Chapter 40: _ My First Kiss

"L-Lord Raice..." I stammered, my voice squeaking as panic seized my windpipe.

I scrambled to my feet, backing up—only for my shoulder blades to hit a dead-end stone wall.

This was the same man who was the first person whom I didn’t feel out of place around from the moment I stepped into this god-forsaken realm. Who could have thought that one place where u first found a sense of belonging was going to be the first thing to kill me?

"I—I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to... I didn’t mean what I-I said... I was just leaving..."

He didn’t answer. He took an erratic step toward me, clutching his temples.

"Make it stop. The noise. The screaming. It’s too loud." He growled.

He looked so disoriented, so visibly in pain, that my survival instincts briefly lost the battle against my stupid, soft heart. Instead of screaming for the guards, I took a hesitant step forward, reaching out a trembling hand.

"Raice?" I asked softly. "Are... are you okay?"

The moment my fingertips brushed the cold leather of his sleeve, Raice went rigid.

An audible gasp ripped from his chest. The twitch in his jaw instantly smoothed out. The wild violet in his eyes cleared for an intense clarity that scared me ten times more than his madness had.

He stared down at my hand touching his arm, then slowly lifted his gaze to my face.

"The cure," he whispered.

I blinked, taking a quick step back. "The... the what?"

"You’re the cure," he repeated, stepping directly toward me before I could retreat. "The noise stopped. The second you touched me... it all went quiet."

"I think you have the wrong impression–"

Before I could finish the sentence, Raice planted both palms on the stone wall on either side of my head, trapping me completely between his arms. His towering frame blocked out the light, surrounding me with his scent... and it was so... magnetic.

"Raice, wait..."

"I need to taste the cure," he murmured.

"I am not a taste-test–"

He didn’t give me the chance to argue.

He brushed his lips across mine once, then twice, before settling them against my full lips.

A shockwave hit me harder than the Heartstone’s magic. I could feel my common sense leaving. It was my first kiss—and instead of a gentle, romantic moment under the stars, I was pinned against a wall by a mad prince who thought I was a medicinal potion.

His lips were hot and possessive. For three agonizing seconds, I stood rigid as a board while my mind screamed at me to push him away, to knee him in the groin and run.

This was, after all, Raice Ignis-Dominus. What if this was his twisted way of executing my death? What if sprouting butterflies in my belly was his first step into silencing them forever?

But then again, associating something this euphoric with something as vile as death almost seemed like a crime. As clueless as I was about what to do, even I knew that much.

Then his hand slid off the stone wall, wrapped around my waist, and pulled my hips against his.

An involuntary sound escaped my throat. The heat radiating off him was overwhelming, melting away my panic and replacing it with an intoxicating warmth that pooled straight in my gut.

All my thoughts became superfluous but one: this feels good... he feels so good.

Without thinking, my hands flew up to clutch his broad shoulders, my fingers digging into the worn fabric of his tunic.

I stopped fighting. I leaned in.

I kissed him back. I wasn’t sure how to but I let him take the lead. Like a student, I followed his movements. I suckled the softness of his lips, touring my tongue inside his mouth.

I’d heard stories about how fae skin was softer than cotton. This was the first time I’d ever really touched one, and hell, it was as if a bed of clouds had been draped in cotton.

Raice let out a soft growl against my lips, deepening the kiss until I was breathless, tasting the edge of blood and dark magic on his tongue. He consumed me, his mouth moving over mine with a starving hunger that made my knees go entirely to jelly.

Before I could fall, Raice lifted me effortlessly by the waist, hoisting me up until I was sitting on the wide stone ledge behind us.

"Gods," he muttered against my neck, his lips trailing down my jawline, sending shivers racing down my spine. "You smell like wild lilies. It’s driving me out of my mind."

"Raice..." I gasped, burying my hands in his wild hair as his mouth found the sensitive curve of my throat.

His hands were everywhere and they were hot, large, and completely devoid of restraint. One hand cupped the side of my waist, while the other slid up my ribs, his thumb brushing over the curve of my breast through the thin silk of my dress.

An electric gasp tore from my throat. I arched into his touch, completely lost in the haze of his scent, his weight, and the incredible heat burning between us.

Raice pulled back just an inch, his breath fanning over my swollen lips. "What do you want from me, Elira No-One?" he asked.

I had never been more confused in my whole life. First, he called me ’the cure’ and now, he wanted to know what I wanted from him. The same man who pressed his lips into mine without warning.

The same man who had just taken... my first kiss.

I wanted to tell him I needed nothing from him. To confess how much he scared me.

How I’d spent the past two days looking over my shoulder, waiting for him to appear and punish me for every terrible thing I had said.

But the truth was worse. The thing frightening me wasn’t him.

It was the fact that, despite everything I knew about him, despite every warning, every rumor, every instinct telling me to run...

I didn’t want to. I hated that.

I hated that the same man who terrified everyone in this Academy could touch me and make me forget why I was supposed to be afraid.

That made me scared... of Elira No-One. Scared of myself.

For being aflame with a desire I couldn’t comprehend where I should feel fear.

Raice studied my face as if searching for an answer hidden somewhere beneath my skin. "I don’t know what spell has been placed on me. I don’t know if this is your magic, your darkness, or something far worse."

His hand brushed a strand of hair away from my face. "I don’t owe debts, so if this spell you’ve placed on me is the price you want for curing me, consider it done.

My breath caught.

"Raice..."

Suddenly, he shook his head again in that strange way that made him seem no short of the Mad Prince I thought he was.

"Arghh..." He struggled, tightening his hands on my waist. "I have spent years recognizing deception. Manipulation. Darkness wearing a beautiful face. And yet I cannot recognize what is happening to me right now."

He stared me dead in the eye. "WHAT DO YOU WANT?"

I jumped, knowing in that instance, that I had to say something before he spiraled into a type of madness I might not be able to handle.

This... whatever this was... I could take it. That, I admittedly, shamelessly relish. But Raice’s rage? Hell no. I wasn’t primed for that.

And so, I gulped. "I only want what you’re willing to give."

His eyes darkened. "Be careful what you ask for, Elira No-One. Because I do not know what this thing inside me will take from you once I stop holding it back."