And then attacked.
She beat him three times. Each time she grew a little surer her suspicion was misplaced: he wasn’t hiding something, hewas just a terrible swordsman. And each time she played her role, showing him what he did wrong, and how he might have blocked her.
When she noticed him tiring, Roa lowered her sword to stop.
The moment she did, he parried the way she taught him, forcing her toward the bed. The rush of energy took Roa by surprise and the clang of their blades echoed through the room. But before he could trap her against the bed frame, Roa darted left and swung around to his back.
Dax turned. Roa thrust, catching him off guard, but he parried just in time. She kicked him in the shin and the force of it sent him backward. His legs hit the wooden frame and he lost his balance, falling into the bedsheets and wincing hard.
Roa pounced, pinning the hand that held his sword immobilized above his head while she pressed the steel of her blade to his throat.
Trapped on his back, Dax relaxed beneath her.
It was a good effort, but the effort of a beginner.
So Roa relaxed, too.
Nice try,she was about to say, except the words never came. Because the sight of him now, completely at her mercy, made Roa’s stomach flutter.
“Let’s do this every night,” he whispered, staring up at her.
Roa stared back. She had a startling urge to trace his unshaven jaw, run her fingers through his wild curls, feel the scrape of his teeth on her lip...
“My king?” A knock came at the door. “Are you quite sure everything’s all right?”
Roa straightened.
“Everything’s fine, Cyrus,” Dax called from beneath her. “I’m just in the middle of”—his gaze was soft on Roa’s face; his voice went even softer—“being obliterated.”
Her heart skipped. She immediately withdrew, climbing off him and getting down from the bed.
Dax led her back through a hidden passageway out of his room. He kept the flame of his lamp turned down so low, if he hadn’t stopped, Roa would have missed the door entirely.
Passing her the lamp, Dax reached for the latch in the wall. Roa heard that same softsnickand then the wall swung out. Dax held it open as Roa stepped through and into her own room.
The dim glow of the lantern flooded the floor, coming to stop on her canopied bed.
“You step here to open it from inside the room,” he said, shutting the hidden door and pulling Roa out of the way so when he knelt down and pressed the leaf of a mosaic on the floor, it didn’t hit her when it swung out again.
Roa’s heart beat wildly.
She shut the door and tried it herself, memorizing the flower—seven down from the corner; yellow with white leaves. Again, the door swung out of the wall.
Dax shut her into the passageway, to ensure she could open it using the latch on the other side. It took a few tries, and for a heartbeat she thought she might be trapped, but Dax shouted detailed instructions through the door, and this time when it swung out, it hit him straight in the face.
Roa winced when she realized it, pulling his palms away from his forehead to assess the damage.
“Sorry...”
“You say that, but you’re smiling like a child who’s just been given a kitten.”
Roa smiled harder. Because a passage that led straight to and from her rooms? It would make eluding her guards so much easier. It would makeeverythingeasier.
Without thinking, she pushed herself up on her toes and kissed his cheek. “Thank you.”
Dax’s hands moved to her waist, holding her lightly. Almost nervously. As if a single, sudden kiss from Roa could unravel all his charm and confidence.
At that thought, she withdrew. Dax’s hands fell away from her.
