Page 37 of The Prince and His Stolen Throne

His cheeks flushed slightly. “Oh, sorry,” he mumbled, then stepped back into the shop.

Some of the shops were pressed up against each other, so close that you could have tapped one wall and heard it on the other side. Others had smallalleys between them, like the one next to the armory. It was the only place I’d seen so far that wasn’t crowded with other people.

I glanced over my shoulder to make sure Maximus wasn’t watching, then slipped down the alley. As I walked away from the crowds, the ambient noise dropped drastically. After spending the last few hours with a constant background hum, the new quiet was unsettling.

“Hello?” I whisper-called. The sooner I finished my clandestine meeting, the better. The end of the alley led to another hallway with backdoors into the shops for deliveries.

“You’re late.”

I jumped, whirling around to face the cloaked figure. “Is sneaking up on me necessary?”

He shrugged black-clad shoulders. “Evil is all about presentation.”

“You’re supposed to work with me, not scare me.”

“I’m multitasking.”

He certainly has the attitude of an evil mage’s apprentice. “What do you want?”

“You asked for a better way to communicate.” He held up a small golden circle.

I reached for it, but my hand closed on nothing as he yanked it away.

“Ask nicely,” he ordered, voice low and coaxing.

As if I’d play into your power fantasy.“Fuck you.”

“Ask orbeg, I won’t entertain anything else.”

My stomach clenched reflexively.Stop that. I kept my expression neutral and said, “Either hand it over or don’t, but I’m not coming to any other last-minute meetings.”

I blinked, and he stood right in front of me, mouth pressed close to my ear. “You’ll come when I tell you to, every time.”

Fuck, what exactly doesthatmean?I was reading too much into it. His tone was ‘evil’, not ‘sultry’, the two were just easy to confuse. Though admittedly, the old man never sounded like that. Swallowing hard, I said, “Give it to me.”

A hand wrapped around my waist, pulling me closer. From this angle, I could see the top of his cloaked head. I blinked, surprised to realize he was so much shorter than me. Evil Presence apparently made up for a lack of natural height. “Umm, you know when I said ‘give it to me’, I meant the device,right?”

“You still haven’t asked me properly,” he purred. Five fingers splayed over my hip, warm and firm as he kept me right where he wanted me.

I gritted my teeth, suppressing any potentially disastrous reactions. At this point, playing along was better than allowing things to becomereallyawkward. “May I please have the device?”

His hand moved slowly, fingertips brushing my side, and this time more than my stomach clenched in response. Eventually, he slipped the gold circle into my jacket pocket. “It’s a smaller version of the communication mirrors. It will turn black when you have a new message. If you don’t answer within the hour, I’ll find you myself.” The explanation was too calm and matter of fact for our intimate positions, like the bastard wasn’t affected at all.

“What if I’m too busy to check it?”

“You’ll make time for me.” He finally released me, swooshed his cloak, and walked back down the alley.

“Wait.”

He paused, tilting his hooded face toward me.

“What’s your name? I can’t keep calling you ‘the apprentice.’” Maybe once I put a name to the face, the allure of mystery would wear off.

“You shouldn’t call me anything—you shouldn’t mention these meetings to anyone,” he said, lowering his voice into a menacing warning.

“I mean in my head. Like, when I think of you. Or am I not supposed to think about you either?”Which is fine by me.

After a short pause, he said, “Wild.” He started to walk away again, then clarified, “With an e.” A few more steps before he added, “At the end, I mean. W-i-l-d-e.” Then Wilde swooshed his cloak again, because it had lost all the villainous air from his previous swooshing, and disappeared into the crowd.