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“Come up with me?” I ask Eoin, my cheeks flushing.
He hesitates, glancing up at the castle then back to me. “On one condition.”
“Faeries and their conditions,” I mumble, garnering another laugh from him.
“I only ask that you allow me to clean up first. I’m afraid I smell rather ripe from all the dancing.”
“Deal.” I’m sure I smell the same, and a bath does sound enticing.
My eyes travel up the castle’s stone exterior as we head inside, and on the third floor, in the soft flicker of candlelight, I make out Rainer’s drawn features as he watches me and Eoin.
His shoulder slump in exhaustion. Defeat. I’ll be damned if my heart doesn’t split down the middle at the sight. But instead of focusing on him, I squeeze Eoin’s hand and lead him to my chambers.
“You’re sure you’re okay sharing a bed with me?” Eoin teases once we clean up, change, and make our way to the only bed in my room.
My eyes roam the bare, tanned muscles of his chest and, and when I get to the thin trail of hair leading below his waistband, my cheeks flush and I look away.
“Yes,” I say. It’s just sleep. “As long as you promise to keep your hands to yourself.”
His smile falters, and I fiddle with my nightgown, trying to avoid his eye contact. Did he think I invited him up here for…something else? I mean, I understand how he might assume that, but still.
“Hey, hey, hey.” He plops onto my bed, beckoning for me to join him. “I have no intentions of touching you.” His grin comes back. “Even if you wanted to do something beyond sleep tonight, I wouldn’t allow for it.”
That causes me to snort a laugh. “Even if I wanted it?”
“I would never take advantage of you, Alessia,” he murmurs, “and you’re still riding the high from tonight—the music, the wine, the flowers. Your… whatever is going on between you and Rainer. It wouldn’t be right to take advantage of you with those sorts of influences on your emotions.”
The sincerity in his voice wins me over, and I crawl under the covers with him. “The same could be said for you.”
He chuckles. “Oh trust me, it’s you that makes me feel how I do about you. Not any external influences.”
My heart flutters. “How do you feel about me?” We just met. What could the Terra prince possibly feel about me?
“Intrigued by. Interested in. Attracted to.”
“But I’m only human,” I say dumbly.
He brushes the curls out of my face, tucking them behind an ear. “And so what? The conflict between fae and humans comes from our predecessors and their wars and vendettas, not mine nor my courts. Unlike Umbra Court, Terra doesn’t hold a grudge. I view us as equals.”
It contradicts what he said before at the brunch. “You said I’d never be equal to the fae.”
“Not in the eyes of Umbra.”
“But you’re also a prince, and I’m… I’m—”
“Amazing? Incredible?” He smirks. “Prince is a job title. Not a definition of who I am inside.”
I flush. “I—I didn’t think about it like that.”
“So how could I possibly be interested in you?” he asks with a teasing lilt to his voice. He taps his chin in feigned contemplation. “Hmm. Let’s see. Well, the first time I saw you, you had barely finished an intense training session with Viv and Ken—two of the best warriors around. Trust me, Viv’s from Terra Court, I know how tough she is—”
“You were watching that?”
Even in the dark, I can make out the bashful blush to his cheeks. “I was. And I also witnessed how you relentlessly tried to climb that tree and hop the wall triple your height, despite being tired from training—and probably knowing that imminent death lay on the other side.”
I nod, agreeing. “Yeah that was stupid.”
He pulls me to him, wrapping his arms around me. “Then you fell—hard. And you barely made a peep. No screaming, no crying, no tantrums. You fractured your spine—I know because I felt it—and the pain was unbearable. The numb silence? Even worse. It made me wonder ‘who is this girl and what has she gone through in order to be as strong as she is?’”
