Blood whooshed through my ears, and a deep throbbing sensation born in my gut. I’m a prisoner. A captive to be used. A pawn in the crown prince’s master game plan.
A flare of lightning coursed through my veins. The prince’s hand abruptly snapped back as though he’d been stung, but he continued talking to his father, and I swore the room had to be spinning. It felt as though it was moving around me, and all I wanted to do was escape. Run. Disappear. But I couldn’t, and I was trapped.
And then the throne doors were opening, and nobles were spilling back into the great hall. Prince Norivun was saying something to me, his hand on my back again as his lips brushed my ear. His words turned urgent, but I recoiled. The queen’s fingers curled tighter around the armrest of her throne chair until I was certain it would snap. The king began laughing, speaking with the noble again who had returned to his side, the one that he’d banished only moments after I’d appeared.
My breaths came faster. And faster. I needed to leave. I needed to get away from the prince’s side. Away from this ugly court.
The prince’s grip tightened around my waist. “Ilara. Walk with me outside.”
But I kept pulling away as the music started up, and the nobles were dancing again, drinks being guzzled, as their laughter and conversation drifted around the room. The ball had commenced once more.
“No. I need some space.” I tore myself from his side. My feet carried me across the room as though the wind was at my back and my dress a giant sail.
“Ilara!” the prince called from behind me.
But I allowed myself to be swallowed by the crowd. Every fairy I passed eyed me with interest and curiosity. Some began whispering. Others tried to engage me, but I traveled by all of them until a male stood in front of me. Broad shoulders, black wings, a pleasant smile.
“Something tells me that you need a drink.” Nuwin’s lips curved more as he began guiding me away from everyone as the prince’s aura pounded into my back.
I dared a glance behind me. Fury filled the prince’s face when Nuwin’s arm curled around my waist, and then Prince Norivun was striding across the dance floor, his gaze intent on his brother.
“Just get me out of here,” I pleaded as I gripped his arm.
Nuwin grinned. “This shall be fun.”
CHAPTER 24
True to his promise, the youngest prince whisked me to the side doors that opened to a sprawling lawn of frost-nipped grass, ice flowers, enchanted fountains, and a covered icy topiary maze that had nobles running about it.
Nuwin grabbed two flutes of champagne off a floating tray, and then we were outside, running through the throngs of fae across the frosty landscape until he pulled me into the maze, and we disappeared around one corner.
Breathless, I did my best to keep up, especially when I heard the prince’s enraged bellow.
“Nuwin!”
A flutter of giggles and nervous laughter followed from the fae we passed, and within seconds, the maze swallowed us whole. We dipped and turned through ice caves and tunnels. Everything was covered. Nobody flying overhead could see us.
“Where are we going?” I gasped as puffs of mist clouded from my breath.
Somehow, amazingly, Nuwin managed to carry both flutes of champagne without spilling them, as though he’d done acts exactly like this before.
“There’s a hidden exit just up ahead. Nori knows about it, but since there are several hidden exits, he won’t know which one we take.” He gave me a cheeky smile, as we slid around a corner, right past a couple kissing passionately in the corner. The male had the female’s leg hooked around his waist as his other hand plunged into her hair.
She sighed, then moaned when the male trailed his lips down the column of her neck.
“Looks like those two are having fun.” Nuwin bumped his elbow against mine and gave me a conspiratorial smile.
I snorted when he waggled his eyebrows.
We darted around another turn, and the young prince stopped at an ice wall.
“Hold this for me, will you, darling?” He handed me the two champagne flutes as a crashing sound came from the maze and another bellow. “Oh my, it sounds like my beloved brother has worked himself into quite a tizzy.”
Nuwin bent down and hooked his fingers against something under the ice wall just above the ground, and then the ice melted before us, falling to the side in a wall of water to reveal a door. “This way. Hurry, darling. He’ll catch us if we’re not quick.”
He opened the door and ushered me through. The ice wall formed again on the other side just as he closed the door behind us.
A dark tunnel greeted me. It was so black I couldn’t see. “Nuwin?”
His warm hand brushed my waist, drawing me close before he took the champagne flutes. “Follow me.”
He led me down the path, his footsteps sure and quick. He moved as nimbly as a snowgum in the Gielis Mountains, as though he too could see in the dark.
“How do you know where we’re going?”
He laughed. “I’ve been playing in these tunnels since I was a boy.”
The sound of rushing water reached my ears a second later, and I instinctively inched closer to him as images of plunging into an icy underground river flooded my thoughts, but a second later a warm breeze caressed my cheeks, and we were moving upward.
Light appeared ahead, just a sliver of it around the outline of a door. Nuwin loosened his hold on me and ran his hands near it. The door clicked open, and we stepped into a large room filled with books lining the walls.
“The castle library,” he explained. Music strummed through the walls, carrying the same beat as what had been playing in the throne room.
“Are we . . .” I frowned and gestured toward the door. “Did we just pass beneath the throne room?”
“Indeed we did, clever girl. The exits from the maze will drop you off at various locations in the castle. I just happened to pick the one that Nori would least expect since it took us right back to where we’d just fled.” He winked and handed me one of the flutes.
My lips parted in a smile at his mischievous expression before bringing the glass to my lips and letting a flood of bubbly liquid tingle my tongue. After I swallowed, I eyed the drink in amazement.
“This is delicious.”
“The ball’s champagne always is. They flavor it with berries and chocolate to heighten the taste.”
I took another drink and then another.
Nuwin chuckled. “Careful there, Ilara Seary. You’ll be drunk before you know it if you keep that up.”
Ignoring him, I swallowed more. “Maybe drunk is what I want to be. If you’d heard the way your father and brother just spoke of me—” I cut myself off, realizing who I was speaking to. “I’m sorry, my prince. I don’t mean to speak ill of them.”
But instead of being angry, Nuwin just cocked his head. “He’s not as bad as he seems.”
“Which one?”
That got a bark of laughter from him. “My brother.”