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Emilie smiled at me as I shook my head. “Ladon, if we have to remove that stain, I will personally make sure it is done. Gods forbid you have to clean up my messes.”
She put the stopper back in and pressed the vial into my chest. My hand snapped up to cover hers, clutching the vial between us. I held it there longer than necessary and her eyes met mine.
She gave me a questioning look before I pried the vial from her fingers and placed it in my pocket. I took a step back.
“Think you can handle it?” she asked.
“Of course.”
The one night I actually wanted Reyna to show up to our room was the night she chose not to. I didn’t question her reasons. I focused on being grateful for having one night of peace.
Emilie didn’t seem very put out by it either. As much as she wanted a few drops of Reyna’s blood, she wanted to keep me from harm too.
I began a set of exercises while Emilie went back to her books. We both had our ways of dealing with boredom in captivity. I preferred physical exertion while she preferred mental stimulation.
After my fourth or fifth round of the same circuit, I peeked over at her. She was staring at an open book, her chin propped on one hand. It had been a while since I’d seen her turn the page.
“Is everything alright?” I asked, sitting up.
She looked at me and I enjoyed the way she eyed my abs for one long moment before answering me.
“I think you should train me to fight. The first time…in Renoa, I mean…I don’t think either of us took it very seriously. If something happens to you, I should at least know the basics of self-defense.”
I stood and moved until I was hovering over her. “Nothing is going to happen to me, princess.”
“You don’t know that.” She closed her book rather abruptly and then chewed on her bottom lip. “Tell me something honest.”
“What do you want to know?”
“Why do you call me princess?”
I raised a brow. Of all the things she might want to know, that was the one on her mind?
“Because it bothers you.”
She rolled her eyes, evidently not in the mood to play. “You know as well as I do that I’m no princess. My official title in Dreslen is Lady.”
“Do you want me to call you Lady, then?”
“No,” she said through gritted teeth.
“What then? I don’t want to hear another word about you being the future Queen of Osavian.”
Even if it was true. It irritated me that one day she’d be above my ranking. She was from fucking Dreslen, of all places. And everyone knew that Osavian was superior to Dreslen.
Or at least I thought I knew that. Spending time with Emilie had me questioning what I believed about their people. If I’d been wrong about her, was I wrong about all of them?
She saved me from having an existential crisis with three words. “Call me Emilie.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Emilie
If training in Renoa had been awful, then training in Murvort was akin to living hell. The one advantage I’d had during our first training sessions was my anger. My hatred for Ladon fueled me to work harder. My aggression made me lethal.
Now that we’d broken through some of our barriers, I was more distracted than ever. I was hyperaware of every hand placement—both his and mine. When he grabbed my arm to demonstrate a move. When I touched his chest so he could fix my aim.
Ladon was—for lack of a better word—bewitching. He’d always been handsome, but this…I was having a very hard time focusing. It didn’t help that he chose to train me without a shirt.
