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If only everyone else would fall away. If only I had the time to hold her and memorize her very essence, her scent... her taste. But my kiss was chaste, a quick press of lips against lips. There was no time to explore, and even if I wanted to, Odele seemed too stunned to do much but float there.
Behind us, the Queen of Thalassar cleared her throat in annoyance.
I broke away from Odele in time to see her eyes flutter, her cheeks heat. But I took even longer letting go, relishing in the feel of her soft skin against my palms, in the way she seemed to lean into me. Her breath had hitched, and I could just make out the pulse at her throat jumping.
I didn’t care that I was breaking the bounds of propriety or that her family was watching such an intimate display. Just the sight of her, well and obviously unharmed, had been enough for me to break free of the bindings of etiquette.
Had it not been for my advisors, I’d have made it to her in time. Unlike Captain Saber, I would have caught the criminal and hauled him from the market by his fins and killed him myself. Alas, my advisors were as strong and as skilled as I, and they’d shoved the Dragon Prince back into his confines before all of Eramaea could witness it.
My fingers trailed down her cheek to her neck, where I rested them, running my thumb across the pulse at her throat. Her pink skin was tinged with the beginning of a bruise. A feral growl rose to my throat, but I shoved it back.
“You are well?” I asked. My own heart beat a wild rhythm in my chest, mimicking the sounds of the battle drums of Draconi. I was nervous. Nervous and glad she was in front of me, that I could touch her. I wanted nothing more than to desperately pull her away from this blasted throne room and take her to my rooms and...
“That will be quite enough of that!” The queen’s harsh voice broke me from my wandering, improper thoughts. My cheeks heated as I let go and turned to face the queen and king. I didn’t dare take a stroke away from her this time.
The queen was glaring at her stepdaughter unkindly, and I didn’t miss the way she made an attempt at smoothing her features over, placing on a mask of feigned worry.
“Dearest daughter,” she began tightly. Her voice was as sweet as candy and confections. I didn’t particularly like how false it was. “It warms my heart to see you in one piece.”
Odele tensed next to me but swept into the most proper low bows. Odd. She’d never bowed before her stepmother before. Even if she was queen. Odele had made it known time and time again that the queen’s rule would not last and her own rule would surpass that of her stepmother’s once she came of age.
“Thank you, Majesty.”
“Although, I am quite curious as to how you managed to escape Thalassar’s most notorious criminal in the first place.” Her voice was laced with nothing but suspicion.
I hadn’t wondered about that question myself. I’d just been glad she had survived at all. When that blackheart had placed an ax to her throat, I’d seen red.
“It may be hard to believe, mother, but he let me go.”
The queen stroked her pointed chin in thought as she gazed down at Odele. Her bright eyes were narrowed on my betrothed in an expression I didn’t like at all.
Finally, she dropped her hand back on the armrest of her throne, flicking her fingers absently. “Perhaps,” she purred, “he would not have had you in the first place had you not been so foolish to challenge the law.”
Odele snapped her head up, and it was her turn to glare. She didn’t even bother trying to mask it. Royalty usually did. “I won’t apologize for swimming up for what’s right.”
The queen’s gaze flickered with annoyance. “Right?” she huffed. “Who are you to say what is right for the kingdom of Thalassar?” She pushed herself up from the throne in one angry stroke, as if she meant to loom over and intimidate the rest of us from her position.
Odele looked far from intimidated. “I am just trying to help. The merpeople of Thalassar are suffering. Surely you must know that? Do you really think that violence and death is the way to rule?”
Never before had I seen the queen move as fast as she did in that moment. She sped through the water until she was face to face with her stepdaughter, nose to nose, and the tension between them was all too palpable.
“How dare you speak to me that way? Insolent little wench!” She reached her hand up high and brought it down in a swing.
I grabbed her before I could blink. Catching her wrist in my hand, squeezing tightly. I felt the dragon in me stir into the wakening of unbridled violence. “Don’t...” I warned in a voice that was as deadly as the heat of lava on bare skin. “...harm her.”
The queen was staring at me with the most shocked expression ever. Her eyes, bright and wide, held only disbelief. She couldn’t quite fathom my sudden change, my sudden willingness to stand up for her stepdaughter. I’d been so meek before, so quiet and proper and polite in this dreadful kingdom. I’d have never dared to lift a hand to them before even if I was more than capable.
Things were different now.
Everything was different.
“Drop the queen’s hand. Now.” Captain Saber was suddenly at my side, and I didn’t need to look over to him to know that he was pointing the tip of his precious sword at me. I could have disarmed him easily. Instead, I dropped the queen’s hand, placing my own, clasped, behind my back.
The queen took a jerky stroke away from me. She was staring at me as if she couldn’t quite believe who I was. Like, instead of having a prince before her that she could easily manipulate into doing her bidding, she found an untamed beast in his stead.
“Forgive me.” I calmed the heat that had built up inside of me, took the slightest of bows, if only to conceal my expression of rage. I should never lose myself in front of these merpeople. Ever. And yet Odele had awoken that part in me more than once.
I straightened and turned to look at Captain Saber. There was a calm among my features that could be akin to the stillness of waters before a storm. I wondered if the good captain realized just what a mistake he had committed. If so, he didn’t show it. He looked at me, sword still pointed in my direction.
“I was told weapons weren’t allowed in the throne room.” The sarcasm that left my lips really couldn’t be helped.
The captain sneered. “I am a trusted guard, and I have sworn on my life that I would protect the Malabella lineage until I draw in my last dying breath. That includes the princess and the queen. No matter who or what I face.”
I did nothing but raise a brow. Nonchalance, I knew, went a long way. In some cases, it also served to annoy those who thought themselves better than me. And though he was merely a captain and I a prince, I knew he thought me no worse than a bit of stray kelp stuck to a hippocampus’ hoof.
“If that were true, then you would have stopped at nothing to save my betrothed from danger earlier, yet you let a common criminal get the best of you.” I’d hit my mark. His face reddened with humiliation.
“That criminal was—”
I turned away before he could get the rest out. A dismissal. Not a method I was practiced in, but effective. Usually, I was averse to the lesser treatment of others. Not now, though.
I looked to the queen. “With your permission, Majesty, I would like to set one of my own guards and my advisor to watch over the princess.” I gave a side look at the captain and then back again. “Security in your kingdom is quite lacking.”
Odele huffed from her place. “I don’t need a guard!”
“She already has guards,” the captain ground out tightly.
I flicked my fingers in his direction. Another dismissal. “They seem to be doing a poor job of things so far. She has been poisoned, shot at, and abducted by a criminal among hundreds of Thalassarins. My guards’ and advisor’s skills are equal to my own. They would not let harm come to her.”
The queen pinched the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger. “I will allow it.”
Captain Saber took a stroke forward, mouth opening as if he meant to argue, but he reeled back last minute, holding his fists tightly at his back. Remembering his place.
I smirked.
The queen cleared her throat. “If you please, Prince Kai. We’d like to speak to our daughter. Alone.”
I did not trust her to not raise a hand to Odele again. Still, she was the ruler, and I’d already challenged her once. To do so a second time could very well wage a war between our two nations, marriage contract or not. So I settled with piercing her with a look that was menacing, a warning. Then, I turned to Odele. She looked unhappy about my current suggestion but let me take her hand in mine.
“Until we meet again, Princess.” I pressed a kiss to her knuckles, wishing with everything inside me that it could be her lips instead.