My gaze inadvertently fell to Darren, who looked as if someone had stuck him with a red-hot poker. He was staring at my hand with a look stuck somewhere between wonder and abhorrence.
He dropped my wrist at once, but my skin still tingled in the spot where we had touched.
I waited for him to speak, but he seemed unable to in the silence that followed.
“I think I am going to head back—” I started to say, but the prince cut me off.
“I helped you because you have potential.”
I looked up to see Darren watching me with an odd light to his eyes. There was nothing hostile, nothing condescending in the way he was looking at me now.
“You are meant to be here, Ryiah,” he continued, looking unusually out of sorts, as if he wasn’t sure why he was saying the things that he was saying. “You are…” He sighed and then forced himself to meet my eyes. “You are possibly the one good thing about this place.”
I didn’t know how to respond. All I knew, during that moment, was that his eyes were the most interesting shade of garnet I had ever seen. I had always thought they were so dark they were almost brown, but now I realized they were ebony, somewhere between the pitch-black of night and the mahogany of a rich wood.
The longer I stared, the more I realized I had never really noticed Darren before. Sure, I’d seen an arrogant young prince that had grown up with the world at his feet, but never a human being. Not someone like me, capable of mistakes and feelings, someone vulnerable.
I felt a chill run through me as I became conscious of the fact that he was staring right back. There was that odd light in his eyes, and it was burning right through me… but I was incapable of looking away.
“T-thank you,” I mumbled. “For what you just said, even if you didn’t mean—”
“I meant every word.”
Darren took a step forward. And then another. And then when there was no more space to cross, he looked down at me, shadows dancing across his face. “I am going to do something against my better judgment,” he said softly. His eyes were like two embers melting my flesh as he reached down to put one hand against my waist and the other underneath my chin. “You can scream obscenities at me after.”
And then he kissed me.
It was a long, slow kiss. One that sent shivers from the stem of my neck to the very bottoms of my toes. It burned hot and cold, making me dizzy as my knees buckled and collapsed beneath.
Darren chuckled softly as his hand steadied me in place, pressing the two of us against the rough sandstone walls.
I started to pull away, but the non-heir increased the intensity of his kiss. and I lost all will to move.
After a minute or so, the flood of emotions receded just long enough for me to react with a startling fervor of my own. I found myself kissing Darren back, wrapping my arms around his neck and letting myself fall into the moment.
The prince jerked back, sooty lashes shading his eyes as he regarded me in surprise.
At just that moment, the sound of a door slamming open and the chatter of excited voices came echoing down the hall.
Darren released me, taking a step back to take inventory of his surroundings while I steadied myself.
“Ryiah! What are you doing out here?” Alex exclaimed, as he and the rest of our study group came clamoring around the corridor.
I flushed and looked back to Darren, but he was gone, the door to the Academy closing softly behind.
“Yes, what were you doing out here?” Ella said, eyeing my red face suspiciously.
I shook my head, not trusting myself to speak. My friends continued to prod me with questions, but I hurriedly made excuses and rushed away to the barracks while they continued on to their nightly practice.
Arriving at the barracks, any sense of elation I had was immediately drained as I spotted a familiar face across the room.
Priscilla.
It shouldn’t have caught me off guard, but the memory of what had just happened in the hallway minutes before was still very vivid in my mind. Seeing Priscilla, the girl who everyone believed was intended for the prince, left a bitter taste in my mouth.
What did he see in her?
“I see you still haven’t left,” Priscilla declared, loudly enough to make the two girls who were helping her dress glance up as well.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I told her flatly.
“What a shame.” She held up an elaborately designed dress to her chest and looked at her friends. “What do you think? My cousin’s seamstress had this made for me. It’s perfect for the post-trials ceremony… Do you think Darren will like it?”
The girls assured her it would make her more beautiful than any lady of the realm, and that the prince would surely propose upon seeing their friend in it.
My jaw clenched.
Priscilla turned to smirk at me. “Don’t worry, Ryiah. No one will see you wearing another ratty hand-me-down like the one you did for solstice. Only the apprentices will be noticed… and since you are attempting Combat, you won’t have to worry.”