“Who looked upset?”
“Darwin. His face was all flushed. He kept giving Odyssey the side-eye, and you looked just as flustered.”
I bark out a nervous laugh. I can’t exactly tell him that I shot a stupid ball of magic out of me and made Odyssey telepathic.
Owen’s face falls.
I blow out a breath. “I have a habit of wearing my girly underwear in the privacy of my room. It’s the only chance I have to feel like a girl, and the bindings hurt. Anyway, I forgot to lock my door, and Odyssey barged in, looking for me, because Reggie showed up and demanded to talk to the Princess. Darwin showed up shortly after.”
“Reggie?”
“He’s Shadow’s personal assistant at the firm.”
He clears his throat. “Yeah. You have a habit of not locking doors. That’s for sure.” He blushes and resumes collecting items on the counter.
“I would have told you if Odyssey knew. I told you about Skunk and Elijah.”
He lets out an audible breath. “Sorry. I just liked knowing that I was the only one of the recruits who knew. Elijah is practically family to you, and Skunk knew because of his brother from the previous class. I liked keeping your secret. It was like my secret, too.”
I nod and munch on the rest of the apple. Tyler’s warning pops into my mind. We’re just friends. Right? Should I ask Owen? The necklace he gave me the other night is something a man would give to a girlfriend. How do I bring it up?
“I’m not sure if you know this, but Alexis is quite observant and has been studying your fighting moves for a while now. The recruits sneak out after curfew so that they can practice and keep up with you.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yeah. It’s how they’ve all been staying on top of the scoreboard. So, when it came out that you were a girl—the Princess, actually,” he laughs, “it was quite a shock.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“Nah. I think it put a lot of things in perspective, like how you were a bit standoffish from the beginning. Some of the guys made comments about how you put them to shame with your mad skills. I think for the most part, you really earned their respect. I mean, you have been motivating them to work harder, even if they all hated it. But now, I think it’s different, for some of them at least.”
“Different how?”
He shrugs. “You can’t expect to protect the royal family if the Princess can kick your ass. I get the sense that some of them want to work even harder now. And I, uh, think I should warn you that some of them may want to date you now.”
I roll my eyes. “Well, I guess it’s a good thing that it’s against the bylaws for a royal family member to date one of the guards.” Gods, in some way, I hope he hears the underlying message, but at the same time, I’m a hypocrite. I’m dating a guard. Guilt settles in my throat, making it hard to swallow the apple.
“Right, the rules, except a royal can date a guard if he’s on inactive duty. Or if they have a title, like Young Alpha.”
“How do you know that?”
“I looked into it.”
“Oh.” I don’t know what else to say. We fall silent while he cooks the sandwiches.
“Can I ask you something?” he asks, breaking the awkward tension between us.
“Sure,” I mumble around a bite in my mouth, bracing myself for his question.
“When you were kidnapped, is that when you got all of those scars on your back?”
I set another apple slice back in the bowl.
“I shouldn’t have asked. I’m sorry. It’s… I’ve?—”
“You were wondering about it since you saw the scars?” I finish for him.
He nods, focusing intensely on flipping the sandwiches on the hot grill.
