I yelped and pulled my arm away, not hurt, just surprised at the feeling his touch provoked.I stepped back and peered down at my arm, expecting some sort of mark where he’d touched me, but the skin was unmarred.
“Forgive me,” the prince said, his accent heavy.“I meant no offense.”
“None taken.”I shrugged as though nothing had passed between us.Perhaps I had only imagined it.He seemed unaffected.
“I was trying to help—”
“I don’t need help.I can take care of myself.”
“Good to know,” he said carefully.He looked past me, taking in the chamber.“Shall we sit?”He indicated the table.
“Fine.”I marched to the table, but he reached it before me and pulled out one of the red-cushioned chairs.I paused, looked at the chair he offered, then I walked around the table and chose another.I pulled it out myself and took a seat.I gave the Zulenii a triumphant scowl.But he didn’t scowl back.His brows were raised and what was almost a smile grazed his lips.What did I have to do to annoy this man?To my surprise, he moved to my father’s chair.He pulled it out and sat, and even I had to admit his movements were graceful.He moved like one of those large cats on his golden coat.I couldn’t help but notice that he now had the large felines on his chest and the wolf heads that made up the chair’s posts behind his head.He hadn’t been here before, so he could not have planned where he’d sit or known of the wolf chair, but the symbolism was powerful nonetheless.With one action, this Taio had joined the mascots—assuming the cats were mascots—of Zulen and Earsleh.
He lifted the wine bottle.“Vine water?”he asked.
“We call it wine,” I said.“No, thank you.I want to keep my head clear in case I need to kill you tomorrow.”
To my surprise, he laughed at that.Not a chuckle.Not a smile.A full-throated laugh.He even threw his head back.To my shock and horror, I watched his throat when he tossed his head back, and not because I was imagining slitting it.I was thinking about how long his neck was, how well-formed, how it might feel under my lips.
I dug my short fingernails into my thigh and shook my head.What in the gods was wrong with me?Had that unwatered sip of wine earlier gone to my head?I should have eaten more huma.“You think death is amusing?”I said when he’d stopped laughing.
“Not at all.”He touched the back of his hand to his eyes, which were watering.“I think the idea ofyoukilling me is amusing.”
I had to restrain myself from jumping to my feet and attacking him right there.“You don’t think I could kill you?”I asked through gritted teeth.
“I think you’d like to try.”
I leaned forward, placing both hands flat on the table.“Let me tell you something about me and my people.We begin training from the age of eight to fight Hollows.At twelve we are sent on patrol for months at a time.I was fifteen when I killed my first Hollow, and I’ve killed others since.I can kill you, Zulenii.”
He sat back and crossed his arms over his chest.“This is good to know.Are all your sisters so well-trained or only you?”
“The entire kingdom is trained to fight and defend,” I said.My words came slower now since I was beginning to worry I had said something he might find useful.I thought about what Gaz had said outside.If the Zulenii wanted to marry one of us for an advantage, could it be he wanted to learn fighting?But he seemed to think he was already a skilled fighter and could best me.Judging by the way he moved, I believed he had some training or natural abilities.I still thought I could best him, but I needed to be careful of what I said lest I inadvertently tell him what he wanted to hear.Perhaps the best way to avoid doing that was to turn the tables on him, so to speak.
“I answered your question,” I said.“Now answer one of mine.”
He raised his brows.Those blue-green eyes didn’t seem so odd now.They were actually quite beautiful.
“Why come all this way for a bride?Do you not have any suitable women in Zulen?Omira is pretty enough.Why not marry her?”
He wrinkled his nose.“Omira is my sister,” he said, confirming what I had suspected.“And why should I not come to Earsleh for a bride?It is the way kingdoms have forged alliances for centuries.”
So he was a politician.Only a true courtier would answer my question with a question and tell me practically nothing.It would be no small matter to find out what he really wanted—not that it signified since he’d be dead tomorrow.
“I wouldn’t think the old ways mattered any longer.Nor do I think alliances between kingdoms important.For the last one hundred years, we thought your kingdom had been eaten by Hollows.”
“You underestimate us,” he said.“Doing so is to your detriment.”He gestured to the wine.“Is it rude if I drink the vine water even after you refused it?”
“Yes, but you’ve already breached etiquette, so it hardly matters at this point.”
“Hmm.”He uncorked the bottle and poured a half a glass.Once again, he offered it to me, but I shook my head.My throat was dry now, and I wished I hadn’t refused earlier.But being that I had, I would not drink it now.My mother always said I would stab myself in the foot to make a point, and this was a prime example.
He sipped the wine, and I watched as he swallowed, the muscles of his throat working.
“How have I breached the etiquette?”he asked.
I pulled my gaze from his throat.“Pardon?Oh, how did you—you should have met with my sister Cameed first.She is the eldest.”
“I am not interested in her,” he said.
