He stared unblinking back at me as his hand slipped down my arm to encircle my wrist. “You have them. You haveme.” The words were a promise, one that settled deep into my bones.
Once again, I was hit with the unshakable feeling that I knew him. That I could trust him. I had literally nothing else here to go on, other than the warmth in my chest and this inexplicable pull toward him, and so I decided to dive into that feeling. If it damned me, so be it.
“I’m going to hold you to that, Griffin Narvene.” I tilted my chin up, holding his gaze.
“I would be disappointed if you didn’t.”
Chapter
Ten
Thom and I learned early on that anything can burn if you try hard enough. Good thing both of us have fast reflexes.
—From the journal of Violet Andrever
Iwas heading back from the training yard, not really paying much attention to my surroundings, when a man sauntered past me. Accustomed as I was to keeping my head down around the courtiers and the casual way the soldiers had learned to treat me, I thought nothing of it—until he stopped, wide-eyed.
“By the gods, it’s our little princess! I heard you were here.”
I paused. While I was irritated when Griff said it, there was something chilling about the way this man called meprincess. I looked him over, but there was nothing remarkable about him—middling height, decent clothes. He fit in with everyone else I had seen here, although I didn’t remember meeting him before.
Drawing myself up straight, I schooled my expression into one that I thought a princess would wear. Even though he was taller than me, I was able to look down my nose at him. “I don’t know about little, but yes, I am Lexa Andrever.”
“Where have they been hiding you?” He sneered as he looked over my sweat-stained clothing, clearly comparing it to his immaculate doublet and trousers. “And what in Ignis’s name have theybeen making youdo?” His nostrils flared delicately as he took in my scent.
“None of your business.” I turned to walk away, but he reached out and grabbed my wrist sharply, giving me zero time to react. Hauling me back, he placed me between the wall and him.
“It’s everyone’s business here, little princess. Especially if some country runt like you is to be our next queen.” He ran a finger down my cheek.
“I suggest you think long and hard about your next actions.” I kept my voice calm, striving to keep hidden the panic that had spiked the moment he touched me.
I knew I had made a cardinal error. Cormac’s voice growled in my head—Never turn your back on an enemy.And now he’d caged me in, leaving me no room to maneuver except through him. I had no weapons on me.Stupid, stupid, stupid.All I could do was pray I could position us so that I could take him down hand-to-hand. But he was probably twice my weight.
He blatantly appraised my figure. “Have they been keeping you hidden away because they’re ashamed of you, do you think?”
“Or maybe it’s because they didn’t want to subject me to the likes of you. I am to be the next queen,” I said, fighting to continue to keep my voice calm, “and I have alongmemory.”
“Little princess, you think you can threaten me?” He chuckled, and the sound made warning bells clang within me. My mind flashed back to Cormac again—When faced with a man twice your size, your best bet is to get him confident, sure of his ability, and then strip it from him where he stands.
Unfortunately, that was a losing strategy. His grin spread as I started to edge along the wall, my wrist still in his grasp. I didn’t wait for him to do anything else before I wrenched myself out of his grasp. I kicked out at the back of his knee and he went down. I started to run, but he grabbed a hand around my ankle, and I went tumbling. Scooting away as fast as my butt could take me, I managed to regain my feet. My channels, which had been bubbling away infury, reached a crescendo. One of them went blasting out of me, and I struggled to contain the rest, to channel them into something I could use.
Unfortunately, that wasted precious seconds, and he was on me again. No longer did he have the sneering face of a courtier—his eyes were black and menacing, face contorted in ugly rage.
“And to think, I’m the one to do it. I will be rewarded above all others. But first, some fun.” He wrapped a hand around my throat, a burning feeling accompanying his grip. I raised both of my hands to his arm, attempting to dislodge him, shouting internally for the fire raging inside me to break free.
Finally, it came shooting out of my hands, scorching the flesh on his arm.
Before I could do anything further, his weight was hauled off of me. An audiblethwacksounded as his back hit the wall. The sudden release sent me stumbling to the ground, my hands still glowing as if they were embers.
Griff had arrived.
He had one hand out, on the throat of my attacker, pinning him against the same wall I’d been pushed into. Griff’s burning eyes roved over me, assessing instantly that I was shaken but unharmed.
“I should kill you where you stand, you spineless piece of vermin.” Griff’s voice was quiet and lethal, like the whisper of a sword being drawn. This was not the kind man who’d shown me around and taken the time to ensure my comfort. This was the Champion incarnate, defender of the princess, doing exactly that.
“How dare you attack the princess, Cillian. How dare you lay a hand on her.”
Running footsteps grew louder, and I hurriedly struggled into a standing position, my entire body shaking as I did so. If there was another attack, I wanted to be on my feet, even if my fire channel was unreliable and out of control. Griff either didn’t hear them or ignored them, all of his attention on choking the life out of the man in front of me, fury radiating out of every pore.
