Page 14 of Dark Prince's Captive

At this point, I don’t really care.I hardly feel the throbbing pain in my face or the burning stings on my skin.I’m starting to float now, the zapping electricity that vibrates in my rescuer-slash-captor’s chest making my head spin.

The next thing I know, the man is climbing down three steps into the water—clothes, boots, and all.

Blinking up at him, I battle to focus on the crazily handsome perfection of his face.He smiles a reassuring smile that seems to warm me from the inside out, but something disturbing also shifts in his silver-gray eyes, something that makes those steely pools sharpen and darken at the same time.

I try to make sense of the unease that struggles to break through the euphoria fogging my mind, some kind of internal warning, but then he submerges me in the water up to my chin, and my brain detaches from my body.It feels a lot like drifting to the ceiling and looking down on myself.

The floating sensation only lasts a second before I drop like a stone and my stomach bottoms out.

Whoa.

What the hell?

I open my mouth to scream as I fall into a vortex that sucks me deeper, but no sound comes out.

The man cups my face, his big palm dwarfing my cheek, and says something almost tender and encouraging.

The darkness thickens while I barrel down a bottomless pit, my arms and legs flailing even as I lie as motionless as a marionette on a puppet master’s lap.

He shifts his large hand from my cheek to cover my mouth and pinches my nose closed between a forefinger and a thumb.The hold effectively cuts off my air.

I can’t breathe.

No!

I try to struggle, but as if in a bad dream, I’m paralyzed.

The light becomes thinner as my lungs protest.

Too late, I understand my captor’s intention.I grasp desperately for something to hold on to, but I can’t lift a finger.The only thing I can cling to is his unwavering stare.

My gaze pleads with him, begging him not to drown me in a bath of spiced honey milk.But my unspoken appeal is useless.My sadly unpracticed—or rather, nonexistent—charm has zero effect.As he dunks my head into the cloudy water, I realize what that expression on his face that I couldn’t place was.Just before the opaque liquid washes out my vision, I see it for what it is.

The strangely compassionate look in those eyes the color of mercury is regret.

Chapter6

Aruan

The notion of finally having her here with me is still unreal yet so potent that my power flares with enough force to set the water boiling if I’m not careful.

With effort, I rein it in.

The turmoil within me, however, refuses to abate.Her suffering is torture to my soul.I regret that I had to rip her from consciousness and submit her to the darkness of a dreamless sleep, but it’s better that she’s not cognizant for what’s to come.

Heart thudding, I study the delicate face that floats above the water on my palm.Her pale skin is black and blue in spots, her lips puffy and swollen, split in several places.Her sunset-colored hair is covered in mud and sand, and it’s strangely short, at most the length of my finger.

Did the Phaelix monsters do this to her?Cut her hair before they beat her?

My blood boils at the thought, and the water around us warms uncomfortably.

Gritting my teeth, I rein in my power once more.The torrid heat within me dissipates as I manage to somewhat calm my anguish.She’s safe now.I have her.Taking in a steadying breath, I position her so that her back is pressed against my chest and she’s propped up between my legs, unable to slip beneath the water.

Dozens of questions swirl in my mind, but I focus on what’s important right now—which is to repair the damage that’s been done to this wisp of a woman who, in the wink of an eye, eradicated the numbness that was slowly but surely turning my soul to stone.

“Bring Vitai and Kian here,” I instruct my sister in a clipped tone.

I don’t miss the hope that flashes in her eyes before she rushes toward the hallway, but her relief vanishes quickly when I use a fraction of my power to hold the wall together, preventing her from opening the entrance.

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