Page 1 of Fated Flames: Volume Two
1
A woman’s instinct should never be ignored. Didn’t I tell you that?
I groan.
I’m trying to sleep, I say, or perhaps I only think the words. My mind seems both frantic and fuzzy, my body heavy, then weightless. I pry an eye open and am rewarded with a murky view of Mother’s private training room packed with people sparring. I’m sitting in the midst of them at a low table filled with cake, but all I want to do is lie my head down and go to sleep.
You need to practice, Mother says, suddenly beside me.
I’m tired, I say.And sore. The whole left side of my body throbs in response.
All the more reason to practice. Fork in hand, she examines the cake in front of her.Why did the Creator give women superior instincts, Serah?
The fork flashes out, skewering a slice.
To survive men’s foolishness, she says.
I sigh.I know, Mama. She’s told me this a thousand times.
Then why didn’t you stop the arrow?
The arrow?
I look down at the wooden shaft protruding from my chest.
Everything comes rushing back—Lord Lyken, the scorpion, the flash of light. I look at my mother in horror.
Am I dead?
She shakes her head.I don’t think so. Here, have some cake.
My eyes, my real eyes, snap open.
“Serah!” A soft hand grasps mine in theirs. “You’re all right. You’re safe.”
I struggle to focus on the face leaning over me. “Selena?”
“No, it’s—it’s Tilly. Remember?”
Red hair and shining eyes swam into focus. It’s Lady Tilanthia, the king’s sister. A glance past her shoulder shows me my bedchamber in the gray light of dawn. I shut my eyes against the spinning room. “Tilly. Yes, of course.”
I try easing myself up into a sitting position, but Tilly squeaks with alarm. “No, no, stop. You shouldn’t move so much.”
“Why?”
Even as I ask it, Ifeelthe reason. A band of pain radiates from the left side of my forehead to my hip. In a surge of panic, my hands fly to my chest.
No arrow.
I sink back against the pillows, my relief immense. “How long have I been asleep?”
“Just since last night,” Tilly says.
My head turns her way. She’s still wearing her gown from the feast. “Have you been here since then?”
She seizes her lip between her teeth. “Yes.”
I’m touched more than I know how to say. We’ve barely met, and yet she stayed with me like the best of sisters. Igive her hand a weak squeeze. “Thank you. That was so kind.”
