Page 46 of Dark Prince's Captive

“Elsie, no!”

My warning is not yet cold when her scream pierces the air.

Her pain is so acute it’s like a blade peeling off my skin.I sprint after her and, in a few long strides, reach her where she’s hopping on one leg.

My tone is calm, collected, but the hurt etched on her features unleashes a torrent of rage like a volcano spewing fire inside me.“Where does it hurt?”I take her arm to help her keep her balance.

“My foot.”She sucks air through her teeth.“Damn, that fucking burns.”

“Show me,” I say through thin lips.

She bends her knee and lifts her foot with the sole facing up, revealing an angry red, swollen heel.“Something in the grass must’ve stung me.”

Our forests are full of venomous plants and creatures.I should’ve warned her, but how was I supposed to know Elsie liked digging her toes into lumps of clayish mud and slippery grass?

With my heart thumping in my chest, I search the succulents with a practiced eye.A horned ground crawler creeps out from under a blade, edging toward her like a parasite that has smelled blood.

My fury is so great I’m incapable of thinking rationally.One moment, the bloodsucking little leech is worming its way through the mud, and the next, it explodes in a spray of grayish white glob before dissolving into a sizzling mess of dirty-white mush and black paste.

Elsie jumps back, pulling free from my hold so violently she lands on her ass in a tuft of spongy grass.

I waste no time in scooping her up into my arms and carrying her back to the blanket.

Once I’ve laid her down, I take her foot into my hand.“We’d better put a poultice on your heel to pull out the sting.”

Looking around, I find a few succulents within reach and break the fat blades in half.Then I cup the narrow bridge of Elsie’s foot in my palm and rub copious amounts of the sap from the blades over the inflamed skin.It’s an old remedy our cook taught me after I got stung by insects as a child.

Within seconds, the swelling goes down.

“How does it feel now, my sweet?”

“Unbelievable.”She gapes at me.“It doesn’t hurt anymore.”

“Don’t ever take off your shoes outside again.Some larvae that live in the soil are venomous.”

“You melted that caterpillar just like those lizards.”She pulls her foot from my hand, leaning on her elbows while watching me with an unsettled expression.“How does your power work?How can you dissolve something by simply looking at it?Do you have laser eyes or something?”

Caterpillar, laser… I don’t know her terminology, but I’m no longer in the mood for a language lesson.

I keep my tone bland, not wanting to frighten her more.“I broke the bonds holding its living particles together.”

“You… broke the bonds?”She swallows, staring at me.“Like, between its cells?”

I think I know what she means.“Betweenasha, the little self-sufficient units that make up all living beings, and then between the particles that make up asha, the ones that make up everything.”

“The molecules?”she whispers, looking awed.“You can break bonds between molecules?”

“If ‘molecules’ are what all matter, animate or inanimate, is made of, then yes.”

She sucks in a breath.“Is that how you dissolve stone to create the entrance to your quarters?By breaking the bonds between stone particles?”

“Yes.”

“And then you remake the bonds?”

“Exactly.”

It’s so strange that I have to explain to her something every Alit toddler knows.

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