Chapter 50

“Oh, I think he likes you, June,” Anton says with a sigh. “I think he likes you a lot. I just think he’s very aware of the physical effect he has on you, and that he’d like to have you quite a bit more under his thumb than you currently are. For what it’s worth, I think you did a good job of sorting through his argument tonight and throwing it back in his face.”

“Really?” I ask quietly, considering him. “Wait, what part?” I frown and try to remember back, wishing my mind weren’t quite so hazy with wine as it currently is. Even if it was quite pleasant to get this way, sitting around and laughing with Anton for hours.

“I thought you had a point,” Anton says, quite casual. “That it’s a bit rude of him to pull you out on the balcony alone, trying to seduce you, while in the same breath letting you know that his daddy doesn’t approve and that he probably won’t be allowed to pick you as his bride.”

I go a little pale at this. “Do you really think he was trying to seduce me?”

Anton turns his head towards me, the corners of his lips curling. “Yet again, June, you pick the strangest and least important part of my sentence to focus on.”

I narrow my eyes and scowl, making him grin.

“But if you’re really asking,” Anton says, slow, keeping his eyes on me. “I think that yes, if you had let him get to it, he’d have kissed you on that balcony tonight.”

My scowl deepens as I turn my head and look up at the ceiling, a thousand thoughts racing through my head. Primarily that that would have been rude, to kiss me at a party attended by four of his other potential brides. But then…I also wonder whether I regretted it, picking another fight, if it means that Orion didn’t kiss me.

I mean, did I want him to? A little bit?

I grit my teeth, pressing my eyes shut, my head turning to the side as guilt sweeps through me. Blythe, my little wolf says, giving my soul a nudge.

And inwardly I know that she’s not reminding me to be loyal to him, but to myself. Because I gave him my word, and promised to marry him, and came to the Underworld to do just that. Yet here I am, half wishing that some dark Prince had kissed me tonight.

God, but I’m a despicable person.

“Hey, June, I’m sorry,” Anton murmurs. I open my eyes and turn to see him peering at me, a frown on his face. “I didn’t think that would upset you. I thought…you’d be glad to hear that. I thought that’s what you wanted?”

“I don’t know what I want, Anton,” I murmur, reaching out for his hand, wanting to take it. But as usual, my fingers slip through his form like air. “Do you? Know what you want?”

He goes still for a second but then smiles a little. “Sure.”

“What is it?” I ask, considering him closely.

“Doesn’t matter,” he says, giving a half shrug. “I can’t have it anyway.”

“Wait, do you really want something?” I ask, turning over towards him, tucking my hand beneath my cheek as I peer at my ghost. “I didn’t think…there was anything you were longing for.”

“Of course there is, June, I have a heart. Dreams. Or at least I did.” He shrugs. “I wanted lots of things when I was alive. I still do.”

“Have they changed at all?” I ask, leaning closer. “Since you’ve been dead?”

He just looks at me for a long moment and doesn’t say anything.

“Well?” I ask, terribly curious now. “Come on, Anton, spill - what’s at the top of your list?”

“Come here,” he murmurs, crooking his finger towards me and glancing around like it’s a great secret he doesn’t want anyone to hear.

I scootch closer, tilting my chin up to look into his lovely face, dying to know.

“I want,” he murmurs, leaning so close that if he had breath, I’d feel it on my cheeks. I stop breathing myself, looking into his lovely eyes, wondering what color they are in life. “For you…to snore less at night.”

I gasp, appalled.

“So I can get some damn sleep, Sinclair.” A wicked smile already arches over his face.

“Anton!” I shout, already grabbing my pillow from beneath my head and smacking at him with it. “You brat!”

But he’s already roaring with laughter, rolling away from me, even as I come viciously after him.

“I so don’t snore!”

“You do too!”

“Oh, like you’d notice! You’d sleep through a parade! Through a bomb!”

“Which should suggest to you how loudly you snore!”

I growl heartily, even as I start to laugh, hitting him again, right in the face. Anton falls back against the pillows as I toss my pillow away, grinning up at me, and I loom over him, one hand on either side of his shoulders, my hair falling down around both of us. “Take it back it,” I snarl. “Say I don’t snore.”

