Page 182 of The Last Syphon

“He does not.”

“I am an objective third party, and I am telling you now, Nara, that man does not like it when I touch you. What other reason could there be for that apart from jealousy?”

“What are you talking about?” she asked, exasperated. “He never looks any different when you and I are together? If he was jealous, he’d be frustrated. Angry—” Her words cut off as realisation smacked her in the face.

His magic. His magic was his anger.

“You see it now, don’t you?” A smug smirk was on his lips. Felix loved proving people wrong. The ass. “His anger and frustration manifest in his magic. The way the temperature would just drop suddenly, with no warning. The way ice would take over the room when you’re threatened. He fucking likes you!” He flopped down onto his back, placing his hands behind his head. “Can you imagine if you wed him? You’ll be the future Queen of Arelia!”

Inara spluttered, looking at him in horror. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, wed?! Now I know you’re crazy. Look at where we are right now. We are literally in a dungeon awaiting our death.”

Felix shrugged, unbothered. “He’ll get us out. As I said, he likes you. He might not even be 100 percent aware of it. Men are idiots, after all⁠—”

“That I agree with you on.”

“But he does. He won’t let them kill you. And he won’t let them kill me because it would upset you.”

“Would it?” she responded dryly.

Felix flashed her a wide smile. “Of course it would.”

Inara wanted to believe him because there was a small part of her that perhaps, maybe, possibly, potentially, kind of, just a smidgen…Ughhh.

Her heart sped whenever she saw him. Whenever she was near him. Whenever she thought of him. He made her laugh. Smile. Giddy and excited.

She’d grown to enjoy his company, and looked forward to seeing him every day.

But did those things mean she liked him too?

Ugh. Maybe she was an idiot.

Felix was no longer her best friend.

Denial was.

“Ah! I thought of another one!” Felix turned onto his side to face her, propping his head up on his bent elbow. “He also shielded you from that fall you told me about in the Dead Kingdom, right? He doesn’t want you to get hurt. Another tick in the ‘he’s madly in love with you’ column.”

She’d told him last night after Prince Walder left about what happened in Tolanaa. About her theory that they may have possibly awoken the Cursed King. It had been a long conversation, and it was in part responsible for the exhaustion that had hit her afterwards. He had, justifiably, freaked the fuck out.

Inara rolled her eyes. “So, we went from, ‘I think he likes you’ to ‘he’s madly in love with you’? Seriously, are you high? If you are, give me some so I can jump on this delusional horse you’re on.”

“I’m high on life, Inara. High on life.” He hummed, returning to his back.

“You’re definitely high on something, that’s for sure,” she grumbled under her breath.

Inara finished the rest of her meal in silence, thinking intently on his words. Of course the thought had occurred to her once or twice. She’d noticed a few things he had done that made her question what was going on. But as soon as the idea solidified, the insurmountable doubt had kicked it right the fuck out.

He was a royal Prince. The royal Prince, and she was a common thief. He lived by rules. She lived to break them. All points she had said to herself before, but now…

Now, it was like none of those things seemed to matter.

The stone door creaked open slowly.

“He’s here!” Felix hiss-whispered, jumping to his feet. He spoke a mile a minute. “Okay. Remember, he likes you, so play on that. Smile. Flit your hair. Flirt. Do you know how to flirt? Oh, Fates. We should have practiced. Never mind that. Just lower the register of your voice and talk all sultry. Oooo, Prince Walder, you look devilishly handsome this day, and you smell sooooo good, ooooo, ahhhh. Bonus points if you can pretend to drop something and bend over to pick it up at the same time⁠—”

“Will you shut up?!” She reached through the bars and slammed her palm on his forehead.

“Oomf.” He grunted as he stumbled back. “Okay. Fair. I deserved that.” He pounced forward and did the same thing to her.