Page 52 of A Cursed Son

I want to go out there and strangle him, but then he’s going to say I’m doing it just to touch him, and I’ll get even angrier.

I can’t murder the disgraced fae prince. Not yet, at least.

10

Istare at myself and my crumpled, ugly, inside-out dress. It’s so tight and uncomfortable I’m not sure how I managed to sleep in this. Perhaps that’s where the part about ripping my nightgown came from.

Still, I refuse to change my dress, just so I don’t give him the deranged idea that I somehow want to look pretty—or even decent. Like that, and barefoot, I head to the kitchen, stepping on the polished wood planks. Nelsin is preparing something, cheerily humming a tune.

He turns and smiles at me. “My lady! What do you usually eat in the morning?”

“Anything. I usually had porridge, fruit, tea, bread, things like that.”

“We don’t have tea or porridge, but I was preparing a fruit salad with nuts and seeds.”

I approach him and see that he’s mixing peaches, oranges, bananas, and strawberries with pumpkin seeds and almonds. I smile at him. “It looks wonderful.”

The smile he returns is broad and genuine.

I decide to ask something I’m curious about. “When you want to cook, really cook, like a stew, soup, or even tea, where do you do it? I don’t see a stove or any place for a fire here.”

He looks back at his fruit salad. “We don’t light any fire on the island.”

“Oh.”

I hear steps and see Marlak walking in, this time decently dressed with a sleeveless tunic. “Smoke could attract enemies.”

Why is his voice like that? When he talks slowly, not annoyed, I can feel it reverberating through my entire body. Oh, I need to stick to the topic. “But you can heat water with your magic, can’t you?”

Marlak shakes his head. “Unfortunately, no.”

That doesn’t make sense. Water magic usually allows the wielder to manipulate its state, turning it into vapor, ice, liquid. And then again, his magic is different.

He walks to Nelsin. “Not fae food, is it?”

“Oh, no.” He has a satisfied smile. “This could feed a cow.”

Marlak frowns. “And that’s the problem. Cows eat grass.”

The fae knight shrugs. “Bad comparison, then.” He points at me. “She thought it looked good.”

I nod. “It does.” I’m not sure how long it will sustain me, but it looks absolutely wonderful.

“Fine.” Marlak shrugs, then opens a metal cupboard, and I realize it has blocks of ice and some jugs with a white liquid in it. “We’ll also drink milk.” He looks at me. “Is it all right?”

“Yes.” It feels weird to have this conversation, as if he didn’t just storm into my room telling me to stop dreaming about him.

The prince sits in front of me, two cups on one hand, the jug in another. Those are big hands. No, no, Astra. Not the time to recall the dream—but I guess I just did. How am I going to survive like that?

He pours milk into a cup and passes it to me. “I’ll need you to go somewhere with me today.”

At least it’s the grating, annoying voice.

I smirk. “Blindfolded?”

“No. But you’ll get wet.”

I can feel my cheeks getting hot, until I realize that he means going into the water, not… Oh.