Page 43 of Somber Prince

There was no need to read much into this. He gave Lucia a bracelet. Maybe it was just something a prince did—got presents for everyone from his little harem of “vessels.”

“I thought you might like the color.” His left ear twitched slightly when he added, “It’s bright.”

He seemed nervous, waiting for my reaction.

“It’s pretty. I do like it,” I said honestly.

He released his breath. “I thought you would. Gold suits you. Do you want to change before dinner?”

“Here? Now?”

“Yes.”

I glanced at the musicians. Some of them stared at me with various degrees of curiosity. Their expressions reminded me of those of the people in the palace baths when I’d undressed to bathe—curiosity with no sexual interest. It’d helped me get naked then, but something held me back now.

It was the presence of the prince, I realized. He tilted his head slightly, patiently waiting for me to decide. His expression remained calm. The problem was not him, but me. The thought of taking my clothes off in front of Prince Rha made me feel anything but calm. My cheeks heated, and I dropped my gaze to his short, embroidered boots.

“Is there another place where I can change?” I asked. “In private?”

He turned from me to his musicians, as if they were a problem. “Do you want them to leave?”

“No, I’d rather go somewhere else myself. Another room, maybe?”

He nodded. “Follow me.”

Swiping the dress and the metal belt that came with it off the table, he swiftly moved to a door on the right. I followed him to a much smaller room behind the door.

Like so many living spaces in Teneris, it had the shape of a hexagon. Two adjacent walls were windows. Their stained-glass panes were folded to the sides, opening the view of the large patio outside with a swing bench. It had a wide, cushioned seat held by chains with ivy vines threaded through the chain links.

“Whose is this?” I gestured at the swing.

“Mine,” he replied.

“Yours? You…swing in it?”

He nodded. “It’s relaxing.”

I had a hard time imagining that at first. But when I finally did, envisioning the prince reclining in the cushioned seat, reading a scroll while pushing himself with a foot off the ground in a slow rocking motion, it looked natural. It suited someone like him, in his constant strife for inner and outer balance.

A low table stood by the windows, with floor cushions next to it. The pile of the cushions formed a cozy seat that seemed like it’d be a comfy place to spend time in.

Flat multi-colored pieces of rock and stained glass lay on the table, arranged into a partially finished design. It looked like a snowflake, with perfectly symmetrical rays spreading from the orange hexagon in the middle.

“Is this also yours?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“It’s beautiful.” I admired the symmetrical pattern of orange, green, yellow, and white pieces, arranged in a design far more complex than any puzzle I’d seen.

“It’s not finished yet,” Rha said.

“What will you do with it once it’s done?”

“I’ll take it apart, add more pieces, remove a few, then start anew.”

“So, finishing the design isn’t the point, then?”

“Completion is supposed to be the goal,” he replied. “The satisfaction of that is the ultimate reward. But it wanes quickly once the project is complete.”

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