Page 9 of Storms of Allegiance
“Happy birthday, Delphine,” he said in the gentlest voice I’d yet heard.
Something pressed into my palm, and I looked down to see an object wrapped in a length of plain material.
“A present? For me?”
He didn’t bother to answer the obvious question.
I looked back up at him, but he was looking away, one hand rubbing the back of his neck.
I unwrapped the object, exposing a thin, elegant dagger, possibly the smallest one I’d ever seen. I looked at him again, and this time he was watching me.
He cleared his throat. “If you’re going to worry about everyone else all the time, you need a way to protect yourself.”
I quirked one eyebrow, lifting one of my hands and waggling my fingers.
He shrugged. “I don’t care how powerful you are, there are some situations and people that should be approached with a sharp blade, not bare fingers.”
I looked down at my hand and frowned, thinking of Grey. He was a healer like me, and Nik was right. When it came to a fellow healer, making physical contact gave them the same access to me as I had to them. Not to mention Nik’s own trick of covering all patches of exposed skin.
I shivered, trying not to think about the kind of situation that might require the use of the blade. I hoped I was never going to find myself in such a position again.
“Thank you,” I said softly, strapping the dagger and sheath to my belt. “I’ll keep it close.”
Nik nodded, looking satisfied, and I considered his choice of gift. It was a good reflection of him—dangerous and unhelpful on the surface but surprisingly thoughtful underneath.
“How did you know it was my birthday?” I asked.
He shifted uncomfortably, and my eyes narrowed.
“Have you been following me?”
“I needed to speak to you—alone.”
I flushed. He couldn’t possibly have been inside the law keepers’ hall, could he? Surely there was no way he could have seen my embarrassing start to the morning.
A moment’s reflection reminded me of the more important point. Nik had been off searching for Grey and had apparently found him—and now he had something to tell me. That was far more important than my foolish embarrassment.
“How have you been?”
His question caught me off guard, and I just stared at him. There was no way Nik wanted to speak to me alone just to ask about our time apart. He did seem different, but not that different.
The memory of our last encounter made my heart speed up, my awareness of his current nearness heightening. We had been standing very similarly before he had kissed me, and my eyes were drawn irresistibly to his lips.
He cleared his throat and took a step back, giving me room. My rebellious heart sank at his movement. Surely I wasn’t foolish enough to hope for a repeat of that particular encounter? Nik was a prince and a reneger—a combination that was still hard to process—not to mention arrogant, condescending, and dangerous. As the enemy of Grey, I could appreciate him as a formidable ally, but I couldn’t let myself see him in any other light.
But all my sensible lectures did nothing to change the way the air turned cold around me or to still the fluttering in my stomach that was uncomfortably similar to my squeamish reaction to blood. My mind could pretend I didn’t react to Nik’s presence, but my body wasn’t as easily deceived.
I had never been immune to the prince, and his lengthy absence had apparently changed nothing.
“You’ve been training hard,” he said to fill the silence when I didn’t respond to his earlier question.
I started, staring at him again. Exactly how long had he been watching me?
“I see Hayes really did take on that Calistan girl.” Now he sounded like he was talking just to cover my awkward silence. “I can’t remember her name. Something to do with the sky…”
“Luna,” I said, finally finding my voice again.
“Oh yes.” He sounded entirely uninterested. “That was it.”