Save him, find him… Save him!
Leya stumbled to a halt, so sure her skull would explode as the pressure within built. “How?” she groaned, pressing both hands to her temples. “He won’t listen to me, and I don’t even know where he is—”
What am I doing, talking to a voice in my head?
“My lady.” Mihr came up the grand staircase. “Are you all right?”
”Yes, I am.” Leya dropped her hands as the woman halted a step below. “Will you let my sister know I’ll be on the beach if she changes her mind?”
“Oh, my lady, but she’s not here. She just left with the sire. They went off together. It’s good to see him smile again.”
Aerén was back? Her heart skipped a beat. “Thank you, Mihr.” She ran down the stairs, then stumbled to a halt.
He was smiling.
Did that mean…?
And the tension within resurged, threatening to strangle her. Leya gripped the banister and shut her eyes.Shedecided to let him go. She had to stop thinking about him. Regardless of whom he chose, Aerén would move on with his life one day. If not with her sister, then with one of his kind sinceshe—an ordinary human—wasn’t even an option.
A weed could never be allowed to take root among all the orchids, could it?
Her throat thick with tears, she jogged down to the ground floor and sprinted along the long, silent corridor to the back entrance, trying to leave behind her anger and pain. As she neared it, Severn appeared from the opposite direction. “My lady.”
“Are you busy?” she panted.
Two days of jogging, and she still sounded like a landed guppy.Ugh.
He stopped and gave her a little bow. “I’m at your service, my lady.”
“Do you have a place where I can work out?”
“No, my lady. We tend to go to the army camps and train with the soldiers there, or we do so with the enforcers when they are around.”
“Butyouwork out, right? I mean, fighting and such?”
“Yes, we all do. We must. We are of the lower power level, so we must develop our fighting skills. It’s a rule our monarch put in place. Prince Aerén tests our skills when he’s around.”
Yes, she’d heard about the class disparity in this world. “Would you help me practice my fight skills?”
He blinked. “Butwetrain on thebeach.”
“Oh, great.” As if the soft sands would scare her. “Bring weapons, a dagger or a short sword. I’ll wait for you near the blue tree with the bench.”
His deep blue darkened with concern. “My lady, please, I cannot—”
“Severn, I’ll be fine.”
“But the sire—”
“Is not here,” she retorted. “I’m human. I have no powers, so, I train to keep myself safe.” He didn’t need to know her prior experience extended to fake-sword fighting with a friend who cosplayed as a knight at the Renaissance Faire.
Severn’s throat bobbed as he swallowed, weighing her words.
“And after the scary incident at the river, don’t you think I should?” she tacked on.
A troubled sigh escaped him. “The sire won’t be pleased. Very well, my lady. I will clear it with Haroth first.”
“Thank you.” She gave him a little wave and jogged out of the castle. The trees and shrubs around her rustled from the light breeze as she headed down the pathway.
