Page 73 of All the Chaos of Constellations
Planting both hands on either side of her, he leaned down, so close their noses nearly touched. “Mind your words, my lady. Deceit is incredibly unflattering.”
Goosebumps pebbled across her flesh. The railing of the balcony dug into her backbone, a firm reminder she had nowhere else to go. No means of escape.
“You want him,” Prince Drake crooned, “do you not?”
Him. Asher.
Novalise ducked her head, hiding behind the fallen strands of her hair. “My soul aches for him.”
“Then I suggest you do exactly as I say.” The shadow prince slid a finger under her chin, tilting her face up to his own. His skin was like ice. “From now until the end of Midsummer, you are marrying me. You’re in love with me. You only want me.”
She blinked. “But Asher?—”
“Only. Me.”
Her brows bunched in frustration. “But what if?—”
He lifted one hand, silencing her. When he spoke, it was as though he’d read her thoughts, like he saw right through her.
“You ignore his advances. You avoid all conversation with him. So long as you’re on my arm, your attention remains solely focused on me.” He eased back, barely enough for her to remember how to think clearly. “So long as you’re betrothed to me, no other will dare look your way for fear of my wrath.”
Novalise opened her mouth to object, and he snapped it shut with one finger.
“Lord Firebane, however, will be the only one to defy me.” Prince Drake stepped away and Novalise wrapped her arms around herself in a desperate effort to keep warm. When she met his gaze, his full lips were upturned in a smug smile. “You’ll see.”
She rubbed her hands up and down her arms to ward off the chill. “It will never work.”
“I never fail,” he countered smoothly.
She didn’t believe him. This plan…it was impossible. It would only serve to push Asher further away from her, and perhaps that’s what Prince Drake planned all along. Asher would never want her now. He would stand by and watch as she was taken away to Brackroth. He would never make a stand for her, never fight for her.
“So,” the shadow prince drawled, his chilling gaze sweeping over her once more. “Would you like to explain that little display of magic?”
Novalise opened her mouth, and he lifted one finger, snagging it on her bottom lip. “Mind. Your. Words.”
She jerked away from his touch, stiffening. “It was nothing.”
“Is that so? Because it looked like a starstorm to me.” His eyes roved over her, taking in every inch of her, lingering on the charred scraps of her former wedding dress strewn across the balcony. “A kind of magic that hasn’t been seen in nearly a hundred years.”
Novalise was unsure how Prince Drake knew anything about starstorm magic, but she was certain of one thing. She would not discuss it with him.
Maneuvering herself out from his cage, she strode past him toward the balcony doors. Pausing at the threshold, she tossed him a glance from over her shoulder, willing her spine into place. She’d finally gotten herself a backbone, and she was going to use it. “If you tell anyone about what you think you saw, I’ll kill you.”
“Threatening me now, are you?” Prince Drake chuckled darkly, shadows bleeding around him like the onset of nightfall. “What a wondrous, beautiful disaster you are.”
Novalise refused to answer him. Swallowing her fear, she pushed through the doors, fleeing the balcony as calmly as possible. She had no clue what she’d done, or what had come over her. But she had to get away, and she couldn’t look back. Walking toward the winding staircase, she allowed the tremors to overtake her, and could only pray to the goddess that she hadn’t made a terrible mistake.
It was one thing to insult the Prince of Brackroth.
What she’d done, however, was far worse.
Novalise had threatened the Shadowblade Assassin, even though he could end her life in less time than it took to breathe. She shook off the sense of foreboding, a tiny beam of pride fusing inside of her. If she could stand up for herself, if she could tell off the Shadowblade Assassin, then no one could stand in her way.
The darling of Aeramere be damned.
She was Novalise Starstorm Celestine, and she would defy the stars.
CHAPTERTWENTY-NINE
