Page 32 of Dark Prince's Captive

Can I leave the hall with the excuse of needing a bathroom break?Will they let me go alone?Probably not, but I have to try.

Aruan seats himself on my left.There’s enough space at the main table.We’re not crowded like the people below, but when he spreads out his powerful legs, his thigh brushes against mine.

A jolt of electricity runs up my leg.My stomach clenches, and a feverish heat warms my skin.I slam my knees together, breaking the unsettling contact.

A flash of knowledge passes through his eyes as he turns his face toward me, but then the blond man on my right says, “Hello, Elsie.I’m Suno, Aruan’s cousin.”

I look at him.He has green, friendly eyes and a lively smile.

“Pleased to meet you,” I say automatically.

“I hear you’re from Earth,” he says through the side of his mouth.

The words are obviously meant for my ears only.

“How extraordinary.”His eyes sparkle.“Someday, I’d like to hear about your life in that world.”He’s quick to add, “If you’ll indulge me, of course.”

“Um, sure,” I say even though I have no intention of staying on this weird planet that long.

A pretty girl with a blond ponytail comes forward, carrying a crystal carafe with translucent purple liquid.She’s walking as if on a tightrope, careful not to spill a drop.

When she reaches Aruan’s side, he says something I can’t hear over the loud chatter that has taken over the room.Now that the food has been served, everyone is helping themselves to the dishes while staring at our table with perverse curiosity.

“Hello,” the man sitting next to Suno says.

I turn my face his way.It’s the man with the mousy hair.He has homely features with bushy eyebrows and brown eyes.Of everyone at the main table, he’s the least striking in appearance.

He leans over Suno and holds out his wrist.“I’m Tarix, Aruan’s cousin on the queen’s side.”

I look at his wrist, expecting a tribal tattoo or something that depicts his heritage, but only pale skin shows from under his sleeve.

Tarix frowns.“It’s polite to return a greeting, unless you consider the person an enemy.”

Huh?

I glance at Aruan, but he’s preoccupied with pouring the purple liquid from the carafe into my goblet.

Gaia comes to my rescue.“Here in Lona, the formal greeting is done like this.”She stretches her arm over the table and presses her wrist against Tarix’s.“It’s a sign of amiability and hospitality.”

“Oh.”Following her example, I do the same.Now I understand why she reacted so strangely when I wanted to shake her hand.“On Earth, we do it like this.”I hold out my hand to show them.

Gaia’s eyes grow round.She gives a quick shake of her head while glancing around the table.“We don’t talk about Earth here.It’s a forbidden subject.”

“But Suno just said?—”

Suno shoves a plate toward me full of greenish balls covered in a yellow sauce with blue speckles.“You should try theegox.The roots were dug out only this morning.They’re still fresh.”

Right.He doesn’t want Gaia to know he proposed discussing a forbidden subject with me.

My stomach roils as I take in the rubbery balls drifting in the gel-like liquid.“I’m not hungry, but thanks anyway.”

He opens his mouth as if to argue, but just at that moment, a dark shadow flies through the hall.

Startled, I turn my attention that way, expecting a bird or a bat, and then my jaw drops.

An anurognathus dives low over a table before grabbing a bite of food from a man’s plate.The man swats at the tiny pterosaur, which is only three and a half inches long, but it’s already landing on a beam in the high ceiling to rip its prize apart.

I can’t believe my eyes.

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