“Sam, I am concerned—”
“Now, Lace. Stop stalling,” I bristle.
I grit my teeth. “What is with you?”
“What do you mean?”
“You have been acting weird since we found each other.”
He narrows his eyes at me, guard firmly up. “What. Do. You. Mean?”
“What do I mean? You scooped up a beast everyone seems afraid of and practically ran out of the kitchen!” He actually has the audacity to roll his eyes at me. I narrow mine at him. “A creature who knows your name, by the way.” My voice is full of suspicion. “You are being more brash, commanding and short this morning and I do not know how to take it. I acknowledge this may be your disguise with the prince or how you train people, but you have never acted this way towards me. It is odd and I just want to know the cause of it.”
Sam sighs and drops his blade and once again offers me his hand. I take it this time and he hauls me up. “Look, Lace. There is a lot at play here. I apologize for my behavior I’m just—” He runs a hand over his face. “Stressed.” He decides. “You are not prepared for all you will have to face, and I knew I should have been training you for it sooner, but I just thought I had more time,” he says the last bit under his breath.
Why does everyone have a riddle for me to solve?“More time for what?”
He hangs his head. “We really should continue training…”
“This is what I am talking about! Why will you not give me a straight answer? How am I to prepare myself for some difficult and dangerous journey when all the people I trust seem to want to keep secrets from me?”
Sam huffs. “Secrets, Lace? Really? You are the one complaining about secrets? As if we are the only ones hiding things?”
I look at him, confused.
He stalks towards me and I back away until my back bumps into the tree behind me. He puts his arms on either side of me, caging me against the tree. His mouth is just a breath from mine.
“Let’s talk about secrets. Do you want to explain to me why, when we found you and Sorin, you had the scent of a female who had just freshly cum? With a hickey no less. Or this morning, you come up from your temporary quarters with your lips slightly swollen from, what I can only assume to be, the prince’s lips?”
My mouth pops open.Why does he care?
“No? A loss for words I see.” His face forms a crass smile I have never seen from Sam.
“When have my interactions with men ever been any interest to you? And for that matter how did you—” I force out.
He laughs. “How did I know? I disguise things, Lace. To disguise you must observe and know what to hide and you have been of interest to me since I first spotted you.”
My eyes widen as my mind races over his comment. “Then why have you never said anything?”
He frowns. “You know the answer to that one.”My father?The reminder of Tikilium’s ruler shuts me up. He backs away from me and picks his dagger back up before finding where mine had fallen and throws it across from him. “Back to starting position, Lace, we will stop when I see an improvement.”
I grit my teeth but scoop up the dagger and we begin our training once again.
Chapter thirty
Marked Ones
Alaceandra
We have been in this village for, what I think is, two weeks now, but I cannot be sure. It is hard to tell time here. Days feel like weeks and weeks feel like minutes. The plan is to stay here until I can get ahold of my powers, but to try to figure out how to leave before the solstice. Sam is afraid some of the monsters that attacked him will go after our group when we attempt to leave. Since this village has a great training ground,he wants to utilize it until he thinks I am competent enough to be able to dodge attacks should something happen on our trek to find another portal. Honestly, I am glad we are staying. This is the first place I have been where I have only had to work on myself and not worry about some broody monarch breathing down my throat.Well, not a king at least.
I roll over in my bed and groan. It is early morning and I have not even had a chance to eat breakfast.I already feel like I am ready for bed. Staring in the mirror after a brutal training session with Sam, I take note of the bruises which have started to form from falling on my ass time and time again. I am sore, tired and debating if sleep might be a better idea than food at the moment.I could really use a nap,I think to myself, glancing at the bed longingly.
As hard as Sam is being on me, the results of his training speak volumes for its effectiveness. My strength and agility are improving and there is the barest hint of muscle growth in my body. I have also ended up beneath him a lot less.A fact which I am not sure if I am happy about or disappointed in.Time has caused the bruises around my neck to vanish along with Sam’s injuries and I am glad to be rid of the evidence of my encounter with that guard.
I wish I could say training with Sam is fun, but he has still been acting off and colder towards me lately. I am trying not to badger him about it, but I miss him. Even at his worst he has never been such a grouch with me. His distance is concerning. I thought as I trained with him more, he would loosen up, but it has not proved the case.I even got my dagger near his throat today, but nothing. He disarmed me easily after the small success, so maybe I should not expect much in congratulations, but still, the old Sam would have beamed with pride at the achievement. I sigh.
I wish I could write to Philos.I think I might actually shock her with all I have been up to as of late. I try to imagine what she would say. I smile.She would probably encourage me to explore the men as much as I can but caution me to be safe. She would remind me if my father caught wind and/or if I needed a safe place to land, she would always be there for me. She would then probably make a joke that would be just funny enough to make me forget about the seriousness of the situation.
