The Cursed Prince - Fire and Ice (Book One)

Fire and Wine

Tears dripped over my cheeks.

My eye opened. I was spread upon the floor. Awake, my child. You have wept long enough.

I obeyed the voice, peeled myself off the cold stone and arose. White fur rubbed against my skin. Someone had spread a fur on the floor.

"My lady."

Lýes stepped forward. A girl borne from the sea. Hair of the sand. Eyes of the blue sea. Skin brushed by the salt air.  My maid. "The prince found you on the floor. He ordered you to be placed upon the fur."

Maids entered the room and I stood before the mirror. Shawls of pearl white glided over my arms. I sighed, setting my eye to the arched open window, free to the air of Eden. I despised when the maids dressed me like an overstuffed bird; I adored flowing dresses that allowed me to be as free as the birds of the air. I hated the stiff, gut-wrenching gowns that the maids of Eden adorned me in.

Something flashed past the open window. Crimson, scarlet, and fire.

I tore myself free of the maids. Fabric tore and I ran from the room.

"My lady!"

I ignored the cries and followed the trail of red and golden feathers. The bird flapped through a set of massive doors that closed after the disappearing tail feathers.

The guards stationed at the great doors of the library stared in shock as I hammered on the doors, intricately decorated with swirling lines of gold, demanding they must open them. 

"Let me through!" I cried, "I must follow it! I must!"

The guards pushed the doors wide open and I ran after the bird, torn sleeves billowing behind me as I streaked past a man, bumping the books from his hands. Jezreel's mouth dropped open as I streaked past him, pushing open the balcony doors from the library.

The bird soared into the heavens and disappeared. I lifted my hands after the creature; longing to follow its course and soar free into the sky like the birds of the air.

"Farewell, farewell little one!" The wind snatched the words from my mouth and carried them in a message to the birds of Eden.

Fruit trees bobbed and bowed in the swirling wind. A figure moved between the slender trunks of the trees below me.

A boy stood in the grove of fruit trees.

I lowered my foot onto the stone staircase descending into the forest of trees. I saw a strong tanned face. Stubble lined a handsome jaw. Hair the colour of dark hazelnuts and eyes of soft brown

Adam stood beneath the tree of the Thorn Fruit. 

My stomach growled. A thirst for the fruit made my tongue water. The tree bowed, its blossoming branches full of black flowers brushing the fruit, enticing me to it.

He plucked the fruit from the tree and tossed it to me.

I caught the fruit and peeled off the prickly skin to reveal a soft golden fruit. I bit into the flesh.  The sweet water of the fruit exploded in my mouth.

"Oh, so delicious," I moaned in bliss.

"You are the one and the only one to eat of the thorn fruit," he says. It was true; I was only one of the Garden of Eden to have eaten the fruit of thorns and malodour. The fruit is edible, but it is not eaten by the people of Eden because of the revolting smell and rotting meat inside the prickly purple skin.

When I ate of the fruit, I tasted euphoria. I raised the fruit to my mouth and devoured the succulent and sweet meat inside the prickly shell. 

I dropped the empty shell. "What are you doing here?"