Page 104 of Somber Prince

I nodded again. There was no use in lying. He felt how much I liked it. He knew how much I liked him.

What he didn’t know was that despite all of that, I was going to leave him soon.

Chapter Twenty-Six

DAWN

The following night, Rha’s mating fever waned completely. That day, I insisted on sleeping in my room. Alone.

Except that I didn’t go to bed. I packed the few possessions I had accumulated in Alveari Kingdom, including anything of any value that could be sold or traded when we were back in our world.

I wore the priceless necklace that Rha and I had designed together. It was easier and safer to wear it than to carry it in my satchel. The gold of the massive setting and the gazillion precious stones would fetch a good price in practically any time period we might land. Except that tearing it apart and selling it was the last thing I wanted to think about.

After dressing in the most practical clothes I could find, I sat on the bed and watched the silky streams of black sand rushing downwards through the glass tubes of the clock on my wall. The moment the last grain of sand would hit the bottom of the intricate system of curved, blown-glass tubes, the entire face of the clock would rotate one-hundred-and-eighty degrees and a golden bee on the top of the clock would move by a notch, indicating the passing of an hour.

By then, the sun would have risen, sending the shadow fae deep into the city and underground. And for me, it would be the time to finally leave Teneris and Alveari Kingdom.

After almost three days of rolling with me in the sheets and fucking me on literally every surface of his bedroom and beyond, Rha had finally returned to his former calmer self. His mating cluster disappeared, and the frenzied need had passed. However, his protectiveness over me had only strengthened. He allowed me to leave his rooms and cross the courtyard to visit the sarai only after I’d complained that being held underground at all times depressed me.

He had personally taken me to the sarai after breakfast, then left me under the supervision of an entire army of guards and Keepers.

In the sarai, I sat in Elaine’s room with her and Melanie, as the others joined us in small groups to discuss the final details of our escape in privacy, away from the Keepers who congregated in the courtyard.

Melanie gave me a stern look before I left her room to go back to Rha. “I don’t care if he gave you the fucking of your life, sister, you can’t let us down.”

“I won’t.”

Elaine gave me a hug.

“Whatever happens, we’ll be free,” she said. “This relationship between you and the prince didn’t get off to a good start. It was never meant to be and would never work.”

I had no idea why she felt the need to tell me that. I wasn’t fighting them on it. They didn’t need to convince me.

“I know.” I shrugged her arms off me.

Elaine gave me a penetrating stare, as if trying to read my thoughts.

“You don’t have to feel guilty, Dawn. He’d never see you as a person, only as his property. Otherwise, he would’ve set you free. You owe him nothing.”

Sitting in my bedroom now, watching the final rivulets of fine sand sliding down the glass tubes of the clock, I whispered her words again, “I owe him nothing.”

I’d stayed in my room this morning because it was easier for me to leave without risking waking Rha up. But now, I was also relieved that I didn’t need to physically untangle my body from his. That I didn’t have to see him sleeping while leaving him. Because it would’ve taken so much more strength for me to leave him then, and I wasn’t sure I’d be strong enough.

The clock clinked as the glass fixture rotated, bringing the downside up and the upside down. The golden bee moved with a soft, melodious sound that had lulled me to sleep for weeks. Today, it was my signal to leave here.

I slung the satchel over my shoulder and smoothed my skirt over the long pants I was wearing underneath. Padding softly in my short boots, I exited the room and closed the door behind me.

I climbed up the grand staircase to the dining room and opened one of the tall shutters behind the royal platform.

No longer used to daylight, I squinted in the bright glow of the rising sun. The early morning looked peaceful. The air still carried a trace of the night chill. The flying night insects had hidden already, but the birds were chirping in the tall grass growing over the city.

I tugged the top layer of my skirt over my head in the local fashion and climbed out onto the patio. Bending over the parapet, I studied the slanted wall of the hill-city, searching for the best path down.

From there, there’d be nothing between me and the desert. Rha relied on wards and guards at the gate to keep intruders out of Teneris. But no one worried about keeping people in. The desert did a good job of it on its own.

Melanie and the others would be waiting for me just around the corner, at the start of the road from Teneris.

“The Alveari Desert is a dangerous place, especially during the day,” a dry voice rasped behind me, making me jump in shock.

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