Page 67 of Fall of Ruin and Wrath

“From my experience, mortals seem preoccupied with who is better and who is less than.”

“And the Hyhborn are different,Your Grace?”

His lips twitched at the emphasis on his title. “We once were.”

Now it was I who huffed.

“You don’t believe me?”

I shrugged, thinking it was rather ridiculous since they were the ones who created the class structure.

“You do know that Hyhborn cannot tell a lie.” A smile played over his lips.

“So I’ve heard.”

He chuckled, releasing my hand as he faced forward once more. I remained as I was for several moments, my palm still flat to his chest, to where his heart should be located, but I . . . I felt nothing.

My brows furrowed. “Do you . . . have a heart?”

“What?” He laughed. “Yes.”

“But I don’t feel it,” I told him, a little unnerved. “Is it because your skin . . . is so hard?”

“It’s not that,” he said. “My heart hasn’t beat in a long time, not as it would for a mortal.”

I opened my mouth, but I was at a loss as to how to respond to that— at the reminder of how different we were. Drawing in a soft breath, I shook my head as I slid my hand from his chest. I didn’t know why I said what I did next. The words sort of spilled out of me. “This is not what I always want to be,” I shared, and goodness, that was the truth if there ever was one. “This is not the future I planned as a child.”

The finger of his right hand began to tap idly along the rim once more. “What’s the future you planned?”

“I . . .” I had to really think about that. “I don’t know,” I admitted, my voice sounding small to my own ears.

“You said you had a plan,na’laa.”

Brow creasing, I shook my head. I had no idea why I’d even said what I had. I had no future planned beyond this day, this night. I couldn’t when living simply meant surviving to the next day or dreading what could come, which wasn’t really living at all. But that was all I knew. The same for more lowborn than not, even if they weren’t in my situation.

But Hyhborn— especially those like Prince Thorne— didn’t live that way. I knew that because even though I’d never entered their Courts, I saw their gold-tipped roofs hidden behind their fortified walls. I’d seen their richly tailored clothing, their well-bred horses and finely crafted coaches from a distance. I’d never heard of a starved Hyhborn or seen one with shadows of worry staining the skin beneath their eyes. Hell, you barely saw that in the face of acaelestia.I doubted any of them knew what it was like to sleep with mice scurrying over them or found themselves on the verge of death due to some sickness they’d picked up from poor living conditions.

But none of that mattered right now . . . or at all, it seemed, so I shoved those thoughts aside as I soaped up my hands again. “I like plants.”

His head tilted. “Come again?”

I cringed, thinking I could’ve said that a bit more eloquently. “I mean, I have always had an interest in plants— in gardening. I have a bit of a green thumb and basic knowledge of how many plants can be of aid. I know, a botanist is not the most lucrative of careers,” I rambled on. “But that would be a plan.”

“If it is something you enjoy then it is lucrative in a way that means more than coin.”

Said the person who obviously had more coin than they would ever need.

I wisely kept that to myself, though, and neither of us spoke for several moments. In the quiet, I took a moment to remind myself of what I was supposed to be doing, which was not touching him for the sake of doing so. I focused on him until all I saw was the expanse of sandy skin and all I felt was his flesh beneath mine. The wall of white light appeared in my mind. It was endless, one as tall as the sky and wide as the realm. In my mind, I saw my fingers brushing against it. Nothing happened as I brought my hands back up his chest and reached for the soap, noticing the faint glow around his shoulders.

He was feeding.

On my pleasure? I was enjoying this even though I couldn’t read a thing from him. Or was he feeding on his own pleasure— pleasure derived from my touch? I tried not to feel, well, special. Hyhborn were beings of pleasure. I didn’t think it mattered who they were with.

“Is that why you were taking such a late-night walk in the gardens?” Prince Thorne asked. “Your enjoyment of plants?”

“Yes. I find gardens to be . . .” I trailed off, searching for the right word.

“Peaceful?”