Claiming the Prince: Book One (9 page)

Both of her arms were limp as dead snakes. She shut her eyes.

Move, damn it
.

Inch by aching inch, her arm slid across the floor and upwards.

“You have to straighten it out,” he said.

“I’m trying.” Pain tore through her as she pushed her arm straight and even managed to scoot her body closer. Blackness cut across her vision. And then his hand closed around hers.

She flew, soaring out of her pain and high above it. Strength surged through her, firming the flaccid muscles, lighting up her sluggish mind, purging even the iron weakness, so much that her stomach actually growled with hunger.

Only when he ripped his hand away did she realize that she was taut with exhilaration, sparking from head to toe and deep down, gasping for breath, as though she’d been running for days. She rolled over and pushed up to her feet.

Flat on his back, Kaelan panted. He was pale and wide-eyed.

“Are you all right?” she asked, edging closer. The force of the iron pressed against her, but she felt temporarily inured to its malignant power, as if he’d given her some kind of shield against it.

“I’m fine,” he said, raking his hand back through the thick shag of his light hair. Another Prince with blond hair, though his was dark gold where Endreas’s had been platinum. “I’ve never healed a Rae before.” His emerald green eyes met hers. “Is it always like that?”

The only time she’d been healed by a Prince was when Endreas had done it. The two experiences could not have been more different.

“I don’t know,” she said, crouching down by the grate. That’s when she noticed that the brand scars on her arms were gone. Not just healed, but vanished. She ran her fingers over her skin. She hadn’t known it was possible for the marks of iron to be healed.

“What is it?” Kaelan asked.

“Nothing,” she said, focusing on the grate again. “Are you going to be strong enough for this?”

He sat up, gazing at her. A thin scar hooked under his left eye and traced along his cheekbone. Rather than detracting from his Princely good looks, it somehow made him more beautiful.

“You look strong enough for both of us,” he said. “You look . . . I didn’t think I’d be able heal you so much.”

She tapped her nails against the floor near the grate in a short pattern. “You may not wish to be claimed by a Rae, but you were made to heal them.”

The big black rat reappeared at her summons, poking his twitchy little nose between the holes of the grate. Behind him, dozens of beady, glinting eyes peered up at her. She smiled. Her message had gotten through. He had brought his friends.

She pressed her fingers to the top of his skull and imparted the image of the gloves into his mind, followed by a mountain of bread.

As soon as she took her fingers away, the rat zipped out of the grate and squeezed under the wooden door. She watched him go and then reached down to press her fingers to the next rat. She glanced up at Kaelan, who was watching her guardedly.

“I don’t suppose you have any more bread,” she said.

His lips pressed.

“We’ll just have to find some other way to reward them,” she said, sinking into the rat’s mind, “if we survive.”

A
S THE ROOM
filled with the din of dozens of rats gnawing and clawing at the soft shale floor, she fixed on Kaelan again.

“How did you end up here?” she asked.

“I told you,” he said, hovering in the midst of his cell, frowning down at the rats. “I refused to be claimed by Lavana.”

“But how did she come to capture you in the first place?”

He was grim. “I don’t know. Ever since I came of age, I’ve taken care to stay hidden from”—his green eyes darkened—“Raes. But somehow she discovered me. I think she used some Elf magic.”

She chewed her lip, keeping one eye on the door. “Why do you think that?”

“She told me she’d given up too much to gain the means to locate a Prince, and I heard her telling one of her servants that she owed the Elf King too much to back out . . . whatever that means. I only assumed she used Elf magic. I can’t imagine how else she could’ve located me.”

“Anyone who knew you would know you were a Prince,” she said. “You can’t hide a face like that.”

A flush spread over her cheeks as soon as the words left her mouth, but she kept her eyes on the door. And then she recalled how he had been shrouded in shadow when she’d first arrived.

“Except you can,” she said, looking at him again. “You can obscure yourself, can’t you?”

His eyes narrowed, the deep shadows of his brow closing in around the bright green lights underneath.

“That’s a neat trick,” she said, gaze flicking back to the door, “and very useful for a Prince who doesn't wish to be one. But I suspect Lavana was only keeping you in here until she began to Shine, then you would’ve begged her to claim you. Lucky for you, she found a new Prince before that happened.”

“I’ve heard about this Shine . . .”

Her tongue flicked over the smooth spot where her tooth had been. All the while, the rats scratched and scurried, bolts rattling in their moorings.

“But I can’t believe it is as impossible to resist as I’ve been told,” he said.

She glanced at him. “You’ve never experienced it? You’ve never even seen a Rae who’s been claimed during her Shine?”

“I’d never met any Rae before Lavana.”

“Well, no wonder you have such a poor opinion of them,” she said. “I don’t know if it’s impossible to resist or not. I’ve never met a Prince who’s tried.”

Though hooded, she could feel the weight of his gaze on her. “You’re not in your Shine now, are you?”

She snorted. “No.”

One of the bolts clattered loose and rolled towards her, tapping against the toe of her sneaker, but she didn’t move right away. She remained in the middle of her cell, feeling the pressing presence of the iron without being sapped by it in any way. Whatever Kaelan had done, it seemed almost as good as ichor-gold. But she’d never heard of a Prince who was able to give his Rae protection against iron, not even temporarily. Her thumbs skimmed over her fingers as she gazed down at the bolt. She had the strangest urge to pick it up. Was it possible he’d lent her so much protection that she could actually touch the stuff with her bare hands?

She met Kaelan’s gaze again. “Why don’t you wish to be claimed?” she asked.

“I told you—”

“Yes, you don’t wish to be owned. I know,” she said. “Is that all?”

His face darkened, which was to his benefit, hardening all the lines to chiseled perfection. “Is that not enough?” he asked.

