Tempted by a Rogue Prince

by Felicity Heaton

  He kept walking before she could say anything, striding ahead of her as if he could run away from what he had just done and pretend it had never happened. He hadn’t let her in. He hadn’t just opened his chest and given her a clear shot at his heart and destroying him.

  He couldn’t remember the last time he had spoken about himself to anyone, or the last time anyone had wanted to know about him. Everyone he met fled his presence or fought him. None wanted to spend a second with him, but Rosalind had spent hours in his company, and had only looked as if she had wanted to fight him for a few of those.

  But never flee.

  Little Wild Rose didn’t run from him.

  She ran to him.

  She pressed him, pushed him, coaxed and comforted him, and all because she wanted to know him.

  He didn’t understand why.

  There was so much about her that he didn’t understand and didn’t think he ever would. She held mysteries within her, locked deep in her heart—the heart that was still closed to him and fiercely protected.

  If he confessed his foolish desire to know her too, would she open to him as he had to her?

  “You have a connection.” She bounded up beside him and he flicked a glance at her. Her blue eyes shone with the curiosity he could sense in her. “You do, don’t you? You’re connected to nature and that’s why you can feel it miles away in the middle of this bloody horrible place.”

  He couldn’t recall seeing her this happy before, not even when they had decided to head towards the Seventh Realm to find a portal that would take her back to the mortal world, or when he had announced he was taking her to the Third Realm. Was it because he had freed her or because she had discovered something about him?

  He had his answer when she leaped in front of him, causing him to jerk to a halt to avoid colliding with her.

  “I’m in touch with nature too, being that sort of—” She cut herself off.

  Vail finished for her on a growl. “Witch.”

  She backed off a step but stood her ground. Not fleeing. Never fleeing. Little Wild Rose was a brave one.

  He focused on her power, feeling the threads of it around him, examining it to see if what she had just told him without actually voicing the words was true.

  There was a reason she felt different to Kordula and the other witches, one he had suspected and now knew to be true.

  She was of the light, not the dark.

  Light witches were connected to nature and drew on her power.

  “What I feel is nothing compared with what you must… would you… I mean, I don’t want to pry, but I read that elves have a varying level of a connection with nature but I never realised it was strong. I thought it was like what I felt.”

  He nodded to let her know he would tell her more about the connection he possessed and continued walking, moving around her and leading the way across the featureless black terrain, following his instincts.

  She came up beside him again and smoothed her hands over her hair, pushing it back from her face, revealing it to him. Her beauty struck him hard when she smiled up at him, her stunning blue eyes shining with it and a flicker of excitement.

  His mate was beautiful.

  Light and full of goodness.

  A female far beyond what he deserved.

  He looked away from her, unable to bear how brightly she shone when he was so dark inside and underserving. She sighed, the quiet sound drawing his attention back to her, and kept pace with him.

  “My connection to nature is strong, far stronger than most other elves, but all elves would be able to sense the forest ahead of us if they focused hard enough.”

  She glanced up at him again, her gaze lingering for a few heartbeats, before she stared off into the distance and squinted. He held back his smile. Little Wild Rose could try with all of her might and she wouldn’t be able to sense the forest as he could.

  “Is it stronger because you’re old or because you’re a prince?”

  Vail’s step faltered but he masked it so she didn’t notice how deeply her use of his status affected him. It had been a long time since someone had referred to him as a prince. Not a mad elf prince. Just a prince.

  “I have not been a prince in a long time. Almost as long as I have been in this world.” He picked up the pace and she had to alternate between walking and jogging to keep up.

  “I just meant you come from a powerful family,” she said and fell behind. Stopped.

  He halted and looked back at her, unable to take another step without assuring himself that she was well.

  She bent over, rubbing the sole of her bare right foot while holding her boot upside down in the other hand. She shook it, grumbling about pebbles.

  “Are you injured?” he said and she shook her head.

  “You going to answer my question now?” She shoved her foot back into her blue dragon hide boot and stomped towards him, a tiny female on a mission.

  He huffed and kept walking, getting the distinct impression that refusing was pointless. She would only press him until he answered.

  “I have a strong connection because of my lineage. I inherited it from my mother.”

  Rosalind’s feelings shifted, becoming laced with warmth as they flowed around him. “What was she like?”

  He swallowed the lump in his throat. “I would not know. She was the first life I took upon entering this world.”

  And he wished she had been the last, but part of him feared that position would belong to Rosalind.

  And he would die shortly after her.

  He didn’t think he could continue existing in a world without her in it and without her light to hold back the darkness inside him.

  “Vail, I… I’m sorry,” she whispered and he shook his head, dismissing her apology. “What of your father?”

  “He passed when I was very young. My brother raised me.”

  She walked a few more steps and then quietly said, “I sort of met him… in the Third Realm. He seemed nice.”

  Vail smiled at that. “Then you know who is the better brother, and that it is not me.”

  “I think I will ignore that pity ditty… does he have a connection to nature like you do?” she said and he cast her a glare, catching her wicked smile, before looking ahead of him again.

