Page 100 of The Crown of the Dark Prince
“She’s my best friend, Clay. I should be there for that conversation. I’m the one who freed Camilla.”
His expression hardened with frustration as he looked away. “Iris is one of the deadliest people I know - second only to you, princess. I’m not letting her anywhere near you until I know she’ll control herself.”
I frowned. Clay could turn himself into a giant winged beast. Rankor and Kent were deadly war warriors, trained in their own unique abilities. Iris was… just a faerie. What danger was there in shifting your form into that of another?
The memory of our conversation from earlier flitted through my mind briefly. He had said that Rankor and Kent would have allies and that Iris would also have associates who would join our cause.
“What is The Order?” I asked, recalling what he had said.
Clay’s thumb stroked my cheek before he guided me to lay back down again in the space above his heartbeat. Moving his hand from under his head, he entwined my fingers with his own. “They’re an elite group of assassins.”
“I thought she was a spy?”
“They’re often one and the same.” He squeezed my hand gently.
A million questions popped into my mind, demanding immediate attention, but Clay’s dismissal of the topic was clear in his voice. He wasn’tready to talk about it, and I supposed there would be time enough for questions and discussions tomorrow. For now, if this was my only night to simply be here with him, I wanted to savor every second.
“No more secrets,” He said suddenly, breaking the comfortable silence. “If we’re going to do this together, I don’t want anymore secrets between us. Next time you go to the Underworld… you tell me.”
I’d held my secrets like armor for so long. Surrendering them felt like stepping into thin air and just trusting Clay to catch me. Trusting him not to abandon me, regardless of what he learned.
“No more secrets,” I agreed, the words as much as vow to him as they were to myself.
“Sleep now,” he murmured, a soft command. “We’ll figure out the rest later.”
I pressed my lips to his chest, moving up to straddle his hips, his length firm between my thighs as I began to rock. His hands gripped my thighs, his eyes blazing gold as he gazed up at me.
“Sleep later,” I reasoned, smiling. “For now, I want to show you how quick of a learner I can be.”
Iwoke hours later than normal, the sun already hanging high in the sky. Clay kept me up all night, so I wasn’t surprised my body craved extra rest.
Thankfully, my exhaustion led to a peaceful night’s sleep without any unexpected travels to foreign realms.
Clay wasn’t in the bed beside me, though, when I blinked my eyes open. His half of the bed was already cold, which meant he had already gone to the castle.
And so it begins.
I took my time in the washroom, pulling on a robe and rinsing my face. The woman who stared back at me in the looking glass didn’t appear any noticeably different from she had the day before, spare some swollen lips, and yet everything inside me felt new.
I loved. And I was loved.
Finally, admitting it to each other had lifted a weight off my shoulders that I hadn’t even realized had been weighing me down. And what we’d done…
Well, that had been beautiful.
It was the culmination of a magnetic pull between us that had always felt far too strong to be natural. I hadn’t thought it possible to feel more for Clay than I already did, but somehow, what we’d said and shared last night had elevated everything. I was practically floating with happiness, despite all the reasons I had to be worried.
By the time I made my way down the staircase, I found Elaina sitting in the sunlit room near the entryway, sipping tea and staring out the window at the ocean.
“It’s a beautiful view,” she commented, noticing me with a soft smile.
“It really is.” I joined her by the window, enjoying the quiet before she motioned toward the tea.
“I made you some tea,” she offered, filling a cup for me before settling back in her seat. “Clay went to the castle early this morning. He said he wanted to let you sleep.”
I felt warmth creep into my cheeks. She had all but given us her blessing last night, but still, she was technically his fiancé. His bracelet remainedlocked around her wrist.
“So,” she drug out the word, obviously sensing the awkwardness of the situation. “I’d ask how your evening was, but it was obviouslyvery good.”