She didn’t believe him. There was something more to it, but it wasn’t her business to pry, though it was difficult not to interrogate him further. How could such a beautiful, powerful Prince be so willing to forsake everything he could gain by being claimed on principle alone? It was just unheard of.

“Well, I have to say,”—she inched closer to the door of the cell, attempting to hear over teeth scraping and softly breaking stone—“you are the most unusual Prince I’ve ever met. And I’ve met my fair share.”

“And do you have one?” he asked.

“I did,” she said, “but I never claimed him.”

“Why not?”

“I met him in exile. I had no intention of returning here. What was the point? And . . . I promised my mother I wouldn’t claim a Prince until after I became Radiant.”

“You did?”

“Yes, and I keep my promises.”

“You lived in the human world?”

She nodded.

“Did you like it there?”

“I liked not being tortured, not having to kill, or worry about being killed. I liked pizza.”

“What’s pizza?”

She smiled. “Flat bread with a tomato sauce and cheese, lots of it. You can put other things on it, olives and peppers . . . it’s delicious.”

“And will you go back there if we escape?”

“I don’t know where the nearest portal is,” she said. “Besides, there’s someone in this world I need to find before Lavana does.”

“You’re not going to return to your Prince?”

“Assuming he’s not dead?” She shrugged.

“You didn’t love him?”

She focused on him again. “Is that what you want? To fall in love?”

The shadows seemed to increase around him. “Doesn’t everyone?”

She shrugged again. “I’ve never thought about it.”

“You’re lying,” he said.

She scowled. “Why would I lie? I’m a Rae. All we’re taught to love is power, and more power.”

“Ah, but you’re not like the others,” he said. “Isn’t that right?”

“No. I am just like them,” she said. “I’m reckless and arrogant. I’ve killed more than once, and when I decide there is something I want, I won’t hesitate to kill again to gain it. The only real difference is that I’ve decided I want to live more than I want to be Radiant.”

“But live for what?”

“Isn’t simply being alive enough?”

“Not for me.”

“Well, that’s your problem.”

“It’s not a problem. I’m already in love with someone,” he stated.

“Oh? You fell in love with some poor common Pixie-girl?” she asked.

“No. A nymph.”

She snorted.

He glowered at her. “Is there something you want to say?”

She cocked her head towards the door, listening. She started to back up. “I think we have visitors.”

A voice bellowed outside their door. “Oi! Stop that damned beast!”

The rat’s head appeared under the door’s crack. Tight between its yellowed teeth were a pair of golden mail gloves.

“Yes!” Magda clapped her hands and dropped to her knees. “Come on.”

The other rats fled at the sound of the guards’ bellows.

Her ratty hero wriggled beneath the door and then darted through the bars towards her.

At that moment, the door swung open. Three guards filled the doorway.

The rat clamored up her leg and delivered the gloves straight into her hands. She scooped him up and kissed his damp fur. Though she hadn’t given him any reward, he squirmed free and vanished down the grate, too frightened to linger. She promised herself that she would find a way to thank him, somehow, someday.

The guards stared as she pulled the gloves onto her hands. They looked at each other, but none of them moved.

“Step forward,” she said to Kaelan, grasping the bars between them.

“What do we do?” one of the guards asked.

She gave the cage a shake, loosening the bolts from the floor. The rats had done well. Stone broke away from the iron in huge chunks. Bolts screeched against the floor, some snapping and breaking, others popping up and rolling away.

“One of you is going to have to unlock the doors,” she told the guards with a vicious smile.

They gawped at her.

Enjoying her newfound strength, she pulled the cage back towards her. Metal ground upon the stone.

She peeled off the gloves and held them out to Kaelan. He grabbed them from her and stuffed his hands into them.

The guards argued about who was going to handle the iron key to open the door.

Kaelan knelt and heaved the grate up from the floor, dropping it to the ground with a cracking clang that silenced the guards’ argument.

“I’ll do it,” the smallest guard finally said, turning back and disappearing down the hall.

Kaelan stripped off the gloves and held them back out to her. She put them on as he slid into the drain, folding his shoulders so he could fit.

She gripped the bars once more and pushed with all her might, moving the cage oh-so-slowly clear of the drain. Her arms burned, not from the iron, but from the effort. Kaelan had healed her and she felt stronger than she had in days, but she still couldn’t remember the last time she’d eaten. And she had been tortured.

The bar bisecting the drain inched along. The opening grew, four inches, five . . .

The hole was longer than it was wide. She probably didn’t need to uncover it completely, but with her broad shoulders and generous bust, she didn’t want to get stuck because she hadn’t bothered to push it another two inches.

Then Lavana appeared in all her blue-eyed, haughty, red-lipped glory. And she wasn’t alone. Endreas hovered in the shadows behind her, watching with those glorious dark eyes of his.

“What is this? What’s going on! Stop!” Lavana shouted, pushing past her gaping guards.

Magda chuckled through her gritted teeth. “Say please, dear cousin.”

“You’ll never escape. I know where that drains.” She seized one of the guards. “To the Brittle Stream at the edge of the forest. Go now!”

He nodded and raced away.

The other guard returned, ashen, sweating, and trembling. The pungent stink of scorched flesh preceded him.

Magda continued shoving against the iron bars, though her arms were starting to shake and her knees to weaken. Kaelan’s protection against the iron gave way. Though she wasn’t touching it directly, she was surrounded by it. For a moment, she faltered, her progress halting.

“Oh, don’t give up now,” Endreas said, stepping into the threshold. “You’re so close.”

She shot him an irritated look, but started pushing again.

“Hurry!” Lavana shouted at the quivering, green-gilled guard as he jabbed the key at the cage’s lock.