your life when you dared run from me at the campsite. Yet, here you are, not a drop of blood spilled at my doing.”
“I’d say that’s a good thing, an improvement, even,” she mumbled quickly, wracking her brain for anything consoling, anything humanizing to say that might bring him back to sanity. “It shows you can exercise your powers when necessary, and that you have some restraint.”
“Restraint? Restraint?” Garin laughed again, a cruel edge to his voice, which cracked against the high ceiling. “Lilac, I’m starving,” he snarled.
He was unstable. Lilac stumbled backward while he spoke, retreating step after squelching step until her hands found the stone wall behind her.
“The future mortal queen in my hands,” he mused to himself, stalking toward her. Lilac recoiled when he extended his hand to touch her. Instead, he frowned at his outreached fingers, then at her, as if catching himself. He carefully pulled his arm back. “And I can’t even bring myself to harm a hair on your head.”
“Then don’t,” she said simply, the words coming out a request. Her heart thudded wildly in her ribcage. She froze beneath his shadow and fought the shivers back.
His hostility was a sham, if she’d read him right. He lashed out because he was feeling cornered, and even then, he’d refused to touch her. She’d take extra care to give him the space.
The sunlight beyond the waterfall had faded, leaving only the cobalt of dusk and trembling golden light of the candles.
“I could kill you,” he whispered. “Right here. Right now, for what your parents have done to Brocéliande. To avenge my sire’s death—we both know he’s dead at human hands. I should. I’ve had so many opportunities.”
“Garin—”
“There are plenty of other ways to do it. No one’s around to help you for acres. I could, then your beloved would come for me… ” Garin licked his lips. “What a delicious battle to the death it would be.”
“You won’t.” He wouldn’t. “You’re scared of all that’s been going on. So am I. But killing me, or another innocent, for that matter, won’t bring Laurent back. You can’t seek revenge until you’re certain of who’s responsible. Any other expended effort would then prove a waste of time.”
Garin’s furious expression changed to one of torment.
“So, do as you wish,” she challenged resolutely, pushing herself off the grotto wall and closing the space between them. “It’ll only make you scared, and lonely.”
As if suspended in time, the mortal princess faced the prince of night, each equally unwilling to give in to the other. Lilac stood glaringly beneath him. Garin’s nostrils flared, his chest heaving slowly.
In her mind, a tiny voice urged her to run. Keep talking him down, then push. Flee. Anything to get away from the devastating beast. But she was stuck, even as she watched his mouth draw ever nearer. The scent of spruce and evening dew began to fill her head.
She’d pay for her display of courage again… this time, with her life.
Garin’s lips brushed against hers ever so slightly. His overwhelming sweetness drew her nearer before their mouths briefly met. Nerve endings shot off in places she never knew existed, and her steadying pulse grew erratic again.
As if sensing this, almost hesitantly, Garin cupped her face between his palms. He ran one thumb reassuringly over her cheek, silencing every concern plaguing her subconscious. For a moment, all moral reasoning broke within her into fragments of fragile sanity.
When he pulled back, the universe, speckled with stars of a million shrouded truths, swirled in his irises.
She wasn’t supposed to enjoy it. Not nearly as much as she did.
He kissed her again, carefully parting her lips. She inhaled sharply when her tongue found his fangs, which had sprouted; to her surprise, it didn’t slow her one bit. The caress of his hands sliding down the skin of her bare neck was almost too much to bear; grinning against his mouth, she selfishly, hungrily leaned into him.
In response to her movement, Garin withdrew from her once more, his striking features painted in disbelief. He was struggling. In attempt to avoid her eyes, his gaze had flickered down to Lilac’s ruddy lips. Then, her throat.
Stronger than fear, thrill thrummed through her like electricity. Everything was slightly blurry and frayed at the edges, as if she looked at him through a shard of beach glass. Lilac had always imagined her first kiss being a discreet act of anarchy against her parents, but this… This was more than the trite recklessness she’d