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“Doesn’t matter,” she says when I take too long to reply, and shrugs, looking done with the moment of vulnerability that just transpired between us.
My shoulders sag as I step beside her once more and proceed to lead her through the campsite.
For the rest of our walk, we don’t say much. And whatever we do manage to converse about, I make sure to keep it as far away from anything that feels like a trap to my sanity. Anything that might pull us back to that spot at the center of the camp where we let our masks slide off, even if only for a second. I then escort her back to her tent, a little disappointed the night has come to its end.
“Thank you. I’ve learned a lot tonight,” she says, her expression back to its blank form.
I don’t ask her what she means by that, fearing I won’t like the answer.
“Glad to be of service,” I say instead.
I half expect her to rush inside to the safety of her tent and call it a night, but she takes a minute just to scan my face.
“You always were a dutiful teacher. I forgot that, too.”
She then bridges the gap between us and places a chaste kiss on my cheek, leaving me in a complete daze.
The following morning when Katrina struts over to her horse, with not so much as a good morning for me, I don’t take offense.
If she needs to keep her thoughts to herself as we ride east, then so be it. If she uses that time to plot against me, then that’s a risk I knowingly take.
All because I know that Inessa will come to my tent later that night and invite me to dine with her queen once more.
I’ll take her silence during the day if it means I have her attention in the evening.
It may be a gamble on my part, but it’s one for her also.
This can all be a strategy in her game, a ruse to get my guard down and keep it there.
But I was never one to back down from a challenge.
Let’s play this game to the end, Kat.
And let the better of the two win.
Chapter 15
Katrina
With each passing day we ride east, and the closer we are to reaching the gates of its capital city, Arkøya, the more unsettled about it I become.
I need more time.
My plan to wine and dine Levi into gaining his trust can’t be accomplished in a mere few days. If I want him to tell me why he and the other kings in my kingdom all have suddenly decided to conspire against me, I need more time than what’s been afforded to me.
I also need to be vigilant in how I go about it.
Levi is far too intelligent to fall for my ploy on the first day. I can sense his resistance. How his strategic mind—the same one that has done wonders for him on the battlefield—urges him not to fully buy into my act. But it’s the hopelessly optimistic side of him, the one that dares him to see the best in people, that I play into.
He always did have that endearing quality about him.
Or at least when I was younger, I considered it a quality.
Now? Not so much.
It’s a weakness I intend to exploit for all its worth.
Levi might have grown into this formidable man who has turned against me, but some things never change. His belief that people are generally good, if given the chance, is his downfall.
