Page 38 of Somber Prince

“Do you think I haven’t asked him already? He said it’s not up to him.”

“Well, ask him again. But this time, be a little more like…” She gave me a critical look. “You know, sweet and sexy and stuff.”

“I don’t think he cares about sexy.” I thought about the palace baths and how indifferent everyone seemed to be about nudity, including mine. “I don’t think anyone in this world cares about sex, to be honest. Shadow fae can’t experience joy, which probably includes sexual pleasure. The most positive thing they can feel is something like contentment or satisfaction. They often find it in things like balance and symmetry. Like their art.” I pointed at the mosaic around the fountains. “That must be the reason for all these geometrical patterns everywhere.”

“How do they reproduce, then, if they don’t have sex?” Elaine asked.

Melanie waved a hand at her. “Of course they have sex. They look too much like humans to pollinate like flowers or grow their babies in cocoons.”

The gate to the sarai opened, letting a group of the Keepers in, flanked by a few palace guards. The Keepers wore similar sandy-green skirts like Sigid, who wasn’t with them. Their tendrils were fully extended but clipped, hanging limply down their backs and arms.

“Those black hoses of theirs creep me out.” Elaine shuddered.

“What do they want now?” Melanie muttered.

One of the Keepers stepped forward. Unrolling a pale-yellow scroll in his hands, he started reading names from it. After naming six, including Kostya and Lucia, he stopped.

“The Joy Vessels whose names I’ve just read, please, come with us,” the Keeper said. “His Highness Prince Rha extends his royal invitation for you to join him and his guests for the midnight meal.”

Elaine audibly exhaled in relief, probably because her name hadn’t been called.

But Kostya eagerly stepped forward. “Fuck yes. Hopefully, they’ll finally feed me something better than the watery clay they call food in the sarai.”

Lucia left her balcony and exited into the gardens.

“What does he want us there for?” she asked the Keepers.

Another man, whose name must be on the list, joined them. “To feed us, I hope, because I won’t let them do anything else to me other than that.”

All six in the group had their harnesses implanted, I noticed.

“Nothing more will be necessary,” the Keeper assured the man.

The guards opened the gates again, and the six people left, escorted by the Keepers.

Melanie stirred uneasily, rubbing her bare arms. “Dawn, I swear, you have to do whatever it takes to convince the royal asshole to let us go back home. Seduce the bastard if that’s what it takes. Fuck his brains out. But get us out of here.”

“I don’t think he’s interested in fucking me,” I said. “He doesn’t even like the way I look. He finds it ‘unsettling.’ Not that I want him, either.”

She glared at me. “Dawn, I need to go back home somehow. I have a life to return to. I can’t waste my time here, living like a lab rat under a lock.” She groaned, spearing her fingers through her hair. “Make him interested.”

This was not a life I wished to have either, but what could I do about it?

“Believe it or not, I have no power over Prince Rha. And now that we have no business left between us, I don’t think he’d ever want to see me again. Look,” I pointed at the gates closing. “He didn’t even invite me for lunch with the rest of them.”

She groaned again, curling into herself.

Elaine huddled into her sweater, gazing at my sister with sympathy. “Maybe we’ll find another way, Melanie. There has to be something we can do.”

Chapter Eleven

DAWN

The six people invited to the royal lunch returned a couple of hours later. I’d just settled into a room next to Elaine’s. She and I were having a drink of water on my balcony when Kostya strolled into the courtyard. He grunted with satisfaction, petting his belly.

“Finally, a decent meal of roast with all the trimmings and wine.” He made his way across the courtyard and disappeared into the building, probably going to his room to digest all that good stuff he’d just eaten and drunk over a nap.

The other people quietly followed him through the gate. A man and a woman chose to stay in the courtyard. After joining a small group of women, they talked to them quietly. Lucia made her way to a long cushion by the fountain right under my balcony.

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