Page 26 of Her Ivory Flame

Chapter 11

Due to more ball preparations and chaos in the corridors, the night before the event found her walking in a new part of the castle with Kaden close behind.

The last couple days of training had been repetitive and still not much progress had been made. It didn’t help she was still having issues doing hand to hand combat and had puked again today from panic.

They passed a few of the servants frantically carrying fabrics and decor and guards wandering around to their next post. Kaden seemed unphased, but she was already feeling the anxiety stirring in her stomach, the thought of having to be around so many people making her nauseous.

As they walked past a large doorway, she glanced to see large shelves of books and realized it was the castle library. Halting, shestared into the room for a moment, Kaden almost running into the back of her.

“What are you doing?” He growled.

“I want to look for something.” She barked back and started into the room without glancing back at him.

She could hear an irritated groan behind her but she didn’t care, she had finally found the library and wanted some answers. There was no guarantee that she would find it, she actually doubted it but it wasn’t going to look to hurt.

Looking for the history section, she could see a lot of spots missing books and she confirmed her theory on just how shady Emris could be.

“What are you looking for?” he asked next to her as they walked further down the shelves.

“There is some inconsistency on why this war even started,” she mumbled while dragging her finger along the spines. “I figured I would do my own research.”

“You really think they would keep that kind of information in the public?” he scoffed.

“An honest king would,” she whispered, her eyes glancing over to him with annoyance.

He didn’t say anything else and just leaned against the shelf as she continued to glance at the spines to read the titles. None of them seemed to have anything to do with the war and all about how the kingdom came to be.

“Why are you so interested in why it started? Your people didn’t research that before you aligned with Emris?” he scoffed again.

“My mother saw how evil Mavros had become and made the decision on her own.”

“So you’re saying you just blindly followed your mother into a war that you knew nothing about?”

“My mother was a great Queen, an even better warrior and I never questioned her motives to protect our people,” she snarled and glared over to him, his eyes watching her curiously.

“Considering what happened, maybe you should have,” he snarled back and pushed past her towards the main door. “Let’s go.”

His words slammed into her and she could feel her guilt come flooding back into her, her body immobile for a short moment. There was no reason to ever think her mother made the wrong decision, but maybe he was right and she should have asked more questions.

“Why are you in such a hurry?” she snarled.

He whirled around and walked back up to her, his eyes reflecting her glare she gave him.

“I am your trainer, not a babysitter and I have better things to do than watch you waste my time in a library.” His lips formed into a hard line and she could see his eye twitch with annoyance.

“Then leave.” she challenged him, her eyes not leaving his.

“You know I’m not allowed to leave you unattended.”

“Are you always so confrontational?”

“Only with you,princess.” he bared his teeth to her, his last word purring off his tongue and she narrowed her eyes on him.

“Oh how I feel so special.” Her voice dripped with sarcasm and she shoved past him, slamming her shoulder into him. The contact didn’t affect her so she figured that was progress and she started towards her room silently while he followed in step behind her.

- - - - - - - - -

Silas entered her room a while later, Kaden immediately getting up from the couch and walking towards the door in haste. She glared at him from the table, his eyes catching her gesture towards him and she watched his fist clench before he disappeared into the hall.