Page 15 of Tall, Royal and Grumpy

“What was that?” Adam snapped just as the door closed behind her. “You’re such an idiot, Kai.”

“She hurt—”

“No, she didn’t. She saved me.” He shook his head. “The tea didn’t spill on me. It spilt on her hands.”

A cold wave rose through me with painful slowness. “What?”

“I was swinging on my chair with the cup in my hand. I tipped the legs too far and the tea would have fallen all over my face if she hadn’t grabbed the cup, burning her own hands. Not me.” Adam shoved me in the chest. “And you just yelled at her like a bloody idiot.”

I swallowed slowly as I looked from the fallen chair to Adam to the wooden doors of the library, processing what he’d just told me.

The small ounce of guilt I felt just moments ago?

That turned into a heavy paw clawing at my chest, shredding my anger and insides to pieces as Princess Esmeralda’s pale expression filled my mind.

Shit.

Chapter Six

KAI

It was raining outside. “Chucking it down” as the saying went in Touma.

The sound was irritatingly loud in the silent darkness of my room, battering the window and balcony doors like fingers drumming constantly on a table. Quick, harsh, and annoying.

I scrunched my face into a tighter frown and sunk deeper into my silk bedsheets. But I kept watching shadows of droplets—at least the blurs of them I could see—splatter on the far wall where it was painted in the dim light of the bedside lamp.

I hated winter and its ridiculously cold weather. But I despised rain most of all. Ironic considering I was from a state with a cooler, wetter climate. From the way it turned the sky grey to the way it made everything look miserable, to the sound of it caging me in and how it crawled on my skin.

My hate for rain was worse at night.

Being an insomniac meant I rarely ever slept anyway—two or three hours of sleep was a good night for me. But on nights when it rained, the impossibility of sleep reached new heights, forcing me to lie awake and listen to the chatter of rain outside until it convinced me to find sanctuary elsewhere.

But…on nights when I had been an absolute prick to a princess for mistakenly thinking she’d hurt my little brother when she’d done quite the opposite, not being able to sleep and therefore being forced to listen to the rain seemed like the punishment I deserved.

“Shit.” I scrubbed a hand over my face before throwing myself over, turning my back to the window.

I fucked up with Princess Esmeralda. I'd been wrong for letting my own distrust pin her as a pretty villain when I had no real evidence of her being one. And what was worse, I had yet to apologise.

Cursing again in frustration, I shoved the duvet off and sat up. I grabbed my glasses off the bedside cabinet and climbed off the bed. Then I picked up the grey hoodie lying at the end of my mattress and pulled it on over the long-sleeved top I already wore. No number of layers could ever be enough to protect me from the rain and cold. Even if I was still inside.

Slippers on, hood pulled up to cover my bed hair, I left my room, stopping when I reached the next corridor around the corner. I scowled down the hallway at the door to Princess Esmeralda’s room.

Shit. I had to apologise quickly. And soon.

I scrubbed a hand over my mouth and continued on the usual route of my nightly walks. But less than a few minutes into the stroll, I found a palace guard pacing restlessly in front of the arched garden doors. He peeked out where one door was partially open before he quickly swung around.

He stuttered to a stop. “Prince Kai,” he said with a bow.

As much as I wanted to avoid getting too close to the pelting of rain echoing from outside, I approached the guard. “What’s wrong, Raj?”

Raj wrung his black-gloved hands and tugged at the coat of his red livery as his eyes flicked to the gap in the doors. “Her Highness, Crown Princess Esmeralda is outside,” he blurted.

I blinked. “What?” Surely my ears had deceived me because Raj hadn’t just said—

“Crown Princess Esmeralda is sitting outside in the rain. In nothing but a thin nightshirt and shorts. With no jacket and no umbrella. I tried to stop her, I really did, but she refused to listen to me.”

Again, I blinked, my numb mind failing to comprehend his explanation. Because there was no way she was crazy enough to do that. She couldn’t be. Surely, she knew that the rain in Touma was freezing cold in comparison to Jahandar’s monsoon showers.

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