Chapter 16

Raven

The ballroom was awash in the golden light of the braziers, casting flickering shadows across the swirling dancers. Long gowns swished across the floor, cloaks dragging behind muscular shoulders.

Neil’s cloak enveloped us both as he held me against his chest. It didn’t smell like the coppery tang of blood, but rather the fragrance of spiced wine and something that I could only describe as…

Well, Neil.

I tossed a lock of mahogany brown hair over my shoulder, tilting my chin up to look at him.

“Say it again.”

Neil’s severe cheekbones were flushed red from drinking, his blue eyes absorbing the light of the candles like the ocean catching the sun’s glint on a blindingly bright day.

“Queen,” he said, and his cheekbones seemed to tinge an even darker shade of pink. “You are my queen.”

I couldn’t help but giggle at the sound of that word on his lips. Maybe it was the wine that was turning me giddy, or the fact that he had me pulled into the warmth of his cloak, or the way that he spun me on the dance floor.

“Queen,” I echoed, twirling away from him in a whoosh of red silk skirts and loose curls of hair. “I think I like that.”

“Do you?”

I nodded as I returned to him, my fingers tangling first in the dark fur of that cloak, and then moving up to tangle in his own jet hair. “Hm. I do.”

“And what am I to you?” he murmured, leaning in close. His hand came up to brush my cheek.

A little breath of excitement escaped me. “My king. You are my king.”

Neil’s lips brushed my own as I said those words, the taste of him even sweeter and more tantalizing than I remembered—so sweet, in fact, that the sensation was enough to make me giggle again.

But then he was pulling back, and the light went out of those blue eyes, and his fingers came up to pinch my ear.

“Stop giggling.”

He yanked. Hard.

I woke mid-dream, my cheeks still aching from smiling in sleep, to the sensation of Neil’s cold fingers tugging at my ear.

“Ow!” I cried out, smacking his hand away as he lifted me from the bed once more. “Can’t you wake me like a normal person?”

Neil simply huffed and strode over to the window, yanking the curtains open just as he had before. The sky outside was still dark, dark enough that the moon was even visible in the sky.

“You overslept. Again.” He paused, his fingers tightening around the fabric. “What were you dreaming about?”

My cheeks reddened, just like his had in my dream. “Nothing. I don’t know.”

“It must have been a nice dream if you were laughing like a madwoman in your sleep.”

Rolling my eyes, I wiped the half-dried drool from my cheek and threw the covers off of myself. “It was a very sweet dream, actually,” I admitted, stealing a furtive glance at him over my shoulder as I strode over to my wardrobe. “Not that I’d tell you about it.”

The Lycan prince didn’t seem to like that. “Well, you will be having nightmares after training today, anyway.”

Shaking my head, I busied myself with dressing in my training leathers and braiding my hair. Really, I was glad to just have an excuse not to look at him. The dream I’d had… It wasn’t my best moment, if I was being honest.

But I couldn’t help myself. The thought of dancing with him, wrapped up in that very cloak that he was wearing now…

“What is it now?” Neil barked.

I started at the sound of his voice. “What?”

“You’re smirking.”

My eyes flew to the mirror in front of me, which had, unbeknownst to me, revealed my expression to Neil while I was dressing. Standing there now in my training outfit, with my hair in a braid over one shoulder, I realized that I was indeed smiling at the memory of that dream.

“Oh. No reason.” I flipped my braid over my shoulder and strode for the door without waiting for him.

Neil stared after me for a moment, baffled, then shook his head and followed.

…

“I won’t be training with you today.” Eric leaned against the nearby post, arms folded across his chest. He looked tired, as if he hadn’t slept much last night.

I raised an eyebrow and placed my hands on my hips. “What, are you frightened of me?” I retorted, feeling extra indignant this morning.

He rolled his eyes and gestured to Castor, who was currently adjusting his leathers around his muscular arms. “Not at all. Since it seems you’re becoming full of yourself, I thought it would only be fitting if you fought the biggest one of us.”

