Page 79 of The Lost Prince
It was so simple and brilliant that I believed her. Girls from the stone quarterwouldbe well-versed in masonry, so the source was credible, and I couldn’t argue with the results.
I was alive.
And fucking Shava into oblivion.
“Please, Zeph, oh gods …”
Her eyes rolled back into her head as I pounded into her faster and faster, my fingers leaving indents around her neck. My other hand dug into her hair and twisted it around my wrist, pulling hard.
I didn’t want to hurt her, just discourage her from thinking this was anything other than a quick fuck. I didn’t need her developing anything for me, and the feeling was mutual. Clover had always acted afraid when I’d gotten rough with her.
But not Shava.
My harsh treatment of her had the opposite effect. Her heart rate increased, her breathing hitched, and frustratingly enough, her inner walls tightened and bore down on me.
Oh fuck, I was going to—
“AH!”
Hot wetness flooded my cock, my release out of my control as we cried out simultaneously. My hips continued to move against hers as I spent myself into her, her body limp around me.
“Oh my gods. Zeph.”
She sank against me, and I let her. I owed hersomethingfor saving my ass. Again.
“T-thank you,” I grumbled halfheartedly against her.
Her hand stroked my cheek, eyes boring into mine. Or they tried to; I kept mine firmly on a point on the cave wall.
Her arms came around me and hugged me, her face in my chest. My muscles tensed, afraid she’d say something ridiculous, like she cared for me.
“How did you get over here?” I asked. Zariah had flown away, after all.
She grinned at me, puffing up with pride. “I’m a good climber.”
My lips parted with surprise. Surely she wasn’t suggesting she’dclimbedup to the cave hole, had she? Well, I suppose I was about to find out.
“Let us get back to the others. No more caves for today.”
Shava nodded and together we headed out into the stifling heat.
ChapterNineteen
In the coming days, Shava proved herself a prodigy with climbing. It would be easy to say it was because of her birth as a girl from the mud quarter, but I was half of a mud-quarter boy myself and couldn’t even climb a foot off the dusty ground.
Her bare toes and fingers could grip onto ledges that were more narrow than what should have been physically possible, and her eyes found tiny holds and cracks that mine didn’t. Using this skill, she could get herself into a lot of cave openings without us having to rely on Zariah to cart us around everywhere. Once there, we could throw her rope and I could join her, or Cerys could, or the boy. At first, their presences annoyed me, but having others around made things easier. One of them could stand guard at an entrance, flagging down Zariah if anything went wrong. Or they could concentrate on menial tasks such as gathering firewood or preparing food, leaving Shava and I free to explore.
And explore we did. I needed to find a way back into the kingdom and fast. My next ritual would not plan itself, and the diagram wasn’t satisfactory. I needed my notes from my room.
“Zariah seems to think this cave is promising,” I commented to Shava.
Shava and I stood at the entrance of an old mine, quite a distance to the west from the kingdom. Zariah had noticed the odd configuration of rocks from overhead, and discovered the collapsed mine a few days before.
“Not exactly hidden, is it?” Shava asked.
The old mine shaft had caved in partially, but the wooden slats and rails still lead straight into the black abyss. An old, rusted cart sat right outside, tipped over next to the tracks.
“No one leaves the kingdom or goes in. It doesn’t need to be hidden,” I replied, frowning. I knew from perusing records in the archives that we had once mined gemstones much more than we do now, but I never stopped to thinkwherethose mines had been. Like everyone else, I supposed they were in the stone quarter.
