When he pulls away, he looks as punch-drunk as I feel drunk-drunk. The clouds in his eyes are less stormy, hazier.

My first kiss.

“Can we get out of here?” he asks, standing up and thrusting his hands in his pockets. He wavers, his feet unsteady, looking a lot like he did that evening in the rain on Laurene’s slope.

“Yeah, let me go say goodbye to Rae.” I don’t know where Jack wants to go or what he wants to do, but I’d go anywhere with him. He nods tersely, and I dash inside, finding Rae almost immediately.

“Are you okay?” she asks.

I smile. “He kissed me. And he wants to get out of here.”

She screams and wraps her arms around me. “We’ll be fine. Momma Rae will take care of the masses. Go!”

With her blessing, I’m practically skipping toward the door.

But when I throw it open, Jack is gone.

The Prince Who Captured Lightning

PART II

For many days, too many to count, the Prince held the spark in his hands, wondering how it came to be and what he was meant to do with it. No one had ever dealt with such a problem, though he was not sure it was a problem. All the Prince knew was that every time he held it in his hand, he thought of the Knight in the woods, and it would zap his body, and visions of their day spent together revisited him. It made him feel more alive than he ever had before.

Upon return to the Kingdom, the Prince had to choose between eligible maidens for his bride, but what would he do with the spark? The Prince knew harboring something so powerful was forbidden, so he was resigned to keep it hidden. He buried it in his dressing chambers, but the glow crept out of the gap between floor and door. He hid it under his bed, but when he slept, its energy seeped into the Prince’s dreams, evoking the Knight and restless slumber. So he sewed the spark into his pocket, keeping it close but out of sight. Though the spark was not visible during the bride selection ceremony, the Prince could still feel its intense heat. It distracted him, preventing him from connecting with any of the maidens, for none gave him the same jolt as the Knight when their hands touched.

Once alone, the Prince decided to let it dance upon the wick of a candle so that it looked like a burning flame. He kept it under a brilliant glass orb on a shelf in his living quarters. For a time, it seemed to fool everyone, even the Prince, who pretended to forget that it was anything but a candle. Until one night, the spark grew even brighter, cracking the orb’s glass. The spark’s power and energy were growing.

Not wanting the King, Queen, or any servants to become suspicious, the Prince decided he could not contain this phenomenon any longer, not when it meant possibly endangering his Kingdom.