The Black Prince: An MM Dark Fantasy by Ariana Nash

Author:Ariana Nash [Nash, Ariana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Crazy Ace Publishing
Published: 2019-11-21T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

Akiem

The house had a thing elves called a shower: a wonderful closet full of stove-heated warm rain. Such a thing didn’t exist back home. He reveled in it, spreading warm hands against cold tiles, relishing the feel of water running down his back and over scars. Even after it ran cold, he lingered, letting the chill mottle his skin. Pleasure was a strange pursuit he’d never allowed himself, and certainly not in this human skin. Maybe he was coming apart. He saw no other explanation for how he had changed these last few weeks—becoming a creature of want where no desire had dwelled before. It couldn’t all be the elf’s doing, could it?

Stepping out, he found an old, rough towel and a pile of fresh clothes waiting for him. They weren’t Zane’s; he knew the elf’s scent. This was a gift from Jevan.

He dried off, tied his damp hair in a loose bun, and pulled on the pants and shirt, both slightly too small. The shirt he let hang open but rolled up the sleeves. The pants would have to do, tight as they were. Better that than dressing in the clothing soaked in his dragonkin’s blood.

Jevan waited for him in the bedchamber. The elf’s eyebrows rose as Akiem emerged from the wet room.

“It’s all we’ve got,” he said, noting the tight fit.

“Yours?” Akiem tugged on the shirt’s hem.

The elf nodded.

“I appreciate it.”

“Look, about… the arrow.” Jevan lowered his voice and glanced at the closed chamber door.

“And why you’re lying?” Akiem asked.

Jevan strode closer. Akiem stiffened, making him halt. He wasn’t armed, but his anxious manner frayed Akiem’s already short nerves.

“The wind. It was the wind,” he said again, gesturing like the comment were hardly worth voicing. He continued to look around, avoiding Akiem’s steady glare.

“I’m dragon. I know what the wind was doing. I was riding it when you loosed that arrow.”

Jevan clicked his tongue against his teeth, dismissing Akiem’s words. “It’s not what you think.”

“You aimed for Luceran, not Clarion. Clarion helped it along.” Zane couldn’t have seen the truth from his angle, but from above, Akiem had seen it all. He’d seen the elf line up the shot on Luceran, and he’d tried to dive in to stop it. Instinct more than emotion had driven him to protect the king. “Both you and Clarion wanted the king dead.”

Jevan swallowed, his throat undulating. “It was a mistake.”

Was it shame that kept the elf’s head turned away?

“You’re familiar with a bow. You read the wind’s direction and speed. Your aim was true.”

Jevan stiffened and looked Akiem in the eye. “Have you never loved, dragon? Do you even know how to?” Jevan grimaced and laughed dryly. “Of course you don’t. There are things your lizard mind can’t understand.”

“There always are.” Akiem had loved once, long ago. He’d loved for his broodsister, the only true light in his otherwise dark life. Mother had butchered her. He’d found it easier not to love at all after that.

“Don’t tell Zane,” Jevan said.

“Your secrets are of no concern of mine, elf.

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