Page 76 of In the Embrace of Dragons

She backs away then, lowering her head. The hurt is clear on her face, and I regret I had to be the one to cause it—but it is also necessary.

“I see.” She turns away, squaring her shoulders, and stalks out of the dining room.

Then I’m dismissed, and I return to my quarters to change. Out in the training yard, I wait for my partner, exchanging pleasantries with Tralazan as I stretch out my muscles. When she arrives, though, I don’t recognize the expression on her face.

Until now, I have mostly seen the queen smile. I have seenher frustrated, sad, exhausted, and self-satisfied. But this is a new one, where her eyes look sharp and dangerous.

“Hello, Captain.” She passes me and swipes her training sword off the wall, then walks by me again out to the yard without a further word.

I swallow and take my own weapon. Is this what the queen is like when she is upset?

She’s already found her stance when I enter, and she waits for me to take my own starting position. Then she lunges at me. Her attacks are swift, purposeful, and surprisingly threatening. She lands a blow on me in the ribs almost immediately, and there’s enough force behind it that I stumble a step back.

She retreats, returning to her starting position while my side smarts.

“Again?” she asks.

“Again.”

Nissia fights fiercely, more than I’ve ever seen her fight, as if her quarrel is with me and me alone. But if she has so much fury to dole out, I will take it. I deserve to. I let her vent her frustration on me, not blocking when I should, letting her eke out a victory here and there.

I lose two more bouts before she drops her sword.

“I’m done,” Nissia says, her voice cutting. “You’re not even trying.”

And with that, she sweeps out of the training yard, leaving me by myself while the king watches.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

NISSIA

Idon’t really know why I’m so angry. I’ve been scorned before, obviously, and I didn’t take it to heart quite so deeply then.

But I trusted Ragnakor. I thought it all meant more than this, but I was wrong.

Did he only do it so Vizarios and I would come together? He orchestrated us, and once we did what he wanted, he made himself scarce.

Perhaps it’s that I feel used. Did he ever care for me? Was he ever attracted to me? Or was I just a pawn?

I tell Ari and Zephala everything that night when I return from sparring, down to how I stormed off like a petulant little girl.

“But you have the king now,” Zephala says, perplexed. “Your husband. Why do you need the captain of the guard?”

I don’t know how to explain that it’s not the same, that what I have with Vizarios, while wonderful, doesn’t feel... complete. But it was complete when Ragnakor was with us.For that moment, we were all where we were supposed to be.

Ari puts her arm around me and hugs me against her side. “I get it. You care about him, too. Ragnakor was there for you when you needed it.”

I nod and turn my face into her shoulder. “But maybe he truly doesn’t feel for me in the same way. Maybe everything I thought was between us was just... something I made up.”

“I don’t think so. I’ve seen how he looks at you.”

I raise my eyes to hers. “Me? No, the way he looks at Vizarios, maybe?—”

“No,you.” Ari smirks. “He’s always watching, even when you think he’s not. He probably just doesn’t feel like he belongs anymore, now that you and Vizarios are together again.”

“He must know it’s not like that!” I sit up in my chair, incensed. “I want him just as much. And maybe that’s greedy of me, to want both of them, but...”

“But it’s what your heart wants,” Ari finishes.