One of the men, a tall, muscled, chestnut-skinned soldier with deep blue eyes, stood from his table, swinging a battle ax in his hand. His dark black hair was shaved on the sides and triple braided down the middle, the ends hitting his upper back. Two gold hoops pierced the top of his right ear and a long raised scar marked the corner of his right eye all the way to his chin.
“You dare trespass on our lands, boy?” he bellowed from across the hall, not stepping any closer to where Dimitris stood by the stairs, but enough Dimitris could see the vein in his neck pulsing.
“Boy? Well, I haven’t been called that in quite some time. Generally I prefer Prince or Alpha or The Greatest Man to Walk Odessia, but I guess to each their own.”
“I would not mock me. It will not end well for you.” The man raised his ax, ready to throw it straight at Dimitris’s head.
“Do it,” Dimitris coaxed, giving a beckoning wave of his hands.
The man drew his arm back and flung the weapon directly at Dimitris, but just before the bronze would meet his skull, Dimitris stepped to the side, catching the handle of the spinning weapon in his hand.
“Was that truly necessary, Sebastian?” Thalia’s voice called from behind Dimitris, the lithe seer striding up beside him. “You knew we were arriving today.”
The man’s eyes narrowed and lips tightened into a line as she spoke. “One can never be too safe when it comes to unfamiliar faces, Thalia.” That tone—harsh, condescending—Dimitris didn’t like it one bit.
“Dramatic as always. He is a spitting image of Alexander and you know it, so sit before I make you.”
Sebastian didn’t question Thalia again, but it made Dimitris’s veins burn and jaw clench the way the man’s eyes trailed down Thalia’s body with a lurid gaze. The seer didn’t appear to notice—or rather, she didn’t care. Instead, she began to waltz across the hall toward the others, the flowing lavender dress she’d changed into delicately grazing the floor.
Dimitris picked up his pace to match her stride, pulling her momentarily toward him. “Sebastian, is he the commander here?” There would be no other reason he would speak so boldly for his people.
Snorting, Thalia shook her head. “Hardly…” Good. A commander should have more tact than that. “He’s a previous…attachment.”
Dimitris’s skin paled and his eyes widened. That was going to be a problem.
The food was incredible, and Dimitris was grateful to be eating something that was not caught from the sea for the first time ina week, but even the delectable, melt-in-your-mouth flavor of the roasted boar could not wipe the scowl off his face. With everychomp,chomp,chompof his food, his leg began to rattle more and his muscles tightened.Thalia’s former attachment? A lover?How a woman like her, so bold and daring, so strong-willed and fierce, could have ever gone for a man as crass as Sebastian, Dimitris did not understand.
The lieutenant, as Dimitris learned was Sebastian’s rank, had opened a seat right beside himself, moving a tall woman with pale skin, freckles, and cropped curly brown hair to the seat beside Dimitris. He wasn’t sure who was angrier about the decision—himself or the woman, who had a similar snarl to her lip each time she lifted her fork to her mouth, sending a daggered gaze at the laughing seer. If only Sebastian knew that only hours before Dimitris’s fingers had been pulsing between those precious legs now beside him. How many glasses of the amber liquid in front of Dimitris would it take for him to jump across the table and tackle the lieutenant to the ground? He laughed to himself. By the way Sebastian’s eyes lingered down Thalia’s dress, it would probably only take one.
“So, what happened with those two anyway?” Dimitris asked the woman, finally pushing his plate to the side, no trace of scraps left for the dogs that swirled by his legs.
“I happened,” the woman deadpanned, unimpressed by his attempt at conversation. Gods, were all the men and women of Skiatha this intense?
“Oh, so you two are together now?” He sipped from the short glass once more, letting the liquor burn all the way down his throat.
“We fuck, if that’s what you mean.” Stiffening her back, the woman turned her head back to Sebastian and Thalia, taking long sips of her bubbly wine.
Dimitris choked on his drink. Not exactly what he was expecting. “Right. I’m Dimitris, by the way.” He extended his hand out to her, but she didn’t extend hers back.
“I know who you are, Prince.”
Wow, this was going to be like pulling his own teeth. “Usually, that is when you would give me your name.”
The woman let out a long sigh, glancing at him sideways. “Amalia Galanis, Commander of the Skiathan Forces.”
“That is unexpected.” Dimitris shifted in his seat. Now Sebastian had his hand on the back of Thalia’s chair. The gall of that man.
“Why? Because I am a woman?” Her voice rang like arrows slicing through the air, poison that could infiltrate one’s bloodstream.
“There are many women that serve in and lead the Nexian Fleet. I meant it is unexpected that a woman of your clear caliber would be with a man like that.” Dimitris pointed to Sebastian, who leaned even closer to the seer now. Any closer and he really would fly across this table and have the man’s hands for touching her.
“As I said, we are not together. Though by the way you look at Thalia, it would seem that you two are.”
“We are merely traveling companions, nothing more.”
Amalia poured herself another glass of the sparkling liquor. “If you say so, Prince.”
If only Thalia could be his. But it was impossible; Alexander would never allow him to mark her, to bind with her it the mostsacred way. It was alright, though. Dimitris didn’t deserve someone like her anyway. Not anymore.