“Fine, fine,” he sighs, smiling up at me like it’s all he wants in the world. “You are a paragon of still and silent sleep, Juniper. Best sleep partner I’ve ever had.”

I narrow my eyes. “How many sleep partners have you had?”

But he just grins wider and doesn’t say a damn word.

“You’re the worst,” I snap, huffing and flopping back down on the bed, turning my back to Anton – though I mostly do it to hide my smile. Because…well, he really is funny, isn’t he? And provoking. He knows precisely how to press my buttons and get me all riled up. “I’m going to bed!” I declare over my shoulder. “Mostly to get some peace from you!”

“Sounds good,” he sighs. “Sleep tight, Junie. Can’t wait to bother you again in the morning.”

I smirk as I snuggle down into my pillow, because…

Well. Because I’m kind of looking forward to that too.

And even as I lie to myself and pretend I’m just getting more comfortable on the mattress and amongst the masses of blankets, I scootch backwards, snuggling a little closer to the starlight tingle that is Anton’s side.

“You sleep tight too, boy.” I sigh, content.

He just reaches out and drifts a hand over my hair. And I smile as I drift off to sleep.

We wake to a horrified gasp.

I whip my head up, blinking in shock, trying to figure out what’s wrong –

Anton immediately shifts into his wolf to protect me, leaping to his feet. But stumbles to the side in his disorientation and falls off the bed.

“Juniper!” Laila hisses, storming forward and pointing a finger at me. “You! You!” she gasps again as I blink up at her, confused and totally freaked out.

“What?!” I shout.

“You!” She stares at me almost without words before spinning to her Herald and ordering him away.

Anton shifts into his boy form again and climbs to his feet. “What the hell is going on, Laila!?”

“You two were asleep!” She hisses, pointing the accusatory finger at Anton now as well. “In the same bed!”

I groan, flopping onto my back, shaking my head that this is what set her off.

“Oh, Laila, you’re looking too far into it,” Anton groans, rubbing his hand through his hair and sitting down hard on the edge of the bed. “We just fell asleep arguing –“

“But you said you don’t sleep!”

“I…” he hesitates, looking over at me for an answer, but I just shrug, too sleepy to figure anything out. Anton grimaces. “First time for everything?”

“This is unchaste,” Laila says, snapping her hands to her hips and turning her frown on me as I sit up, rubbing my own head, desperately wanting a pain killer and a glass of water. “You need a matron in this room with you, Juniper, if he is going to climb into your bed at night, and sleep with his arm draped over your waist and his face tucked against your shoulder!”

I frown at her because…wait, what?

“It is not right!” Laila continues, unimpeded. “You cannot be alone with this young man who seeks to sleep in your bed –“

“Oh, who cares, Laila!” I say, casting out a hand towards my ghost boy. “He doesn’t even have a body, what on earth could we even get up to? We couldn’t even kiss!”

She gasps, spinning to Anton, horrified. “Did…did you try to kiss her!?”

“Oh my god,” he groans, tucking his face into his hands. I lean forward to look at him, because – is that a ghost blush on his cheeks? My face bursts into a wide smile when I see that his usually white face is flushed prettily with blue sparkles.

“He did, he tried to capture my virtue, Laila,” I say, quite calm and mischievous, wanting to see him blush more.

Anton gasps, pulling his hands down to glare at me. “I so did not!”

“That is the end of this!” Laila says, storming to stand between us, casting her hands out to her sides as if to keep us apart. “I will have to be here all the time to defend the Princess’s honor. Honestly, Anton, you should be ashamed of yourself – you were sent to help her!”

“Thank goodness you’re here, Laila,” I say, quite calm and smug, grinning wickedly at Anton as I stand and start to move towards the bathroom. “Now I can finally feel safe.”

Anton just crosses his arms, glaring hard at me. “You’re going to pay for this!”

“Oh, I can’t wait,” I call, waving and disappearing into the bathroom.

“Now, you clearly need a lesson on how to treat a young lady and a Princess of your realm!” Laila says, storming forward to Anton and beginning to give him a piece of her mind.