The Glass Prince Read Online Free Page B

anything.
    " Would you like
to order from the menu, sir?" said a voice next to him, and Daniel
looked up to realise there was a young man standing next to him,
looking nervous. He was dressed in the baggy uniform Daniel had
seen the serving staff wear, and he held a note pad and a
pen. How
very … pedestrian ,
Daniel thought. His serving staff were taught to memorise all
orders perfectly, no note pads or pens, and they wore tailored
suits which accentuated their bodies. Daniel made a point to only
employ good-looking people. He had a reputation to keep.
    " Sir." The youth
cleared his throat, clearly uneasy because of Daniel's
stare.
    " You look
ridiculous in that cap," Daniel told him, referring to the red cap
all the mall employees wore.
    " Yes, sir." The
cap disappeared under his armpit.
    Daniel
looked at the young man through narrowed eyes. He was tall, though not as tall as
Daniel, with a shock of black hair and dark eyes. His skin was
tanned dark and his fingernails on the notepad were cut short and
clean. His name tag said Luke. On the whole, he was a rather
unremarkable person. "I'd like a burger and a lemonade," Daniel
said after a quick look at the menu. Did they really have something
called Poison in the Veins and a Lick of Death? It sounded so
flashy and cheap, just like the place. Daniel wondered why he'd
come in the first place. He was being stared at by strange people.
He was used to that, but out of his usual element and away from
Lucian, Daniel felt self-conscious.
    He had
recovered by the time Luke had returned with the
food , and was busy
tapping away at his phone. Luke placed the food right next to
Daniel and smiled; a quick forced twist of his lips. "Would that be
all, sir?"
    Daniel,
who 'd been staring at
the wilted green leaf poking out of the side of his burger—opening
day and he was being served day-old—what was that, lettuce or
grass? It was disgusting. He turned to Luke sharply to complain
about the quality of the food being served, when he was supposed to
be a guest of honour, when his elbow knocked against the glass of
lemonade. It fell onto the table, over his phone and his left hand,
soaking his glove in urine-coloured liquid.
    He
watched Luke stare at him in horror and rush away, probably to hide
in the kitchen . Daniel
sighed as he pulled off his glove and shook it loose. He normally
didn't remove his gloves in public, not wanting to accidentally
touch someone. The only person who tolerated his touch was Lucian,
who had learned a thing or two about being thick-skinned from his
sister, Tisuki.
    He
looked around carefully for something to wipe his
hand . He carefully
pushed his phone out of the puddle, happy to see it was still
working despite the soaking, when Luke rushed back to his
side.
    " Very sorry,
sir," he mumbled as he tried to mop up the spill with a brown dish
rag. "Please don't—" he started to say but stopped short and
grimaced, throwing a quick look over his shoulder at the manager
who was luckily occupied elsewhere, escorting a rather forward
teenager back to her table. She had been trying to kiss Rae, from
what Daniel understood. He gave her points for trying to step on
Tina to reach her husband.
    With
Daniel distracted, he didn 't notice until the last moment as Luke gripped his
hand—his un-gloved hand, and wiped it with an antiseptic wipe, one
quick gesture.
    " What are you—"
Daniel stood up so quickly his chair fell over, and for once, he
wasn't overreacting. He pulled his hand free, breaking the skin
contact as soon as possible and waited for the inevitable scream of
pain that usually followed in the wake of discovering a hand full
of glass shards.
    His
magic made it so he couldn 't touch anyone without hurting them.
    Luke
looked at him in surprise and sighed, looking
defeated . "I'm sorry I
touched you, I… I guess most people don't like it."
    " Why aren't you
bleeding?" Daniel asked in surprise.
    Luke
bristled at that and drew back, his eyes flashing . "I don't