Page 52 of Taken By the Shadow Prince

I hesitate.

This is a line we have not crossed. One that I don’t think weshouldcross.

He must feel that I’m about to deny him because he whispers, “Please.”

And it’s a plea.

A demon, in all his cruelty, is begging me to sleep beside him tonight. Not to fuck him—because we’ve already done that, and he looks like he’s seconds away from being asleep. But tosleepin his bed with him, with his smell wrapped around me and perhaps his arm, too.

So I whisper, “Okay.”

I lay back down. Let him pull me to him, wrap that arm around me like I thought he might.

And I let the warmth of his body, the sound of his content breathing, pull me into the best fucking night of sleep I’ve had since I was a little girl with her father who had spent all day catching and skinning fish to keep her family alive.

I will not wonder what it is about Armin that does this to me—that turns me back into the person I once was, the person I might have been if I had not lost the man that meant the world to me.

The person who, in a world like this, I can’t afford to be.

Chapter 28

Mavey

gone away

He wakes me up with whispering kisses along my cheeks, my forehead, down my nose.

Only when my eyes flutter open does he smile and press his lips to mine. “Hey,” Armin whispers. “I have to go.”

Now I am awake. “What?” I ask. “No.”

He chuckles. “Relax, Mavey. It’s just for the day. I’m just going to Atheya, to get the demon witches. I’ll be back tomorrow.”

I blink away the fogginess of sleep and ask, “So you’re leaving right now?”

“The sooner the better, wouldn’t you say?” he asks. “Not to mention the difference in time between the realms. But, yes, now. They’ve had enough time to prepare, and I don’t think it would be wise to put off bringing them here much longer, considering there’s hardly a week left until the rebels are expected to come storming the castle, yes? I’m sure there’s some training they might need to do, to see what’s expected of them.”

“Right,” I say, nodding. He’s right, but... “Is there a reason I’m not invited?”

Armin merely shrugs as he stands. He’s freshly dressed, his hair perfectly styled. He’s been awake for a while now, then. “I suppose you’re more than welcome to come, if you’d like. But I assumed you’d want to stay here, with your people, since there’s a proverbial ax hanging over your head. Was I wrong?”

And right again.

Or, at least, he should be right. Heisright—I won’t let him be anything but right. Because of course I’d like to be here as long as possible, since that deadline is approaching rather quickly, and being anything but here, with my brother and my Queen and everyone else I consider my family is... is foolish.

So I nod. “Yeah,” I say, dropping down to the blankets. “Bye, then. Have a safe trip home.” I close my eyes and try to pretend that I’m not bothered by this, by him leaving on such short notice while I’m still naked in his bed.

He chuckles, seeming to catch on to the dryness in my tone. Armin presses another kiss to my lips, whispers something I don’t quite catch.

When I open my eyes to ask him what it is he said, Armin is already gone.

And I already wish that he was still here.

Fuck me.

The feeling does not go away throughout the day, and I cannot figure out why. What it is about him that makes me wish he hadn’t left. There’s no reason I should be wishing that the demon I made a bargain with, a bargain that will severely impact my life for half a decade, was still here.

And yet I am, and I don’t understand the cause.

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