Claiming The Remnant

Chapter 62

[ Taiya ]

That had gone better than I expected. Despite all the reassurances I was worried that there would be repercussions. To hear it from the horse's mouth as it were was comforting. However, I was still waiting. Waiting for the 'but'. Waiting for the hammer to fall. I didn't have to wait long.

"I would like to alleviate your frustrations, perhaps you would be willing to provide me with the pleasure of your company in exchange for reading lessons?" The Prince said into the darkness. Arrogant, cocky, presumptuous. Just because he was a Prince did he think such a proposal was actually acceptable?!

My skin heated. Surely I was already pink from the water, but now I was red with rage. How dare he?

The rage felt right. It settled in me like a vulture upon a corpse. I rose. Nudity ignored rather than forgotten I started to leave. He had already seen me naked, so what did it matter?

"I bid you goodnight, Your Royal Highness, Crown Prince Ethyn." Each word was a barely restrained snarl. It was the utter limit of my politeness.

"Please, please - I did not mean it in such a manner. I am just so enthralled by your beauty that I was unable to articulate myself in a way that conveyed my innocent offer of tutelage." His words made me pause but not in the way he would like. They did not soften my anger but instead served to engage me further.

"If you wished me to believe such a twist of your words then you should have prepared a better lie to follow up with." My chest, naked and dripping, was heaving with angry breaths. "Lacking though I am in ability to understand the written word I have no such issues with an image. You jest. I am not beautiful. Pale, delicate, sickly but not beautiful. You should stick to your shade. Lies do not suit you."

"Miss…" He flattered, not knowing my name, "you said yourself you do not know the way to your lodgings, you will be lost without an escort."

"A folly it may be but I would sooner be lost in the 'bowels of the castle' then spend another minute with you!" I was practically yelling in his direction. We were making so much noise that the whole room was filled with the dying buzz of our echoed words. Stomping up the stairs I was unrestrained. Water splashed everywhere. I hoped I got him in the face. Just like I had with that book.

Thoughtlessly I reached for my robe, smashing my fingers off the stone floor in the process. There was a momentary flare of pain but the necklace relieved it immediately. Fuming I clutched the robe to my bare front.

"You're going to be King." I shot at him, glaring into the darkness. "Act with some purparty!"

"Do you mean propriety?" He said softly. Sounding sorry for himself. It just aggravated me further.

"UGH!!" I screeched, forgetting that I was arguing with the Prince that I had been panicking over mere moments ago. "You know full well what I meant. I would rather be sent back to the dungeons or executed," I huffed a laugh think how I was already wet and so the rain would be no bother, "than be blackmailed into being a s****l conquest just because you think I owe you for accidentally smacking you in the face with some stupid book about bloody apples and a girl with an unpronouncable name!!" Abruptly I turned. Water had pooled at my feet and the stone had become slick. It was a disastrous combination that sent me flying backwards when I took an angry step.

My back hit the water with a hard slap. Instantaneous panic burned through me along with the heat of the water. Thrashing, I tried to get my legs beneath me but I couldn't find the bottom. My lungs were already desperate for air, emptied by the impact and somehow greedier for breath with hot water over my face.

Ye Gods. I was going to drown. He would let me drown after everything I'd said. The memory came back stronger. My body felt like lead, my limbs stiff and uncooperative. Water pressed me on all sides, my chest was bursting. My weak body couldn't take it any longer.

'From Earth and Sky, life entwined, now unravelled in the stillness of death, may Ye Gods of the Earth take my…' I gasped wet air, my own hair falling into my mouth and promptly began coughing. The final blessing I'd been reciting in my mind stayed incomplete as strong arms lifted me all the way out of the water. I was choking, sobbing, spitting hair against his chest as he carried me.

His strong embrace was a balm. Our flesh touching was like the sky touching the earth. A line across my soul. An unexplored horizon. In the Prince's arms I found a comfort that I didn't know I needed, but still I cried, fear still held me in its grip.

"I've got you, you're safe." He told me, setting me into his naked lap. Hands delicately wiping the wet hair, that was clinging to my face, away. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." He rocked me gently.

"Yy-you," I choked out, spit, snot, tears, all joining my words as I ugly cried against the Prince's chest. As if I weren't unattractive enough. "ddiiiidn't leeeave me t-t-to dr-rown."

"Of course not." His hand rubbed along my arm. Goosebumps rose in its wake. "Are you hurt?"

"I-I'm naked." I stammered stupidly.

"Oh, um, I'm sorry." His Highness fretted, moving my body away from him. A feeling of pure dread expanded inside me as his arms loosened.

"No, no, don't leave me, don't l-leave." There was something inside me snapping. Memories bubbled under the surface, the emotions they stirred kept me weeping.

"I won't." He whispered as I clung to him. "I am with you mon foudre"

I had no idea what he meant by that but it was nothing short of the most perfect sound in the world.