  Confusing female. He wasn’t sure whether she was teasing him. He wasn’t sure he had ever been teased to know it when it happened.

  He nodded. “He does, but mine was always stronger.”

  Another smile curved his lips as he thought about all the times he had made his brother jealous with the things he could do.

  “Happy memories?” Her soft voice lured him back from them and he looked down into her eyes, and nodded again. “It’s nice seeing you smile.”

  It fell away and he wondered just when he had found the ability to smile again.

  He had a feeling that Rosalind had given it back to him, together with emotions he had thought were dead and gone, and he would never feel again.

  “So what can you do?” She placed her arms behind her back, linking her hands across her bottom.

  “I can sense her feelings. My brother can do such a thing too. We can feel her joy and her anger. However… I can heal nature too.”

  Her eyes lit up and she stopped again, turning to face him. “Seriously?”

  He wasn’t sure why she felt he would lie about such a thing. “Yes.”

  “Can you heal people?” Her eyes searched his, darting between them, bright and luminous, and full of the curiosity he could feel in her.

  Vail frowned, stifling the pain that pricked his heart.

  “Perhaps once, but not now, and not for a long time if I were ever capable of it. I can only heal nature. I can reverse the damage done to it, but my powers… they are weak and corrupted.” Because he was weak and corrupted, filled with darkness that nature didn’t like, and so the connection between them was dying, fading more with each step closer he took to the black abyss and becoming one of th
e tainted. “I can only heal small things now.”

  “I wish I had such a connection,” she said and walked with him, her soft voice edged with the envy in her words. “What I can feel must be the smallest fraction of what you can.”

  “Come.” Vail held his hand out to her. “Let us reach the forest and rest.”

  She shifted her gaze from his hand to meet his. “And would you show me your abilities? I think if you use them, I might be able to sense your connection through our one.”

  She looked as if she would like that and he found himself nodding, willing to reveal another part of himself in order to please his female.

  His ki’ara.

  Her hand edged towards his and he braced himself, mentally preparing for the feel of her skin on his and resisting the urge to cover his hand with his armour, the small part of him that wanted to feel her flesh-to-flesh with him again overpowering the darkness that snarled at him to shove her away.

  Her fingers brushed his palm, a little gasp escaping her at the same time as a hot bolt of lightning leaped through his bones, and she pressed her hand to his.

  Vail stared at their joined hands, his heart pounding in his chest, and absorbed how warm and soft she was, how delicate she felt beneath his fingers as he closed them around hers. Her power grew in strength, their physical connection making it easier for him to feel it as it twined around his arm, and he battled the dark need to tear at his own skin to get it off him.

  He drew in a deep breath. She would never use her power to harm him.

  Little Wild Rose had said they were allies.

  But she had looked at him with eyes that had asked if they could be more than that.

  Those same eyes held his now, dark with desire, with need that he could feel in her because it lived within him too.

  He pulled his hand towards him, luring her with it, holding her gaze the whole time.

  He wanted her.

  He closed his eyes.

  But he could never trust himself not to hurt her.

  He tightened his grip on her hand and teleported.

  CHAPTER 16

  The darkness around Rosalind evaporated and her eyes widened as she took in the sight before her. Vail had been right. There was a forest in the middle of Hell, a leafy oasis that sprawled over a range of hills, stretching as far as the eye could see in front of her and to her left and right, a stark contrast to the forbidding black lands at her back. She couldn’t quite believe it.

  Vail’s hand slipped from her wrist and he collapsed to his knees. He leaned over, clutching at the ground, and breathed hard, the tousled strands of his blue-black hair hanging across his brow, revealing the pointed tips of his ears.

  “Vail?” She crouched beside him and resisted the desire to touch his shoulder.

  He had explained to her that teleporting her drained his powers. Apparently, an elf could easily transport two people with him, if they were mortals or other weak species, but because she was powerful, he found it taxing to teleport with just her in tow.

  He shook his head, silently warning her away, and she backed off, giving him a moment and not wanting to provoke his darker side, the one that constantly lurked beneath the surface, waiting for his strength of will to give out so it could seize control.

  She rose to her feet and looked down at him, again wondering what a witch had done to him to drive him towards madness.

  He lifted his head, his firm lips parting to reveal the tips of his short fangs, and stared at the thick forest with a glimmer in his violet eyes that spoke of the relief she could sense in him through their link.

  Vail pushed himself up onto his feet, wobbled as he rose to his full impressive height, and took an unsteady step towards the trees. Rosalind remained close to him, on hand to help him if he collapsed again. His gaze narrowed, lips pressing together to form a hard determined line, and he took another step. He wanted to reach the forest, and mother earth, she wished she could help him achieve that desire. He looked like a man whose life depended on reaching it, or perhaps his sanity depended on it.

  His hands twitched at his sides, claws flexing, as if he wanted to reach out to the oasis of nature and draw it to him.

