Page 39 of Her Ivory Flame

She didn’t sleep the rest of the night, and when she heard him stir to get ready to leave she didn’t move as she laid facing away from him. He didn’t bother to say anything to her and when sheheard the door close behind him earlier than normal, she felt a piece of her heart break away from itself.

Chapter 16

Over an hour later Kaden came walking into the room while she sat on the couch already dressed and waiting. It was unusual for her, and she figured Kaden would be thinking the same thing but she didn’t care as she watched the fire flicker in front of her.

“Where is Silas?” He asked bluntly.

“He left over an hour ago,” she mumbled.

“He left you unguarded?”

“Seems that way.” She sighed and stood grabbing her sword that was leaning against the couch next to her, axe already on her hip.

She turned to see him standing near the door with his arms crossed, his eyes judging her as she walked closer to him.

“You look like shit,” he barked.

“Oh, so I look just like you,” she snapped back and walked past him towards the door without looking at him.

“Someone had a rough night.”

“Not like you care,” she snapped again and started towards the training area, keeping herself a few steps ahead of him.

To her luck, he didn’t keep pressing her and she didn’t offer any more information as they made it to their normal training area. Oddly, they were the only ones there, typically there were a few dozen soldiers training as well.

“Something going on?” she asked over her shoulder.

“Emris is sending troops to the border of Mavros’s territory. They have had too many soldiers go missing and it's leaving holes for the new Trenchers to get through.” Kaden said flatly and pulled his sword from his back ready for the day to start.

She pulled her sword from its sheath, her body wanting to do anything but train today and she knew her mind was distracted. He swung his sword towards her and she barely blocked it in time before he spun and struck out at her again.

He knew she wasn’t in the right headspace and took advantage of it, his sword swinging at her multiple times with hard blows.

She blocked most of his last one, his blade grazing her shoulder and sliced her skin open deep enough to hurt.

“Damn it!” she yelled and stepped back, looking at her arm. “Take it easy.”

“No,” he snarled. “You need to get whatever is going on with you under control, you can’t be distracted.”

She examined her arm before placing her hand over the cut and summoned a small trickle of her power to heal it before it bled all over.

“I am allowed to have feelings,” she snarled back. “I’m not some mindless thing you get to play with.”

“Play with you?” he barked. “Trust me, you would know if I was playing with you princess.”

“Queen.” She corrected with a venomous voice, her eyes glaring up at him as he stood towering over her.

“You had a fight with Silas didn’t you?” he grumbled and raised an eyebrow towards her.

“Why would you care if I did?”

“It’s distracting you and keeping me from doing my job,” he snapped.

“Again, I’m allowed to have feelings.” She sighed and saw him narrow his eyes on her waiting for an explanation. “Fine, I tried to tell him I wanted to take it slow and get to know him and he got upset.”

Kaden put the tip of his sword into the ground and leaned on it slightly while keeping his eyes on her with a suspicious look.

“He got mad about that?”