AllFreeNovel
Share Us
What if she was my soul mate? I mean, if that were the case, I shouldn’t part with her; it would be better for both of us if we stayed together. Two halves could certainly survive apart, but they would positively shine as one.
But, no. That was just absurd.
She wasn’t mine. She couldn’t be.
I cleared my throat from such fanciful notions and motioned toward her tube. “What is that thing, anyway?”
“Hmm?” She turned to me with raised eyebrows before realizing what I meant. “Oh. It’s a cold, er…” Her forehead immediately furrowed. “Something like that. I can’t quite remember what Indy called it when he gave it to me.”
“Indy?” I repeated, a chill forming in my bones. “Your bodyguard gave you a present?”
I suddenly wanted to gut the bastard.
Nicolette shot me a sly, knowing glance. “Don’t be jealous, my love. It was merely a tool to help me protect myself in case something happened to him and he could no longer defend me. Which is exactly what did happen. He also trained me in many hand-to-hand, self-defensive combat moves. My safety was very important to him.”
“Of course, it was,” I muttered bitterly. When the princess lifted a challenging eyebrow, I pointed sternly and added, “And I’m not jealous.”
I merely would’ve liked to make a necklace out of her precious bodyguard’s entrails for ever talking to her, or looking at her, or spending as much time as he obviously had with her and making her so obscenely happy.
Clearing my throat, I got back on track, and hitched my chin toward her tube. “Is it magical?”
Nicolette lowered her attention to the object and sniffed. “Definitely not. You know I can’t stand handling magical things. Which is probably why Indigo gave it to me for protection in the first place. Because after—well, you know, after what happened with my sister-in-law—he wanted something powerful and effective for me, but he also knew whatever I handled couldn’t be enchanted in any way.”
“Right, so…” I frowned at the contraption. “How did you order it to kill those men?”
“Oh! It’s really very simple. You just squeeze this little lever here. Actually, first, you need to aim. Point this end at your target and…” She shrugged and sent me a magnetic smile. “You get the drift.”
“Yes, I believe I do.” I reached out. “Can I—”
She immediately pulled it away and even shifted Caramel a step over to ride further from me. “Sorry, it’s not wise to play with. It can be dangerous, and besides, there’s only a limited amount of bulls—no…” She squinted at the device. “That’s not the right word either. Bullers? Ballers? Ballets? Ooh, bullets! That’s it. There are only so many bullets left in it. Five now that I’ve used two. Once they’re all gone, the cold—er, cot—or whatever it’s called will be useless. We can’t waste them on practice.”
I pulled my hand back, trying to hide my disappointment, because I’d really, really wanted to examine the odd apparatus closer.
“I wasn’t going to pull the lever,” I groused, feeling a bit petulant over the fact that she wouldn’t even let me hold the damn thing.
Ignoring my tone, Nicolette sheathed her non-magical sword—though it evidently possessed some kind of magical enchantment with those miniature, exploding projectiles—back into her saddle bags and smiled up at me sunnily.
“So, are you really a palace guard? You protect the castle? And the…” She gulped uneasily. “The king?”
I blinked at her. “What?”
She motioned to my ensemble. “Those men back there. They said you were dressed like a royal palace guard.”
“Oh.” I looked down at myself, then up again. “No, my lady. I’m not a knight at all. Just a mere stable hand.”
Her eyebrows lowered as if she had a hard time believing that.
“I was technically never in the army,” I added. “They only let me join the fray when we attacked Donnelly to get their numbers up.”
“Then why are you dressed like one of the king’s knights, ready for war?”
Telling her the truth wouldn’t hurt anything, so I explained, “I still had the outfit from when I fought with them. And it seemed like smart gear to wear for trekking through the desert for days on end. So I dug it up before leaving my stable.”
Her grin turned naughty. “Well, it’s definitely an appealing ensemble to wear.”
My blood thickened, but I ignored the cravings she stirred. “I’ll change once we find a safer place to pause in the woods. We’ll get something warmer for you to wear then, as well.”
Disappointment crossed her features, but all she did was nod. “So where does your mother live?”
