Breathing out in relief, I stop fighting and flip around to face her.“I thought you might be Richard.”
Her face hardens in an instant.“Has he hurt you?”
“No.”
I start toadd, “Not yet,” but then I stop as I look her upanddown.She’s breathing hard.Her lilac hair is sticking to her forehead as sweat glistens across her skin.Her eyes are filled with exhaustion andexcitement, worry and fear.But it’s her clothes that tell me everything I need to know.
Gone is the suit she wore to my mum’s wedding.Now she’s dressed in leather, with a knife strapped to her hip.My eyes widen as I take her allin.“Have you been training with the fairies?”
A sheepish, guilty smile curves her lips for a second before it’sgone.“Don’t change the subject.Has he hurt you?”
I open my mouth, wanting to tell her everything.But then I press my lips together.She’s dreamed of training as a warrior for years.She has obsessed over the fairies for just as long.I can’t take this from her,not when she never belonged in Brownston.She has a chance to find a home here.With people who get her.
She’ll need that when I’m gone.
Shaking my head, I look away, searching for something that she’ll believe.“No.He’suh…he’snot like the men in Brownston, if you know what I mean.”
“Is he making you uncomfortable?Because you can say no here.In fact, you should say no –”
“No,” I say.Then I smile.“He’sjust…intense.And he” –I blush– “knows things about my body that I didn’t even know.”Like how pathetically weak-willed it is.
She glances away, a blush painting her own cheeks.A small noise comes from the back of her throat – a note of understanding mixed with some sexual frustration of her own.I suddenly wonder where Nicholas has beenall this time given he didn’t go with us to Brownston.Grinning,I reckon I have a good idea.
“So who are you training with?”I tease.
She blushes hard, and I perk up, momentarily forgetting about my problems.She mumbles something incoherently.
“What?”
She sighs and flops down onto thewhitesofa, crossing her arms.I sit down beside her.“Fourteen to sixteen year olds,” she says louder.
I rear back in horror.“But those are teens!”My eyes drop to the knife at her hip.“And they’re all armed?”
“Yeah.”
“DO YOU WANT TO DIE!?”
She laughs.“There are healers on stand-by.”
I stare at her in horror.
“Relax.I haven’t got to training with weapons yet.I onlystarted last night.”She raises a hand as she fights back a yawn.“Allnight.”Dropping her arm, shegrins in awe.“But you should see what even the little kids can do with a blade.”
The weight that has been crushing my shoulders for the last dayslowlyeases.Whenever I’m in her presence, all my troubles don’t seem that big anymore.She gives me the strength to keep carrying on,so I knowI will find a way to kill Richardeven if I don’t ask her for help.But right now, all I want to do is listen to her joy and see the light in her eyes.
“Echo –she’s the Head of the Royal Guard–saidshe’d be able tofast track me to beyourguardif I do everything she says.So itmightonly be, like, twoor threeyears before Ican protect youon my own.”
“That’s amazing,” Isaywith agenuinesmile.Poking her in the ribs, I tease,“So will you be guarding Nicholas too?”
She wigglesher head in a way thatsaysboth yes and no.“Nicholas has a separate guard to Richard, and you’ll have a separate guard too, butduring coups–that’s whensomeone tries tokillthe royal family– we all mix.”
She cracksher neck from side to side.Then stretches out a kink in her left shoulder.“Therehavebeen threecoupsduring his reign –a record,you know.”
“Why?”
“The first one wassimply because he’s a man and they’re a matriarchal society.Some idiots got it in their head that because they never saw Seqora’s –that’s his older sister and the one who ‘should have’ got the throne– body, then that meant he must’ve cheated tobecome king.”
I frown.“But didn’t he fight her inside a fairy ring?”
