“You.” I point to the stranger. “Put him down. Gently!” I add too late as he lifts Taigan fully off his feet before abruptly letting go of his shirt. Taigan lands hard and staggers back several paces. His hand automatically goes for his sword but finds an empty scabbard. Even the champions’ weapons were confiscated. Taigan curses viciously. I point my finger at him next. “Now you. My honor is perfectly intact, if you please. I’ll thank you not to go around defending it unless I ask you to.”
“But he was—”
“Ikissedhim.” My face erupts with heat again at the admission. I’m once more painfully aware of the stranger’s gaze upon me. “It was…an impulse. I get them sometimes.”
Taigan’s eyes narrow. “You get random impulses to kiss strangers?”
“It doesn’t happen often,” I answer through gritted teeth. Then, with a shake of my head and a firm lift of my chin: “Never mind! My point is, there was no honor besmirching happening whatsoever. I’m fine; my honor is fine. And I won’t have you making a fuss. Or following me back to my rooms either.”
“Was this man following you?” the stranger asks sharply.
“No!” I realize my protest sounds rather stupid, but I’ve only just grasped a modicum of control, and I’m not about to release it. “What I mean is, I saw him coming, and I didn’t know if he was, following me that is, but…I…I…”
Taigan’s eyes burn into my face, hot as hellfire. There’s no getting out of this unscathed. Forget my honor; my reputation as a sane individual is done for.
“I want to make it clear,” I finish as calmly as I can, “that I will stand for no fighting in the halls over me. Thank you kindly, good sirs.”
Taigan and the stranger exchange glares. Taigan’s nostrils flare. He looks ready to burst into flame, whereas the stranger might have been cut from living stone. Finally, the prince snarls, “I won’t sully my honor brawling with men-at-arms. I’ll save my mettle for the tournament arena.”
“A sight we’ll all enjoy, no doubt,” the stranger answers darkly. I glance down at his hand only to see the knife has disappeared. I never saw him sheathe it. Perhaps it was never there at all. Perhaps I imagined it in the heat of the moment.
Taigan turns to me, offering his arm. “Come, Princess,” he says. “I will escort you back to your chambers.”
My eyes widen. I take a hasty step back. In the same moment, like a choreographed dance, the stranger glides forward, placing himself between the prince and me. “She does not wish to go with you.”
Taigan’s lip curls, teeth flashing in thescintillight. “And I suppose you think she’s better off with you?”
Oh gods. They’re going to start all over again, aren’t they? Just like those damn demon cats.
“I don’t want to goanywhere,” I state firmly. “Withanyone.” It doesn’t escape my notice that this is exactly what I’ve been saying since that dark night when the soldiers of the High King rode into Gartsworth Village, all flashing armor, glinting swords, and royal decrees. No one paid attention to my wishes then; I don’t have reason to believe they’ll start paying attention now.
But the stranger, his eyes still fixed on Taigan, growls softly, “You heard the lady.”
The prince’s expression radiates such venom, the strangershould be writhing on the ground in agonies right now. When Taigan’s gaze swivels to meet mine, I can’t help flinching. “Do not underestimate your value, Princess,” he says. “It is the honor of every man in this court to guard and defend you. And I intend to prove myself worthy of the highest honor of all—to bind myself to your service for life.”
That same cold, creeping sensation I’d had last night comes over me. I know what he’s saying, what he’s implying. But I cannot let him know how it makes me feel. So, I merely offer a stiff nod and hold my tongue.
To my utmost relief, Taigan takes my silence as answer enough. He casts one last infuriated glare at the stranger before turning on heel and storming off. I listen to him muttering curses all the way back down the stairs and finally out of hearing range. Leaving me alone in this deeply shadowed passage. With the stranger I just forcibly kissed.
2
Rosie
“Oh, gods!” I sink back against the wall, covering my face with my hands, and let out a blustering sigh. My knees are suddenly weak, and the last thing I need to top off this high point of my existence is to add a fainting spell into the mix. While all those lovelorn, wandering balladeers might approve, I don’t think my pride can stand it.
“Are you well, Princess?” The stranger’s voice is a soft panther’s growl that makes my toes curl inside my slippers and sends delightful shivers up my spine. He’s suddenly nearer than he was a moment before. Near enough that I can feel his breath against my forehead. I can’t help thinking how nice it would be to let him support me rather than this cold wall at my back. Those big hands of his wrapped around my rib cage, that broad chest a pillow for my whirling head…
Which is nonsense, of course. And I won’t entertain such thoughts a single moment longer.
“Yes, I’m fine,” I snap, peeking at him from between my fingers. “Gods, but you’re a loomer, aren’t you?”
He blinks down at me. His face is shadowed, but the flickeringscintilglints in the depths of his eyes. “I beg your pardon?”
“You!” I wave a vague hand. “You’re looming. You’re positively the loomiest man I’ve ever met. If they held loom tournaments, you’d take home all the colors. You’d be festooned in them, which wouldn’t suit your dark and mysterious ethos one bit but would certainly liven up this uniform.”
He blinks again. Then takes a demure step back, just enough to allow a bit more of thescintillight to illuminate his godlike frame, calling attention to the way his shoulders strain the seams of his tunic and the laces of his cuirass. It’s not as well tailored as one might expect, almost as though it were made for a much smaller man. Odd, for the High King’s guard is usually impeccably presented. Though I can’t say Captain Norlan or any of his men wear their uniforms with quite such…flair.
My stomach gives a little flutter. But I’m probably just hungry. It’s been a while since breakfast. “Thank you,” I say, and lower both hands from my face. Now the crisis has passed, I find it much more difficult to meet the stranger’s eye. But I can’t let him know it, so I force myself to hold his gaze. “Do you think it worked?”
