“No, I don’t.”
Something flickered in his gaze, but it was gone too quickly for me to decipher. Dropping his hand, the prince raised an eyebrow. “I suppose I shall have to carry you then if you’re unable to fly and mistphasing is out of the equation.”
My eyes bugged out. “Carry me?”
He cocked an eyebrow, a hint of amusement rolling through his features. “Unless you have a better idea?”
My mouth grew dry at the thought of being held in his arms for the entire flight to the capital. To be held by the very hands that had destroyed my family . . .
I took another deep, calming breath, then let it out when a solution came to me. “I could ride a domal, my prince.”
“A domal?” Sandus shook his head. “Solis fae don’t ride domals. Domals are for the Nolus fae, the weaker fae.” He sneered, making it clear how he felt about the fae who lived south of our continent and regularly road the animals that galloped about on four hooves and whinnied whenever they were displeased.
Domals weren’t common on our continent, but some Solis fae had them. The large creatures were useful for transporting goods in wagons when magic couldn’t be utilized.
I stiffened but forced myself to keep my tone steady. “Whatever you deem best then.”
Prince Norivun took a step closer to me, and my breath caught in my chest. With him standing this close, the scent of cedar and snow drifted toward me, crisp and alluring.
I immediately began breathing through my mouth as I craned my neck back.
His sheer size dwarfed me, and before I could mentally prepare myself for the inevitable, his arms were around me, and he was lifting me to his chest. In another beat, we shot into the sky.
I clamped ahold of his neck as a survival instinct roared to life inside me. The ground disappeared beneath us much faster than had ever happened when my brother or Finnley had carried me, and I released a frantic prayer to Armarus, the goddess of the sky.
I glued my eyes shut, my breath locked in my chest as icy wind needled my skin, and my stomach bottomed out at how quickly we spiraled upward.
The prince’s giant wings flapped hard and fast, but it was more than just his wings that propelled us. Magic clouded around us, making me wonder about his affinities, as though his magic moved him faster. The entire realm knew of his most powerful affinity, the one that made him feared by all, but I’d heard whisperings over the seasons that he possessed more than one—a trait rare in the Solis.
Neither of us said anything as the ground became distant, and even though questions still burned through my mind about why this was happening, I stayed silent.
The rhythmic movement of the prince’s flapping wings eventually slowed, and then we were gliding, riding the currents as we traveled west toward Prinavee Territory, where Solisarium, the capital, waited.
The entire time, the prince cradled me easily to his chest as the pastel-colored clouds drifted sporadically around us on this mostly clear day.
“At least you’re not heavy,” he finally remarked, breaking the silence.
“That’s what happens when you’re starved,” I said beneath my breath.
He gazed down at me momentarily, but I refused to make eye contact.
A wind gust abruptly caught us, sending us higher into the atmosphere. A scream lodged in my throat, and even though I hated myself for it, I clung tighter to him.
“I won’t let you fall,” he said calmly, as if having a petrified female millees above the ground was a daily occurrence for him.
I forced my arms to loosen, but when I tried to let go completely and allow him to hold me entirely . . . I couldn’t.
As ridiculous as it would be for him to take me from my village only to intentionally drop me thousands of feet to my death, I didn’t trust him to keep me safe. I knew what he was, so despite my pride slugging me in the gut, I kept my grip on him.
“How long will it take to reach Solisarium, my prince?”
“Two days.”
My head whipped up to see if he was serious, but all I saw was the undercut of his jaw and his long lashes as he stared straight ahead.
“Two . . . days, my prince?” I was to endure being held by him for two full days?
“Yes.” He glanced down at me. “Have you never been there?”
“No, of course not.” I vaguely knew where the capital was on a map, but it was so far away that I’d never even considered traveling there. In fact, I’d never been beyond my village, Firlim, or the other villages surrounding that small city.
I tried to remember what I could from the seasons I’d been in school. We’d learned the geography of our continent and this realm, but that was so long ago. All I could remember was that Solisarium was at least a thousand millees from where I lived. Perhaps even farther.
Keeping my hands clasped around his neck, I dared a look over his shoulder to search for Sandus, Nish, and the two other males who traveled with the prince.
Their distant specks were visible through a smattering of pink clouds. “Aren’t you afraid you’ll lose your guards?”
“They know the way.”
I tried to ignore how his hard chest felt against my side as he breathed evenly, so I glanced down, but the ground was so far beneath us I couldn’t make out any details. I had no idea where we were.
Swallowing the uneasiness in my throat, I asked, “So we’ll fly like this for two days straight?”
His brow furrowed, and a moment of fear stole over me when his power rumbled around me. “You seem to be forgetting how to address me properly.”
My breath caught when I felt his affinity brush against me. A wave of coldness and bottomless darkness gathered around my soul.
I recoiled, and my heart beat as rapidly as a trisilee’s wings. My prince. I was supposed to add “my prince” to the end of every question. I was not to speak to him casually, like I would to Finnley.
My hands turned clammy as I stuttered, “I’m sorry, my prince. I forgot . . . I mean, I’m not used to addressing royalty, my prince.”
“As I’m coming to see.”
That comment shut me up, and I vowed not to say another word during the next two days, but a minute later, the prince broke the quiet again. “We often stop at the same spot whenever we’re patrolling the continent, so no, we won’t fly like this for two full days. Even if I lose my guards in the clouds, they’ll eventually end up in the same location as us.”
I nodded tightly, not trusting myself to speak further without offending him again. I needed to remember what was best for Cailis. Stay alive. Get back to her. Don’t anger the prince.
I could only pray that when my time with the prince came to an end, that my death wasn’t waiting.
CHAPTER 5
The hours drifted past, and my arms grew so sore that I debated lowering them from the prince’s neck.