Page 36 of Slaying the Shifter Prince
He really was worried about Celestine.
I eased into the chair and took a sip ofaurgwyn. Its spiced flavour warmed my throat and did a little to soften the knot in my stomach.
“I have to admit…” I finally said into the dim quiet. Maybe the fact I couldn’t see his slitted pupils let me pretend it wasn’t him I was speaking to. Or perhaps it was because he wasn’t wearing one of his usual arrogant or cruel expressions… or his crown. “I’m surprised to see you so concerned about Celestine.”
He glanced up. The low light softened his features, caressing the square jaw and strong chin, rather than cutting them so harshly. He gave a slight grunt before taking a gulp from his glass.
I supposed I hadn’t exactly asked a question for him to answer.
“This isn’t the first time you’ve had to call a healer for her, is it?”
His eyebrows scrunched together in a glower when he looked up at me again, as though I’d interrupted some terribly important work. “No.” The way he said it with such an air of finality made me think he was going to stop, but a soft exhale followed and he continued, “She’s prone to illness.”
“And you cancelled the ballbecauseshe’s ill. Didn’t you?”
“Obviously.” He drained his glass and swept to his feet. Back to me, he poured moreaurgwynfrom the decanter. “Celestine was a sickly child.” His voice drifted across the room, its softness at odds with the hard angles of his shoulders. “Thankfully, she tends to be better now than she was then, but still…”
He turned and brought the decanter over, his lips pressed together in a thin line. When he placed it on the table before me, he nodded towards it as though inviting me to help myself.
It seemed tonight I’d offered a ceasefire and in return, I was not a pet. I rubbed my throat where the absence of my collar was… strange. A lightness. A lack. A place air touched but shouldn’t.
Still, I liked being able to sit on the armchair, feet tucked under me. And I liked being able to pour myself another drink without having to sip from a saucer or sneak a cup Celestine had “absentmindedly” left unattended.
“So, you’ve known her since you were children?”
“Mmm.” He jerked his chin at the fireplace and orange-pink flames burst into life. They glinted on theaurgwyn, making it shimmer a coppery colour. “She is…” He paused, frowning at the fire as though searching there for the words. “The closest thing I have left to a sister. We were born on the same day—her, me, and my twin.”
A twin? He had an elder brother—the crown prince of the Dawn Court. But I’d never heard of another sibling. I pressed the rim of my glass to my lower lip to keep myself quiet. If I prodded him too much, he might realise who he was talking to and stop. But my curiosity hungered for more.
“That day, as I took my first breath, my twin sister… didn’t.” His nostrils flared as his brow lowered.
Something in my chest clenched, like a tight scribble in my sketchbook when I just didn’t know what to draw.
“It’s a strange thing, to share such a small space with another being—the first being you ever meet. To grow intertwined. To have a primal understanding of ‘us’ and ‘them’ before you have any concept of ‘me’ or ‘her.’ And then to come out into the world and… it’s gone.”
Maybe I’d been wrong and the gods did exist. And right now they were taking great delight in playing with me, because there was the slightest hint of pressure at the back of my eyes. How could I be even remotely upset for this monster?
No. It wasn’t him I was upset for—it was his twin sister who’d never had a chance tobe. The idea of her being born and never taking breath—thatwassad. And, of course, it tugged on my heart and my own loss.
Maybe I’d also had too much to drink. Fae alcohol was hard to predict—it seemed to interact with my emotions more than regular spirits. One day, it had little effect; today, it had my heart sore for a fae. Tricksy stuff, indeed.
Sepher—no,the princesucked in a long breath and shrugged. “So… I grew up with Celestine instead of my sister, and she… well, I suppose she stepped into that void.” The corner of his mouth rose, its usually cruel lines softened by the rosy fire. “I still wonder what it would’ve been like had it been the three of us. But maybe Luminis couldn’t have handled that.”
Despite myself, I gave a soft laugh. I caught myself before I apologised for his sister. I wouldn’t do that. Not when he’d taken mine.
I might’ve called a ceasefire for tonight, and I might’ve felt something for his sister, who never had a chance to live, but that didn’t mean anything. Seeing Celestine so ill was getting to me, together with theaurgwyn. It didn’t change anything. It didn’t change my plans.
It just meant that when the prince lay dead at my feet, I’d know all the facets of his monstrousness.
And, it turned out, even monsters had feelings.
16
That night, we didn’t go to bed until late. Sepher wouldn’t leave until after the healer had finished and said Celestine would be well come morning. Not until after we’d sat with her a few hours more, and she finally woke. Smiling, she told us to “fuck off and let me get some proper sleep without the pair of you fussing over me.”
It seemed being ill allowed you to get away with telling a prince to fuck off. Noted.
In the morning, I woke late and had to drag myself out of bed to my workout routine. My scrapes had almost disappeared, thanks to Cadan’s salve, but my legs were sore from my desperate run through the forest.
