I smirked at her for a half second, then schooled myexpression into one more befitting of a colonel in the guard. This woman. She had me behaving like a callow boy. “Now.”
Pierce’s expression tightened, and he raised a single what-the-fuck brow.
“About time.” Flynn grinned like a fucking loon, making me reconsider my decision.
“Do I get a say?” the shield demanded.
“No.” Why did she challenge every single order? “Ride with Flynn.”
She shot daggers with her eyes and made no move to dismount.
“Why is he such an asshole?” Her words were whispered, meant only for Pierce, but I heard them loud and clear.
“He is in command.” Pierce sounded none too pleased about that.
“Now!” I barked.
We paused as she dismounted Pierce’s horse and climbed aboard Flynn’s. Then I let Flynn and Teal take the lead and rode next to Pierce. “She’s getting to you.” I kept my voice low, even, nonconfrontational.
He shrugged, not denying it.
“She’s a shield,” I reminded him. We both knew what that meant. Her life was measured in months, not years. Getting attached would only cause him heartache.
“She’s more than that.”
That first day in the gymnasium, she’d met Pierce blow for blow with her staff. She’d faced a wyvern with courage, allowing me to kill it. If Flynn and Teal were to be believed, she’d heaved ice spears at a wolven. She’d held off a dozen wraiths. But she was still a shield.
Pierce’s gaze measured the distance between us and Flynn, then he pitched his voice low. “Her grandmother is a seer.”
“I’m aware.” I’d seen the floating hair, the milkyeyes.
“She had visions of the skills Haven would need.” His voice was so low I had to lean in to hear him. “She hired her tutors and trainers. Language. Weapons. History. Politics. Etiquette.”
My brows lifted. She’d shared all that with him? What else did he know? “Seems like a lot of trouble for a girl from Grimswood.”
Pierce turned in his saddle and stared at me. “You don’t see it?”
“See what?” I feigned ignorance.
“She’s special.”
“She’s a shield.” The words came out automatically. But even as I said them, I could see her defeating the wyvern, protecting my men, challenging me with those blazing eyes. She was extraordinary. And that terrified me more than any enemy I’d faced.
His jaw tightened. “Are you deliberately blind?”
“Not blind. Watching her every move. Wondering what secrets she’s hiding.”
The unmistakable crack of an open palm meeting a cheek startled the horses, and they danced beneath us.
“Put me down. Now.” The shield sounded livid.
I urged Caspian into a trot, catching up with Flynn in only a few seconds.
“Now,” she demanded.
“I was only joking.”
“Exactly what men say when women call them on their bullshit.” She swung her leg over the pommel and jumped to the ground.
