Page 66 of The Death King
She was at one of the windows, using her dinner knife to work the wooden boards and attempt to pop them free. She either didn’t hear me walk inside or didn’t care that I was there. “Trying to run again?”
She tried to use the knife as a lever to pop off the boards, but she was getting nowhere. “Trying to get sunshine. I feel like a fucking bat in here.” She eventually abandoned her attempt and withdrew the knife before she looked at me. “Wow, you’re wearing a shirt. That’s a first.”
I was in my uniform, fully dressed in black, with my sword at my hip. “Sorry to disappoint you.”
She tossed the knife on the bed and came closer to me. “Trust me, you aren’t.” When she was before me, she looked at me with those same vicious eyes, still angry about the last conversation we’d had. I didn’t want to sleep with her—and that seemed to wound her pride.
I regarded her for a long moment, taking in the brightness of her green eyes, the outline of her full lips. She was a beautiful woman and I understood General Titan’s obsession, but I didn’t understand how it drove him to pure insanity.
Her arms crossed over her chest, and she stared at me.
I stared back, a series of memories flashing across my mind. The night we first spoke. When she told me what happened to her. When her fingers dug into my hair as she kissed me. When she woke up and asked me to come to bed…like I was her lover.
She blinked several times because seconds had ticked by. “What do you want?”
We’d shared a passionate night, but my rejection had cut her like a knife. We were back in time, back to where we started. “How many times do I have to tell you it wasn’t personal? I assumed your ire for me would be tempered after our night together, but it seems only to have fanned your flames.”
Her eyes flicked away immediately, like my thumb hit a pressure point.
“Tell me.”
Her eyes stayed away, her arms secure over her chest.
I waited, feeling her energy change, feeling an answer on the horizon.
“That was a big moment for me…and I guess I was vulnerable and just needed more.” She still wouldn’t look at me, like she was ashamed of what she just said. “Waking up to see you sitting in an armchair just to get away from me…didn’t make me feel good.”
“My intention wasn’t to get away from you.”
“Then why did you act like that?” She turned back to me, her embarrassment gone and her hardness back.
I tried to find the right words, to explain the situation without details. “You have your traumas—and I have mine.”
“Sleeping with someone is traumatizing?” she asked incredulously.
“Deeply.”
Her eyes regarded my face, desperate for more.
I’d come here to tell her the news about General Titan, but now I suspected it would do more harm than good. He couldn’t get to her while I breathed, so she had nothing to worry about. I changed the subject before she could interrogate me with questions I didn’t want to answer. “It’s time to teach you the art of the blade. Are you ready?”
“Now?” she asked with a hint of surprise.
“Do you have other obligations?” I asked coldly.
Her eyes narrowed. “Just when I start to like you a little bit, you fuck it up.”
I turned back toward the door. “Let’s go.”
“I have nothing to wear.”
“I’ll fix that. Come on.”
She followed me, and together, we walked down the hallway and left my private section of the castle. The rest of it was simply a sight of grandeur, guest rooms that were never filled with company because my only friend was a dragon.
She was quiet on the journey, following my lead down the stairs and the different hallways. I made it downstairs to the training room, an empty space with a maroon rug across the floor. A chandelier hung from the ceiling high above. All the furniture had been removed to make room for indoor training since the castle was so far away from the barracks. I opened one of the closets and found a set of armor that would fit her. “Here.”
She took it from my hands and stared at it. “It’s ugly.”