The Glass Prince Read Online Free

have
fished them out while changing the carpet and stacked them for me
to see."
    " I don't
remember getting this many at my office," Lucian commented as he
flicked the card in his hand away. "It's to some charity foundation
dinner—you could go."
    Daniel
shrugged and grinned .
"Tisuki probably handles your invitations better than you do." He
pointed out. "Plus, you have an entire department devoted to
sorting out your mail."
    " True," Lucian
nodded. "So, how about a game of mah-jongg?"
    And it
had been the end of that conversation . Though visibly distracted by something, Lucian
played a good game and they called it a draw a little after
midnight. As Daniel was walking his childhood friend to the door,
Lucian looked over his shoulder at the stack of invitations and
nodded.
    " You know, you
might as well go to one of those things. Doesn't hurt for you to go
out and meet some new people."
    " You're starting
to sound like my mother," Daniel scowled. "I see new people all the
time."
    " Watching your
guests through hidden cameras doesn't count," Lucian told him as he
entered the hallway outside the penthouse.
    " I'll see you
next Tuesday." It wasn't a question and Daniel was really surprised
by his actions. He actually wanted to play mah-jongg and sit in
silence with Lucian.
    " Sure," said
Lucian and walked off with a wave of his hand. After all, they'd
being meeting up on Tuesday afternoons for as long as they could
remember.
    Daniel
walked back into his apartment and tried to relax as he looked at
his empty sitting room .
It was late at night, but he didn't need sleep. He rarely slept,
since his magic maintained his body, and he needed little rest. He
missed sleep sometimes: the childhood enjoyment he'd felt at the
thought of going to bed when tired. Though now, it was a faded
memory, like the rest of his happy memories. He missed dreams, even
silly nightmares. He didn't dream much, and when he did now, they
were only chaotic spirals of colour that left him
confused.
    Daniel walked up
to the glass-paned wall that overlooked the city and looked down at
the lights below, at the traffic on the roads rushing towards
wherever, and was glad his city never slept. He slowly placed his
hand on his chest and closed his eyes, waiting, listening, knowing
his heart was beating in its glass confines, safe from damage, but
he couldn't feel it. "I might as well be dead," he spoke aloud and
was startled into opening his eyes by the sound of his own
voice.
    Daniel smiled at
his own morbid thoughts and watched the faint reflection smile back
at him. His smile looked stilted and unnatural. He turned away
abruptly. It was ironic that he, as the Glass Wizard of Alaskan
Tower, had no mirrors in his living quarters. He knew what he
looked like, and that was all he cared about.
    " At least I
don't scare little children with my looks," he spoke and shook his
head. He had taken to talking to himself more and more, which he
knew was a sign of something. He just couldn't figure out
what.
    " All right, I'll
stop talking to myself as soon as there's nothing interesting to
say." He snorted at his own stupidity and flung himself onto his
sofa, knocking over a couple of mah-jongg pieces. Daniel pulled off
the gloves he'd worn in Lucian's presence—it wouldn't do to
accidentally touch his childhood friend and kill him—and flexed his
fingers.
    He tossed his
gloves over the back of the sofa and let his hands flop down. They
landed on something different from what he was expecting. Curious,
he turned his head to look. It was the invitation that Lucian had
been toying with, a black, rather plain-looking one, dated the next
day.
    Intrigued ,
Daniel sat up and pulled it closer to him. It was an invitation to
the opening of the local mall's food court. It didn't even name him
as the guest of honour: it was just an invitation and his name had
been stencilled in rather badly in the small space, given as Daniel
Ever-Wood. His last name was one word, not hyphenated. He