The Deadly Curse

4.1 | Lost

//lost, part 01//

Prince Rune hadn't gotten far. I managed to catch up without much effort. A miracle by regular standards. Unless he had been waiting to be found.

He stopped at a window that overlooked the back gardens. He kept his hands clasped behind him, spine ramrod straight and nose tipped up. The shadows had vanished, replaced by his mask of stoicism.

I joined his side, resting my hands on the windowsill. My gaze trained on the impossibly beautiful vista. I spoke carefully, "I get the sense that you don't want me to meet the Sprite Council."

"My wants do not matter."

"Is it because there's a tense history between you and the Sprites?"

We peered at each other, and he frowned. A veil of apathy covered the usual war of shadow and flame in his eyes.

"I do . . . worry," he admitted reluctantly. "But I worry more about the consequences of refusing their request."

I gripped his upper arm and gave him a reassuring squeeze. "I can handle this. We can handle this. We promised we'd be in this together. I'll be by your side the entire time."

A small smile broke his impassive mask. "I should be the one comforting you. You're striding into completely foreign territory, yet you are the one comforting me."

Brushing invisible dirt from his coat lapels, I said, "We can comfort each other. That's what being in a relationship means, yes?"

The fire dared to swallow his eyes whole. "I will have to take your word for it."

"I'm new to this too." I shrugged. Seeing a flicker of joy on his face made me smile.

He took my hand and pressed a soft kiss on my palm. My heart raced with the tingles shooting down my arms and into my spine. When his eyes flashed open again, the smolder there threatened to steal my breath.

"Then we shall learn together."

My head nodded slowly, dazed. "Together," I affirmed.

He dropped my hand with a sweeping bow. "If you'll excuse me, maiden. Best to prepare now for our trip to the Western Wind Cities."

With that, he disappeared down the hall as my palm continued to tingle in memory of his lips pressed there.

Only when the prickles faded did I realize that Prince Rune had skillfully evaded sharing any valuable information about the Sprites, their council, and their cities. All I knew was that there was a long history of tension between them. But the reasons remained a mystery to me. If I were to be queen one day, then understanding the intricacies of Sprite relations was a must.

I huffed. Apparently, I needed to push Prince Rune a bit harder. He had a tough shell to crack.

But I didn't have to go in completely blind. Whipping about on the pads of my feet, I hurried to my favorite library. At the wall decorated in maps, I gathered those that depicted at least something in the west. A surprising number of maps kept the west blank. Which made more sense, especially since some kind of conflict raged there.

A groan rumbled my chest. I couldn't read the foreign lettering that marked what I now knew to be the Western Wind Cities. My lips pursed. If the maps had left out the Sprites, then how could I possibly learn about them? Not even their home was denoted.

Just what had happened between them?

Still determined to learn something, I took the most detailed of the maps and brought it outside. From here, the west was just a blurry haze of minimal activity. Small flecks against the sky were the only indicators of life. But I could make out the largest tree I'd ever seen. Its branches covered the entirety of the west, its trunk the size of a mountain.