I bit my lip. Mal was looking right at me, and all I thought about was kissing him. But, I had other duties. For example, I was supposed to go to a meeting with Nikolai, but I got Mal to come along. We felt so distant after arriving at the Little Palace, already a little divided after for my Grisha robe colors I chose black, instead of what he wanted. But, I felt inviting him made us a little closer, but it made it harder to focus. "Alina, are you even listening?" Nikolai whispered to me. "You're making me look bad!" "When did you start caring about looking bad?" I muttered under my breath, blushing a little. Nikolai rolled his eyes. "We got a few minutes left. Then you can look at Mal all day, okay?" "I wasn't looking-" "So you were looking at the wall behind him then?" Nikolai said smirking. "Honestly, I don't know why I'm still here with you," I said angrily. "You are such a pain."
After the meeting ended, I walked up to Mal. "I hope I didn't bore you so much you won't come again," I said. We were heading back to my room. "Bore me?" Mal said turning to look at me. "Impossible. Besides, It was fun looking at you work." He kissed me softly outside my room. "Can we go for a walk today?" He said hopefully. My schedule was a bit busy. "I'll make some time for you, okay?" I said, heading in. Inside was all black and dark. How did the Darkling live here? I closed the door then turned around. I nearly screamed, and my heart thumped against my chest. The Darkling was in my room.