That’s exactly what it means,said the look in his eyes.
Roa stood motionless, trying to absorb it.
“This is why she never told me,” she realized aloud, remembering the argument they’d had in Baron Silva’s home. “She thought I’d consider her unworthy to one day be mistress of Song. She thought I would side with my parents.”
That her friend could think such a thing, that she would keep such a secret from Roa because she was frightened... it hurt. And it made Roa angry—but only at herself.
How could I fail her so utterly?
“You haven’t been paying attention,” said Dax.
And then he lunged.
Dax beat her, moving fluidly through the steps she’d shown him and finishing with the flat of his sword smacked hard across her shoulder bones.
She winced and reached for the bedpost.
“Roa ....” He set down his weapon and took her shoulders gently in his hands. “Did I hurt you?”
“No,” she lied, gritting her teeth at the sting and turning to face him. She narrowed her eyes. “That was well executed.”
Dax stared down at her, his gaze searching her for a trace of the pain he knew he’d caused.
“It took me a week to learn that move,” she said.
A small smile tugged at his mouth. “I have a better teacher than you did.”
The compliment loosened something in her, and when he saw it, Dax leaned in and kissed her.
Focus,she told herself, pulling away to look at the sky. Thesun had slipped below the garden wall. But she still had time. She didn’t need to report to Rebekah until midnight.
Dax pulled off his shirt and tossed it aside. The bruised skin around his stitches looked hideous, but was starting to heal. And the key...
The key.
Roa stared at the pattern at the end of the shaft: two intertwined dragons. The same as on the gate that led out of the palace.
Dax wiped his sweat-soaked curls across his forehead and then stretched, rolling his shoulders.
She needed that key.
But first, she needed to beat him so she could report her findings to Rebekah.
Roa thrust and nearly had him, but he parried quickly and escaped out from under her. He grinned and dropped back into the stance he’d now memorized. How had he learned so quickly? Just last night, he carried a sword like it was a foreign object. And now Roa couldn’t even beat himonce?
It was too strange.
Smiling at her, he flicked his wrist, spinning the blade in a way Roa had seen somewhere before. But where? It wasn’t a trick she’d taught him.
Because he isn’t as helpless as he pretends to be.
It was still just suspicion, though. Roa needed to prove it. So she used a move she knew wasn’t fair. One her father would frown at, if he saw. One that would render Dax beaten.
She rushed him, thrusting. When he blocked her, shethrust again, and as he parried, she hooked her ankle behind his knee and sent him stumbling. Miraculously, he caught himself. But before he could recover completely, Roa quickly disarmed him.
His blade clattered to the floor at their feet. Roa was about to deal the finishing blow, except Dax slammed his heel down on the tip of the sword, and when the hilt bounced up, he caught it and came back swinging in a move Roacertainlyhadn’t taught him.
Just as his blade came down, Roa caught the flat of it against her palm.
