Page 38 of Crown of Draga

Chapter Twelve

Adelina

Ian’s Lab

Draga Royal Palace

Planet Draga Terra

With her skirtsin her hands Adelina rushed down the hall. She ignored the looks, the whispers, and the vying for favor as she normally did. She slowed down when she reached the corner and made a sharp turn. “Oof!” Adelina slammed into something hard and immovable.

Prince Nash grabbed her before she could fall and as she looked up into those mesmerizing aapoak eyes of his, she knew fate played a cruel trick on her. It was as though she couldn’t avoid him no matter how hard she tried and how large the palace was.

“Princess,” he said coldly. Then his gaze flicked to her cheek and the red sparked in his eyes. Nash tensed and the muscles in his neck strained. “Who did that to you?” he asked calmly, so calm Adelina felt a shiver of fear.

That tone of voice set off every warning bell and instinct she possessed. Nash was ready to tear someone to pieces with his bare hands.

She touched her cheek where her mother had slapped her. It still ached and she hadn’t had a chance to see if her skin was marked. Gods, was there a bruise? Her anxiety struck and Adelina took out her simulcast, using the reflection of the plas-glass to examine her face. Oh goddess help her it was right there for all to see; dark and purple. The embarrassment burned deep and bitter.

A small part of her wondered if Raena hadn’t reminded her to use the healing salve on purpose. It wasn’t something her sister would have done six months before, but now Adelina wasn’t so sure what her sister would or wouldn’t do.

Adelina slipped her simulcast back in her dress pocket and tried to slip around the massive male.

He stepped in front of her, too smooth and graceful. “I asked you a question, Princess,” Nash said.

She couldn’t bring herself to look up into his face. How could she have forgotten? There hadn’t been enough time for it to heal on its own, and Elara hadn’t been there to remind her. “No one did this to me,” Adelina managed. “The punishment was deserved.”

She needed to get out of the hallway before anyone else saw her, especially the recorders. “Please move.”

Nash was a mountain. He took a step closer and she shied away. The Queen’s solar wasn’t far; she could make it back there before anyone else came down the hallway if he wouldn’t let her by. Adelina made to turn and his hand gripped her arm harder than he probably intended.

“Don’t run away from me,” he hissed. “You’re telling me you somehow deserved to have someone strike you? For what, forgetting to curtsey precisely?” His voice started to grow louder as his anger could no longer be restrained.

Adelina looked around in panic, praying to Mala to keep any other courtiers or nobles away. “Let go, you’re hurting me,” she snapped.

Instantly Nash released her, but his fury remained.

Adelina’s laugh was bitter. “You would never understand.”

The servants’ hidden hall was also nearby. She could take those stairs to the underground labs. Adelina would have to keep her face to the left wall to hide the mark until she could repair the damage. A step to the right and Nash matched her. He wasn’t going to simply let her go.

Finally Adelina glared up at him. “Move.”

He bent down with a vicious grin, not trying to touch her, but still closer than she wanted him to be. “No, not until you explain to me why someone is somehow allowed to strike you hard enough to bruise with absolutely no consequence.”

Her hands shook. Each second that passed increased the risk that the recorders would catch their little drama, or Raena would find her alone with him. Maybe a noble would see and gossip which would put them both at risk as they were currently alone in the hall. Anger swelled up and mixed with her fear, making her volatile and desperate.

“You say my people are weak and too peaceful to survive, but you would coddle me like a precious flower that would crumble under the weight of rain,” Adelina hissed. “My culture demands atonement for a wrongdoing. I knew the rules and I broke them. What I did, and why is none of your business, Prince,” she spat.

Adelina was so sick and tired of him bristling at the ways of her people. “So trust me when I say I knew what would happen and I did it regardless. Simply because you do not understand or approve gives you no place to question me. Now move,” Adelina commanded. “I will not allow Raena to think I am violating her decree.”

Nash stared at her with his mouth open in shock, disbelief, and outright fury. He stepped aside as the dark scent of her jasmine twisted around him and demanded he obey. Adelina watched with detached interest as he looked at her in confusion. Nash hadn’t realized he’d moved until she walked past him. Adelina refused to look back as she turned into the small doorway behind one of the many tapestries.

She slipped into the servants’ hallway and then leaned against the wall inside the narrow space. She slumped to the ground as she tried to catch her breath and calm the fluttering of her heart. The panic was ready to take over; waiting for her to crumble and remind her why she’d been so submissive for so many cycles.

It would take a long time before she would forget that look of rage on Nash’s face.

He meant well, but he couldn’t, or wouldn’t understand the ways of her people. Adelina knew they had differences in culture, but he was on Draga Terra. He had to follow their ways whether he liked it or not.

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