I turned as Castor strode up to me. In his full leathers, he looked imposing, even terrifying—not at all like the seemingly gentle giant I’d come to know over the past week. The leather hardly even fit around those enormous biceps.

“I won’t go easy on you, Raven,” Castor said with a tiny smile. “Eric is right; you are a little big for your breeches this morning.”

Eric scoffed. “She got into the Queen’s good graces last night, and thinks she runs the castle.”

My face reddened at that, but I knew they were right. Between that and my dream about Neil, I was feeling a little full of myself.

With that, Castor began to train me in hand-to-hand combat—still no weapons, which was probably a good thing since I was pretty sure I would seriously hurt myself if I picked one up. We started sparring in the center of the ring, circling each other slowly.

Castor had me on the ground in less than a second.

“You’re too big!” I whined, struggling beneath his grip as he held me against the dirt with one hand—no, less than one hand; one finger. “This isn’t fair!”

Eric smacked his knee and laughed. “Now she lets go of her ego,” he retorted, to which Castor chuckled as well. Ember, who was shooting arrows into a nearby training dummy, also let out a low snort.

“Actually, Castor, you are going too easy on her.” Neil, who had been watching the exchange, suddenly stormed up to us. When I looked up, there was an inexplicably fiery look in his eyes that made even Castor recoil.

“I was only—”

“Move aside, Castor.” Neil’s voice was not cruel, but there was an edge to it that made me furrow my brow as I sat up. “Just because she is a girl does not mean you should treat her like a flower. I will show you how it’s done.”

Castor’s ears went red. Eric practically doubled over in laughter, although he went instantly quiet with one withering glare from Neil.

Ember simply set aside her bow and arrows and strode off without a word.

Cautiously, I rose and made my way back to one side of the ring, watching Neil warily. There was a stiffness to his movements as he tugged off his leather jacket, revealing a tight black tunic underneath that hugged every contour of those taut muscles.

I resisted the urge to gulp at the sight of him. Not necessarily because of the dream I’d had or the thought of that body pressing up against me, but because of the fire in his eyes when he turned to face me.

He really wasn’t going to go easy on me.

“Let’s begin,” Neil said, rolling his neck and lowering his stance.

Taking a deep breath, I mirrored his stance and slowly began to circle him. He lunged forward, grabbing for my leg with a loose hand, but I jumped backwards and narrowly avoided his grip.

“Good,” he said, hopping on his toes a little.

I tried not to smile at the praise.

Not going easy on me… Yeah, right.

He moved forward again, this time in an attempt to kick my leg out from under me. I hopped easily over his outstretched ankle and whirled behind him. He didn’t make so much as a move to catch me, even though he could have.

And then, as we passed in a whoosh of air, bodies nearly touching, I saw my opening. His nostrils flared, momentarily distracted—perhaps by my scent or something else in the wind.

I took my chance. I kicked his knee out from the back, looped my arms under his, and flipped him over me.

I wasn’t entirely sure what happened next—it was all such a blur, pure instinct taking over. All I knew was that one moment we’d been standing, and now we were on the ground, and he was beneath me.

“Aha!” I cheered, grinning maniacally as I pinned his wrists to the dirt. “I thought you weren’t going easy on me, Neil.”

Neil huffed, sending a tuft of black hair flying into his face. He made no move, even though I knew it would have been easy for him to overpower me—one buck of his hips, a well-timed twist, and I would have been regretting what I’d done.

But… he didn’t. He just laid there, nostrils still flaring, pupils blown wide.

And he… smiled.

Just a little. A ghost of a smile, really, gone before I could even comprehend that it had happened. But it was there.

My eyes widened infinitesimally, then flicked to his lips.

Only then did he retaliate. While I was distracted, he drew my body across his own with ease, flipping us so that I was now the one with my wrists pinned into the dirt.

His breath smelled like spearmint as he growled, “Don’t be so full of yourself. You still have the skills of a toddler.”

I pursed my lips, and he released me, standing. His dark shadow seemed to blot out the light of the first rays of sun.

“Run twenty laps as punishment for gloating,” he commanded, walking away.