“You make no sense, Your Majesty,” I mutter.
He seizes my chin, forcing me to look at him. “Don’t call me that.”
I swallow. “Then you make no sense, Soren.”
“Perhaps.” He releases me with agonizing slowness, like someone relinquishing a fistful of gold. “Now, tell me why you’re angry at me. I thought you would be pleased since I drew out the fight.”
“You what?”
“Didn’t you say you wanted to see me fight?”
“I…” I struggle for words. Do all dragons reason like this? Or have I been gifted an exceptionally obtuse one? “I did say that, I suppose.”
“Then why are you angry?”
“I’m not,” I say, striving not to fidget. “I thought you were angry with me.”
“Why?”
“For offering to draw water for the wyverns. I worried you thought me out of line.”
“You were not out of line. You were magnificent.”
Once again, I find my cheeks warming. Will this ever stop? “Then why did you seem as if you didn’t want to touch me last night?” This I’m only able to say by staring at the sand between his feet.
Painful seconds slip by in the silence that ensues.
“Serah.”
The sound of my name draws my eyes helplessly to him, and he gazes back with a gentleness that renders me speechless.
“I want…” He pauses to search my face as if the right words can be found there. “…things I cannot yet have. And I am not fond of waiting. Last night it seemed safer to keep my distance.”
I will myself not to look away. “You might have said so.”
“I am saying so.”
A laugh trembles out of me. “I mean beforehand.”
“I will do better next time.”
Motion over his shoulder catches my eye. Behind him, Rally approaches, and at the sound, Soren drops his head and lets out a groan. “He’s going to tell me another challenger is here.”
His guard actually doesn’t say anything when he arrives. He only bows to me and waits.
Soren rubs his brow between two fingers. “I will fight one more, and then I insist on having breakfast.”
“I’ll let the others know,” Rally says.
With a sigh, Soren takes my hand in his. “Tirenth needs water. Will you draw while I fight?”
Objections ricochet through my mind—I know you’re strong, but what if you lose? What if you’re hurt?—and yet I nod. The king brings my hand to his lips and smiles.
“I’ll see you tonight then, Princess.”
12
Soren
