Page 25 of Fated Flames: Volume Two
I stop myself there.
You thought what? I demand of myself.That you had won his heart because he kissed you?
I lie there, eyes smarting from unshed tears, and wonder how I could be so foolish.
In the morning, the bed is warm, but Soren is back on the ground.
“Fell out of bed,” is his clumsy excuse.
He retreats behind a partition before I can respond and only emerges—now robed—after Rally and Ty arrive.
“Seltzen has arrived,” Rally says after a bow in my direction.
Soren focuses on cinching his robe. “I assumed.”
Ty, nudging his brother, brings his joined fingers to his mouth in question. Rally’s eyebrows lift as he glances over the tent.
“Have you had breakfast?” he asks Soren.
“No.”
The brothers exchange a look of incredulity, and when they then look to me, I glance aside. Soren starts for the entrance.
“I’ll be back shortly,” he says.
“What?” He means to leave me here? I throw the blankets back. “But I’m coming to watch.”
The king stops mid-stride. “You wish to watch me fight?”
“Of course I do.”
When his eyes soften on me, I harden myself. I’ll not be yanked back and forth like a child’s plaything. “Your subjects expect me, do they not?” I say in a flippant tone. “I’ll return to my drawing as soon as the bout is over.”
A shadow, fleeting but plain, passes over his features as he gazes back at me. “I’ll wait for you outside then,” he says.
And he strides out, his shoulders held tight.
Hiln returns once more, this time with her army of girls. They fix my hair in a loose braid and sheathe me in a flowing gown of cobalt blue, the shade an exact match of a shadowed reef.
“Did you choose this?” I ask Hiln as she packs up her styling tools.
“Of course.”
I marvel at her insight. Mother always says there’s power in attire for those who know how to wield it. Yesterday, Hiln dressed me to stand in defiance of my attackers, but today, I’ll stand as a symbol of the water to come, of relief.
“It’s brilliant,” I say.
The woman pats my cheek like a grandmother would. “I know.”
I nearly startle when I exit the tent and my newly-sworn guards materialize at my side.
“I hope you all slept well,” I say in an effort to hide my surprise. Did they sleep right outside my tent? Did they sleep at all?
How am I ever to grow accustomed to this?
“We slept excellently, Your Highness,” Yarlsays with a smile.
On my other side, Fuller bows his head and says, “I hope you’ll forgive me, Your Highness, but I took the liberty of ensuring your cat—”
