Page 46 of Slaying the Shifter Prince
Malicious compliance, I reminded myself.
That forced my eyes open, and I anchored my awareness to the spill of red hair and the streams of soft, creamy white running through it. Like blood and snow. Or blood and bone. Pretty. So pretty. The cool, snowy light glistened along its lengths.
I wanted to draw it. To paint it. Though I’d never even bought paints. I only needed my sketches—they were simply to keep hold of the memories. To keep focus. To remind myself of Zinnia’s face. And of his.
Why had I wanted to keep that? Why was it so…?
The line of thought skittered away off the page.
“Zita,” he growled, and I blinked awake. “I swear to the gods, if you die, I’m going to march into the Underworld and drag you out by your collar. Do you understand?”
But I couldn’t nod or answer. The best I managed was a small sound that huffed out.
The light changed and a ceiling appeared overhead.
“Sepher?”
“What’s going on?” Male voices. Some of the many hangers on.
“Are you—?”
His arms around me went solid. “Out of my way.” The walls rattled.
“It got too cold,” someone whispered.
“Looks half dead,” another muttered.
“Sepher, you shouldn’t concern yourself with the creature. Let me take it away and put it out of its misery.”
A snarl shredded the air. The prince’s hold shifted and one arm shot out. I didn’t see what he did, but there was a spray of something warm—unbearably warm—on my skin, and red spattered my dress. Something thudded to the floor, and the hand that came back around my waist was slick.
“Anyone else so much as thinks about touching her and they’ll join him.”
They fell silent and the sense of other people around us faded.
“Fetch a healer,” he tossed over his shoulder before turning to me. “Nearly there, Zita.” The purring, growly quality of his voice snagged on theZof my name, making it buzz from him into me. “We’re going to get you warmed up.”
I couldn’t answer, only get lost in the red of his hair and the way it gleamed differently in the warmer fae light indoors. It turned the red towards auburn and made the lighter stripes a pale, pale gold.
I wasn’t aware of anything else until the sense of movement stopped and he lay me down on something soft. A whimper escaped me as that terrible, beautiful heat left my side.
“One moment.” His voice soothed me over the rustle of fabric. Then a weight dipped the bed beside me and that glorious blaze returned, even hotter this time.
I made a sound that was half sigh, half moan as it consumed me, flaming flesh wrapping around my shoulders and hips.
“Your feet are like ice.”
I couldn’t even feel him touch them. Still numb, and the world grew more and more hazy the longer I lay on this fluffy cloud with the dawn sky skimming overhead.
“You still there, Zita?” Fingers tilted my head, traced my jaw, the touch so gentle it stole my breath.
The best I could manage was a slow blink up at the gorgeous face looking back at me.
His golden eyes were like the edge of a flame. Or the disc of the sun as it emerged from the horizon, turning night into day, burning away the darkness.
“It would be easier if I could wrap around you.” He pushed the hair from my face. “Curl up, sharp one.”
Sharp. Not sweet. Like he knew me.