  She had tried to stop him from constantly teleporting them across the black lands of the Fifth Realm in order to reach this slice of paradise, worried that he would end up like this or would pass out from the exertion. That had earned her a few rounds of snarling and flashing of fangs whenever she dared to suggest they walked, and at least one instance of him saying he needed to get her to the forest so they could rest and he could hunt for her.

  That touched her, but she didn’t want to rest.

  The nightmare still haunted her, a colourful and hideous twisted replay of the battle. She tried not to think about it but it was constantly there at the back of her mind, ready to leap to the fore and play out again whenever her guard slipped. She couldn’t take it. Every replay tore at her soul and left her bleeding inside, close to collapse.

  Every replay left her feeling she was stepping closer to the darkness, treading a path that would inevitably lead to her embracing the evil side of magic, drawing on powers from beyond the grave and dealing in death.

  She wrapped her arms around herself and rubbed her bare arms, trying to keep the sudden chill off them.

  Vail paused and looked back at her, a flicker of what she wanted to believe was concern in his purple eyes. She shifted her gaze to the trees only metres from them now, trying to focus on better things, ones that might give her a moment’s peace amidst the black maelstrom threatening to tear her apart and destroy everything that she was, reconstructing her in the image of her sister.

  Tall rich green grasses fringed the forest and brushed her legs as they entered its boundary. Her eyes delighted in taking everything in as they walked deeper into the trees. Vail’s step gained strength and steadiness with each metre farther they moved towards the centre of the forest and away from the black demon lands.

  Colourful flowers spotted the green blanket sweeping around her and she had a strong desire to pick some and gather them to her, to cherish the beauty of nature. Towering trees provided shelter and light too, their branches dotted with glowing white flowers.

  “Incredible,” she whispered and reached up to brush her fingers over the flowers on a low-hanging branch. The petals closed in response, the light dying, and she withdrew her hand, afraid she had killed it with her careless touch. Before her eyes, the flower bloomed again, reopening and sparkling like starlight.

  “We have them in the elf realm.” Vail’s deep voice sent a shiver tumbling down her spine, the gravelly edge to it and the feel of his gaze on her combining to thrill her.

  He sounded better, and different.

  She looked across at him and found he looked different too. He stood a little taller, his eyes a little brighter and clearer as he took in the forest, and a smile played on his firm kissable lips.

  He looked like a man who had just stepped into a glorious dream and was loving every moment of it.

  Or perhaps one who had just stepped into a moment in his past, one from long ago and long before a witch had done something to change him and leave him scarred.

  She touched another flower, smiling as it closed and waited for her to withdraw her hand before opening again and shining brighter, illuminating her fingers.

  Vail looked around them, his chest expanding beneath his skin-tight dragon-scale black armour as he drew in a deep breath and exhaled it in a long sigh.

  Rosalind couldn’t help smiling at him. She had never believed him capable of appearing so happy.

  Filled with joy.

  He brushed his fingers over a patch of long grass mottled with what looked like blue cornflowers, a flicker of a smile on his lips.

  “I read that the elf realm is like a paradise.” She moved a step closer to him and he frowned, all of the light leaving his eyes and his expression turning solemn.

  He swallowed hard, curled his fingers
into fists and lifted his eyes to meet hers. “It is.”

  The husky edge to his deep voice and the feelings she could sense in him said that he didn’t want to talk about his homeland and she had hurt him by mentioning it, ruining his momentary happiness. Her stomach twisted, a heavy weight settled on her chest, and an apology rose to the tip of her tongue.

  He turned away from her before she could put voice to it and continued walking, his shoulders a little lower than they had been before she had brought up the elf kingdom.

  She hadn’t meant to upset him, or take away the joy this place brought to him, and she felt wretched as she trailed behind him, searching for a way to bring back his smile.

  The distance between them grew as she slowed, her eyes drawn to a small clearing off to her left. Mushrooms. There were herbs in the bushes too. She hurried to them and began gathering the ones she recognised, using the skirt of her black dress as a basket. She was short a few ingredients, but what she had would be effective.

  She waited until Vail was further ahead and then used her magic to enhance what she had and transform it into a sort of round cake. It came out looking more like an unappetising brown blob, but beggars couldn’t be choosers.

  Rosalind nibbled one edge of it as she caught up with Vail. The effect was instant, a buzz tripping along her nerve endings like an intense sugar rush that left her a little high, filled with energy, and also a little numb, as if she had just done shots with a whole bottle of tequila.

  She welcomed that numbness and the respite it granted her, leaving her mercifully free of her guilt and all the things she had been dwelling on. She didn’t care about them anymore. She didn’t really care about anything other than somehow finding a place she could bathe, getting some tasty food in her stomach, having fun and leaving the past few horrible months behind her.

  And staring at Vail’s fine backside as he walked.

  Mother earth, the man had the bottom of a god.

  It dimpled beneath his black armour as he strode ahead of her, delicious and tempting. Not wanting to make the rest of him feel jealous because she was paying more attention to his bottom, she took in the rest of him, inch by hot inch.