Free The Outcast Prince by Shona Husk Page B

he murmured near her ear before pulling away. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
    He opened the front door and the cool night air swept in between them. He glanced out at the night then back at her. The moonlight cutting across his face made him seem sharper and colder than he’d been a moment ago. Then it was gone as he walked down the stairs and away from Callaway House.
    “Good night, Caspian,” she said even though she knew he couldn’t hear her. She wouldn’t be sleeping well tonight. Her dreams would be full of him and the kiss and what hadn’t been said, but what they both wanted. Her blood fizzed like champagne through her veins and then pooled in her belly. She closed the door and leaned against it for a moment.
    She was acting like a lovesick sixteen-year-old. No. Not sixteen because she knew exactly what she wanted to do with Caspian. Her skin ached to be touched. There was a heat she hadn’t imagined as he whispered in her ear as if he knew exactly how she’d be spending her night because he’d be awake too. She hoped thoughts of her would keep him up all night. As she locked up the house and turned off all the lights, all she could think about was tomorrow evening and seeing Caspian again.
    ***
    Felan lounged in his chamber. Bare feet, shirt undone. It had been a long day—even for him. Most of the lords and ladies at Court had avoided him as if they knew the anger that simmered, turning his blue blood red with fury. But he’d been calm. He’d danced and feasted as if nothing were amiss. He’d even managed not to question his mother the Queen over dinner, but then she’d been busy trying to goad his father.
    “I have to return. Caspian is unprotected.” Dylis stretched and eased out of bed. She’d been waiting in his chamber as he’d ordered. Her hand feathered down his back. “You have to stop calling me back to Court if you want me to do my job.”
    Felan caught her hand. “Do your job and I won’t have to call you back.”
    Her smile froze in place. “What would you have me do? Kill Shea ap Greely?”
    “We have to be smarter than that.” He released her hand, not sure how to deal with Shea just yet.
    “This is more than I agreed to do.”
    “You agreed to look after Caspian.”
    “I agreed to ensure his safety in exchange for my lover’s freedom. How much longer, Felan?”
    Felan stroked a tendril of her blond hair and coiled it around his finger. He drew her close enough to kiss her lips. “Do you still want Bramwel?”
    “Yes. You are merely keeping me warm for him.”
    Felan laughed. He liked her well enough, and she liked him. Dylis had been a secret set of eyes and ears for him ever since his mother had imprisoned Dylis’s lover Bramwel as a tree and left him in her private grove. He’d found it by accident some years ago and had been horrified that everyone there was alive, just frozen in place and hidden in plain sight. Now Bramwel had to spend his life waving his branches in the breeze and hoping someone would release him—before the power shift.
    “Get me the Counter-Window and I shall free him straightaway.” He kissed her fuchsia lips for the last time. “If you fail…” He let the threat hang unsaid. There were too many lives at stake. Human and fairy.
    “I won’t fail.” Her eyes glittered like palest sapphire and she drew away as brittle as any fairy. But with Dylis there were no fake formalities. They both knew where they stood in bed and out of it.
    He stood and buttoned his shirt. “I value your presence more than you know.” When he took the throne she’d make a fine Hunter.
    Dylis inclined her head, the ever-obedient courtier. “Thank you, Prince. I will hold you to your fine words.” She buckled on her blade and checked her appearance before facing him. “What do you know of a fairy called Riobard?”
    Felan glanced up. He hadn’t heard that name in a long time. “He left Court a very long time ago to wander amongst the mortals. Why?”
    “I was