My heart beat harder as I moved closer to him. “He does? Why?”
The prince growled low in his throat. “Apparently, Lord Crimsonale went straight to him yesterday, and now my father is curious to meet you.”
I twisted my hands. “So the entire court now knows of me?”
“Yes, and your presence has caused quite a stir.”
“But I thought my only purpose here was to heal the fields, not go to balls.”
“I had hoped to contain your activities to that only, but—” His nostrils flared. “It’s now out of my control.” He held out his hand. “Come. Let us continue in Barvilum.”
We mistphased from my chambers and spent the morning and afternoon similar to the day prior. At least I found some solace in the field despite its dead stalks and gray dirt, but even with that distraction, in the back of my mind, I kept picturing Lord Crimsonale’s interest in me, and now the king’s curiosity.
But that didn’t impede why I’d become the prince’s prisoner. Despite what loomed, the crown prince returned for me each morning before whisking me away in a blur of mist and shadows, air and wind.
He took me to the same field in Harrivee over and over.
The morning sun hid behind pastel-colored clouds on our fourth day in the field. Salty, cool air whipped around me as I knelt to the ground while Prince Norivun sat at my side. Piles of snow lay around us, the only evidence we left behind of what we were doing, but the residents of Barvilum seemed to have given up on this field. Nobody came up here.
I dug into the frosty dirt with my spade, then sank my fingers into it.
Unlike in the courtyard, I still didn’t detect any orem.
Straightening, I flung my spade to the side. “It’s not working. The orem should have appeared by now. I can’t do this.”
It didn’t help that the ball was tomorrow. All week Daiseeum had been gushing about it. I knew it was being held in honor of the prince. She kept talking about the young females that would also be attending, but ballgowns and parties were the furthest things from my mind, even if I was to meet the king at it, so I never listened to half of what she was saying.
All I wanted was to fulfill the bargain Prince Norivun and I had made so I could return home and be done with the prince and the Winter Court.
Prince Norivun settled more beside me. “You’re frustrated.”
“Obviously.”
“You can do this, Ilara.”
I blew a strand of silver hair from my forehead. “How can you be so sure?” I swept my arm out. “This field is huge. What you’re asking of me is impossible, and there’s no life here. No orem. Four days I’ve been at this, and I have nothing to show for it.”
He gently encircled my wrist with one of his large hands. A shiver ran through me. His hand tightened around me more, as though he felt it too.
He placed my fingers back into the dry, cold dirt. “Channel that energy into the field. I have no doubt it’s helping, and remember, next week you’ll also begin working with a tutor. You’ll learn how to do this.”
I scowled as a tingle of awareness slid up my arm. Every time he’d touched me this week that had happened, as though my body recognized something in him.
His palm lingered, his touch so warm in the frigid air. My breathing sped up, and I wondered why I wasn’t snatching my hand away. Perhaps it was because I was tired. Working in the fields each day had left me fatigued every night.
“Keep trying,” he finally said, then slowly withdrew.
I felt every inch of his fingers slide along my skin, the tingles and shivers increasing within my arm until he severed our connection.
I could have sworn that his eyes darkened in the overcast sun. Energy charged the air around us. Blessed Mother. My life had truly become pure madness.
I ran a hand through my hair. “Why are you here with me every day?” I asked, anything to break the current flowing between us. “Why not just leave me with your guards to work on this alone?”
He arched an eyebrow. “Is my company so abhorrent?”
It was on the tip of my tongue to say that yes, it was, but . . . That would be a lie. Like it or not, the murderer of my family had become the one constant in my unpredictable life. He was also the only fairy who had the power to keep me safe and shield me from the court’s perverse curiosity. I hated that, but whenever Prince Norivun appeared, a strange feeling of relief flowed through me. It was as though I was worried the prince would one day disappear and leave me to fulfill our bargain on my own while trying to fend off the court’s growing interest.
How had my life descended into this? Not for the first time this week, I realized that I needed to put a stop to whatever strange bond was growing between the prince and me.
I resisted the urge to pick at my fingernails. “Don’t you have other things you should be doing?”
“I have a million other things I should be doing.”
“Then why not tend to them?”
He eyed me, his expression impossible to decipher. “Next week you’ll start training with your new tutor and be done with me, although I’ll still have to mistphase you to the fields when you’re not training with her, but I won’t be staying at your side indefinitely. So rest easy, Lara.”
I started at the sound of my nickname. To hear that name roll off his lips was so intimate, somehow. And I didn’t like the shiver it provoked.
I studied the squareness of his jaw and the cleft on his chin, then forced myself to focus on the task at hand. “What happens if I fail? What happens if all of us begin to starve?”
“I think you already know the answer to that. Nothing good comes from an entire continent of fae going hungry.”
He was right. Obviously. Images of burning cities, pillaging, crime, unrest, and violence swirled through my thoughts. It would be a nightmare.
I fingered the dirt again. If our entire continent truly was going to starve, maybe it was best that my parents and brother were no longer here. Nobody wanted to suffer. It was bad enough that I’d have to watch Cailis starve if it came to that.
“Sometimes I forget that you killed my family. Maybe it’s a blessing that they won’t have to see what’s to come if I fail.” I rubbed more soil between my fingers. “I still have dreams about them and their final moments.”
“I know.”
My head whipped up. “You do?”
“You had a nightmare when we were in High Liss. You were calling for them in your sleep.”
My lips parted as that night came crashing back to me. I recalled a nightmare that I’d experienced in that lodge, but the details were fuzzy. One thing surged to the center of my thoughts, though. I’d awoken the next morning in his bed. I still remembered that very clearly.
“Did you carry me from the floor to the bed in High Liss?”
“I did.”
My heart fluttered more. “Because of my nightmare?”
“Yes.”
I sat back on my haunches, my mind reeling. Breaths coming faster, I shook my head in disbelief. “So I didn’t stumble there on my own? But when? When did you move me into the bed? Right before you left that morning?”
His jaw tightened, and he shook his head so slightly it was barely perceptible.