Before I Let Go (Skyland #1)(43)

Instead, people were bustling around the palace and through the streets. Flowers were tied together and hung from posts and through the trees. A small boy ran past me, his laughter filling the air.

“This way.” Thalia nodded forward, and I followed her through the small courtyard at the front of the castle and toward the streets.

More laughter rang out as my feet hit the cobblestone, and Thalia stopped at the closest vendor and handed him a coin. The man handed her two small bunches of wildflowers, and she passed one to me before thanking him.

“It’s customary.” She held up the flowers as we walked. “To lay a flower on the doorstep of anyone you wish prosperity for the year.” She dropped a flower at the first shop we passed. “Evren drops a flower on every doorstep in the kingdom.”

My chest ached and I wanted to roll my eyes at how damn endearing she made him sound. “Are you trying to make me like him?” We passed another door, and this time, I stopped and laid one of my flowers on the stoop.

“You already like him.” She shook her head as she rolled her eyes. “I’m just trying to prove to you that there is nothing wrong with that fact.”

“Maybe I don’t like him at all. Maybe I just find him insanely attractive.”

“Who’s insanely attractive?” Evren asked, and I almost dropped all of my flowers as I spun to face him.

“Sorin.” The name fell from my lips, and Sorin grinned next to him.

“The feeling is mutual, Adara. I’ve already told you what would happen if you weren’t Evren’s mate.” His smile dropped from his lips as Evren’s hand slammed across his chest. “Shit. I was just joking around.”

But Evren was no longer looking at him. He was too busy staring at me.

“Princess, you look…” He shook his head softly as if he couldn’t complete his sentence.

“What?” I asked softly, and he took a step closer to me, closing the space between us.

He wore his normal black, but his clothes were freshly pressed and molded to his skin. He wore a small pin against his chest. A dagger with a serpent coiling around it almost protectively.

He stepped even closer, and I pulled my gaze away from the pin to look up at him.

“You look absolutely stunning, princess.” He lifted his hand and ran his finger over my hair that fell against my shoulder. “Like a fucking dream.”

My marks stirred along with my magic, and I tried to swallow down the emotion that flooded me with his words. “What’s this?” I ran my finger along his pin, and my magic quivered at the contact.

“That’s the crest of the Blood kingdom. The crest of my mother.” His voice was soft as he spoke to me.

“I don’t trust your mother.”

He chuckled and his hand trailed over my shoulder. “I would find you foolish if you did so blindly.”

“Yet you do?”

“I am much like my mother.” He looked to the side when someone called his name and nodded in their direction. “Every decision she makes is one for her people.”

“She sent her men to attack you.” My blood boiled as I said it, and I knew that regardless of why she made the decisions she did, I would never forgive her for that.

“She sent her men to save you.”

I shook my head, and Evren took my hand in his. I smiled at a few people that were passing by, and each of them looked so in awe of their prince.

“Come on.” He pulled me after him, and even though I tried to pull my hand from his, he refused to let go.

Sorin and Thalia were just ahead of us, and Thalia was still laying flowers upon every doorstep she walked by. I watched the people of Evren’s kingdom as we passed. Each one of them was dressed in their best, and they nodded or bowed their heads in Evren’s direction as we passed.

“Your people really love you.”

He looked back at me, and an odd look passed over his face. “I’m not too sure of that, but I try to always treat them with respect and honor.”

I cocked my head and studied him. “You’re so different.”

“What do you mean?” He chuckled and his hand tightened against mine.

“Prince Evren.” I waved my other hand toward him just as he said a soft hello to an older woman as we passed. “And the Evren that I know. They are two completely different people.”

Evren stopped and tugged my hand forward until I had no choice but to slam into his chest.

“What are you…”

He lifted his other hand and ran his thumb just below my bottom lip. “I can’t see this color on your lips and not imagine what they would look like wrapped around my cock.”

“Evren!” I hissed his name and looked around to make sure no one else could hear him.

“The prince you see with his kingdom and the one you know are the same.” His thumb moved softly against my skin, and my mouth fell open as I watched him. “You can’t fathom the amount of control it takes for me to stand here and wish people a Happy Twin Blood Moon when all I really want to do is rip this fucking dress from your skin and worship every damn inch of you.”

I gasped and started to pull away, but his fist hooked under my chin.

“You cannot comprehend the agony I feel to watch my mate and not have a clue as to what’s going through that beautiful head of yours.”