Page 37 of Kiss of a Hellish Prince

“Cool…” I didn’t know what to say next. When was the last time someone made me nervous by just being near me? I took another bite of my cookie to give me a little time.

“Did you want me to leave you to your book?” he asked.

“No!” I said a little too quickly. “I mean, not if you want to stay and talk or hang out or something.”

What was wrong with me?

“I would like that.” He smiled and sat back against the arm of the couch, angled towards me.

“Me too.” I smiled. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

“There is a lot you don’t know. Care to narrow it down?”

“What is Hell like? Is it hot?” I asked.

“It’s a large country. There are regions that are hot, a dessert or two, but the capital, Dis, is towards the north. It gets a lot of snow.”

“Oh, tell me about it.”

“All of Elysian is beautiful. It really isn’t too different from earth. We have three continents, Hell being the best one by far. The angels are in Heaven, and the third continent is called Faerie. Many kinds of fae and shifters are there. Hell has deserts towards the south, tropical islands, and rainforests near the equator. Where I am from is outside a city called Karac. My mother is the king’s eldest daughter. He gifted her a large estate after he beheaded the previous Lord of Karac.”

“What did he do?” I asked before taking another bite of the cookie.

“You know, I don’t know. I know my mother loathed him. She called living in his house poetic justice, whatever that meant. I love that house. Murmur and I would spend hours running around the gardens as children, chasing lightning bugs, laughing when they zapped us…”

“Zapped you?”

“Yeah, lightning bugs carry a small electric charge. When you catch them, they zap you. I thought Earth had those?”

“No, we have lightning bugs, but they just light up. They aren’t armed,” I said, wondering if the zap made catching them more or less fun.

“Huh. Well, Karac is far north and not too far from the sea, so the summers are mild and long, but the winters have some pretty intense snowstorms. It’s usually covered in snow by mid- November. I really miss the snow. That is the one thing I don’t like about Phoenix. It never snows.”

“I have never seen snow,” I said. “In person, I mean. I have seen pictures, and I keep meaning to drive up to Flagstaff or Payson to see it in the winter, even for just a few hours. I just haven’t.”

“Why not?”

“Time, mostly. And I want it to be an experience. Sarah would go with me, but I don’t think she would be that into it. I want to go with someone who wants to go with me.” I picked the mug of hot chocolate up and cradled it in my hands, mostly to give my hands something to do. “Who knows? Maybe if I am still around in January, you can take me.”

“If you are still around in January, maybe I will take you to Hell and show you the snow there. Maybe take you ice-skating on the lakes.” Rune bit his lip.

I liked the sound of that—a day spent with him playing in the snow then warming each other up in front of a gigantic stone fireplace. I could picture it in my mind, stretched out naked on a fur rug, the soft fur warm against my skin while Rune moved on top of me, glowing in the soft light of the fire next to us.

What the fuck was in that pill?

“Where did you go just then?” Rune’s voice pulled me from my daydream.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“You are blushing, and you looked like you were deep in thought there for a second,” he said with an arched eyebrow.

“Oh, I just got lost in thought for a moment. Spending the day ice-skating sounds amazing.”

“It would be. Maybe I will even take you to the palace for the winter celebrations. Those are always the best times to visit the palace.”

“Tell me about them.”

I watched Rune while he told me about all the things he loved about his home. The way his face lit up talking about the palace itself with its sky-high black spires that sparkled in the sunlight. The feasts that were always held for the Solstice and other holidays. When he admitted to not liking the stuffy clothes and having to act a certain way, I smiled. I could almost see Rune as a child, pouting as his mother told him to behave and to not remove his scarf or his gloves.

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