a title Ihadto give out; it was just a word.
And I may have given it too freely.
Shavarra’s gaze held a want in it that I would never be able to give her. We both knew it.
My smile fell. “Shavarra, I was only teasing.”
Jesseline’s intense stare narrowed on the two of us, our gazes making contact for only a second. Like she could feel exactly where the tension was coming from.
Shavarra breathed out a dry chuckle. “I know it’s stupid of me, to think that you would ever share that title with me. But sometimes when you play like you do…”
Shit.
Oh, I was a stupid, stupid man indeed.
I knew returning to her night after night would create an attachment. And it had. I had thought the attachment was only on my end, though it wasn’t her love that I had been after all these years.
If that made me a bad person, then that’s what I was.
The pit of my stomach dropped as shame made me heavy. Shavarra would be a good princess, a great one even, if only I wasn’t so godsdamn selfish.
“Don’t say that. You know this thing between us is nothing. Casual.”
“Casual in the way that you sleep in my bed more often than you don’t?” She paused to chew on her lip. “And don’t try to act like you are only there for the sex. How many nights have you slept next to me just to have a warm body at your back?”
She was right. I hated being alone. My dreams had ruined me so often that it hurt to feel the empty space in my large, cold bed. Shavarra willingly filled that hole for me.
“Okay. So, do you want to stop? Do you want me to leave you alone?” I tried to keep my voice low and soft to avoid gaining the attention of the Nymphs that walked behind us.
“No.” She frowned.
“Then what is your problem?” The instant I said it, I regretted it.
Her face fell for a moment before she schooled her features into apathy.“You asked, Dace. And maybe I shouldn’t have said anything.” Shavarra scoffed, her steps falling behind me.
