Page 33 of This Prince Is Not Charming

Tal frowned. “Why not? I like her silky fur.”

“I like her green eyes, so big and mysterious.”

“That’s a big word for you,” Tal said.

“No it’s not. I use big words all the time.”

“Like what?”

“Well you can’t just put me on the spot like that. I need time to think of the big words.”

“Uh-huh,” Tal said, raising a hand to inspect one of his talons. “That’s what I thought.”

I did not have the energy for any of this. “Attraction doesn’t work like that, okay? I am not attracted to those whose bodies are covered in fur. Let’s just leave it at that.”

“Someone’s testy,” Barty mumbled, but thankfully they’d stopped arguing and opened the doors for me.

I hesitated before stepping inside, not sure I was ready to go to bed after the night I’d just had.

“It would be nice if people respected our time.” Tal nudged his head toward the open doors.

Barty stared at me pointedly. “When someone opens a door for you, the correct thing to do is walk through it.”

I shoved a hand through my hair, barely hearing the gargoyles. I couldn’t believe I’d seen Lor tonight. It was him. It was impossible. What were the odds? I was sure of it. Despite taking my tonic, I felt on edge, my insides vibrating. I needed to tell someone, and there was only one person who came to mind. I turned to walk down the steps of the castle landing and toward the little dress shop that sat on the cobblestone road.

“Is he serious right now?” Barty asked.

“Unbelievable. You know, I’m going to remember this the next time he needs a door opened for him. Just because he’s high prince doesn’t mean he can treat us like this.”

“No, you won’t remember. You don’t remember anything.”

“Hey!”

As I walked away , their voices faded, and for the first time tonight, I was finally looking forward to something.

CHAPTER 16

Ceri

Ilay in bed, staring at the ceiling that I’d been looking at for over an hour now. It had taken all night to calm my father and finally get him to sleep, assuring him that I was safe and that the trial had gone fine. Then I’d heard raucous laughter filling the streets and realized it was Marsten and the other contestants, all of them drunk out of their minds. More people that I would lose out on relationships with because I couldn’t go out with them.

That wasn’t even the main concern occupying my mind tonight.

In the dark of my room, I should have been worrying about Father, about these trials, about why Castle had wanted us to find that lantern and what it had to do with becoming queen. I should’ve been thinking about the upcoming trials. About how terrifying it had been to see Liadan disappear.

But no. I was not thinking about any of those things. My mind was stuck on the moment Cillian had grabbed me, wrapped his arms around me, and looked at me like he wanted to kiss me. The image of his eyes, so tender and full of longing, played in a loop in my mind. My hands drifted down to my waist to where he’d gripped me tight.

It was like a glimpse of the old Cillian. The one I’d known before he’d become high prince. It was the look he’d given me the day that crown had appeared over his head, when he’d come to my dress shop, grabbed my hands, and told me he had to tell me something. I’d been so sure he was about to tell me he had feelings for me. If he had, I would’ve told him I felt the same.

But before he could speak again, the golden crown appeared.

Everything changed after that. He was still caring and funny and my best friend, but he was also less . . . I wasn’t sure. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what changed when he was crowned high prince, but something had switched in him.

Over the years, I’d convinced myself I had imagined it all. That there had never been growing feelings between us, that nothing had been shifting before that fateful day. That Cillian had never intended to court me.

But when he’d grabbed me like that tonight and looked at me like he had, it had taken me back in time, and now I couldn’t stop thinking about it, wondering what had gotten into him in that moment.

My hands curled into fists at my sides. I had to stop thinking about this. There was no world in which Cillian and I could be together. In another life, one where he’d never become high prince . . . maybe. But there was no other life. Only this one.