10. Chapter

Eira

I had exactly two hours. Two hours to somehow gather the remaining pieces of my dignity inside the golden walls of the prince's chambers.

The mirror showed me a stranger. A white bandage crossed my forehead, dark circles shadowed my eyes, but my gaze was sharper than ever.

The clothes the servants brought were just as black and practical as before: leather trousers, tall boots, and a sleeveless laced top that left my arms free.

When I stepped onto the training ground, the morning sun struck my eyes sharply and the pain in my head pulsed harder.

Zade was waiting in the center of the yard.

He wore no armor, only a simple gray shirt with the sleeves rolled up. When he saw me his gaze moved over me, cold and measuring, as if inspecting defective goods.

There was no trace of last night's silence in him.

"You are late, Eira," he said coldly.

My name left his mouth like a sentence.

"I thought you would be glad I can even stand," I shot back, stopping in front of him.

Zade smiled mockingly and tossed a heavy wooden weapon toward me. I caught it at the last moment, and the weight nearly pulled my arm from its socket.

"Attack."

"What? Now?" I blinked at him. My head still throbbed from the blow I had taken in the cell.

"Attack or go back to your cell!" he shouted. His voice echoed across the courtyard walls.

The soldiers standing around the edges of the training yard all turned toward us.

I clenched my teeth.

I lunged forward and swung the wooden sword with all my strength.

Zade did not move until the weapon was only inches from his side. With a single elegant and careless motion he blocked the strike and slammed the handle of his own weapon into my stomach.

The ground vanished beneath my feet.

I crashed into the dust, gasping for air.

"You are slow," he said, standing over me and casting a shadow across my body. "Get up."

I tried again.

And again.

Ten minutes had not even passed, but my body was already covered in bruises. Zade showed no mercy. He struck as if I were an enemy.

The soldiers around the field began to laugh quietly.

"Do you hear them, Eira?" he said, leaning closer after knocking me to the ground again with a quick sweep of his leg.

"You are nothing. A dirty little thief who avoided the gallows only because my dragon has a good nose. If you give up now, I might let you wash dishes in the kitchen. At least there you will not have to fear the dark."

The word dark was the final drop.

The cruel indifference in his eyes, knowing what had happened to me the night before, ignited something inside me.

With a sudden movement I grabbed a handful of sand from the ground.

When Zade reached for me again I threw it straight into his eyes.

The prince growled and grabbed his face.

It was my only chance.

I did not attack with the wooden sword. I knew I could never win that way.

Instead I threw myself at him like a wild animal. My shoulder slammed into his stomach and I drove him to the ground.

Dust exploded around us.

We rolled across the sand and I struck him with every ounce of anger I had. I grabbed the collar of his shirt and leaned over his face, burning into his eyes with my own.

"Never," I breathed, ignoring the blood falling into my eyes, "ever call me nothing again."

The sand cleared from Zade's eyes.

For a moment I saw surprise there.

Then something darker replaced it. Something like satisfaction.

In a flash he turned the position around.

Now he was above me, his knee pressing against my chest, my wrists pinned above my head.

He was so close I could feel the violent rhythm of his heartbeat. We were both breathing hard, sweat and dust mixed together on our skin.

"That is it," he whispered.

His voice had suddenly grown rough.

"You finally showed your teeth, Eira."

His gaze drifted to my lips before returning to my eyes.

The soldiers had gone silent.

For a moment the pressure of his grip on my wrists changed. It no longer hurt. It burned.

Then, as if he had caught himself, he pushed away from me roughly and stood.

"Enough for today. Go back to my room. Wash."

"Why?" I spat the sand from my mouth. "So you can lock me up again?"

Zade stopped and looked back over his shoulder.

His face had turned to stone again.

"No. Because tomorrow we go to Noctis. And if you move like this there, he will not just strike you."

"He will eat you for dinner."

He did not look back again.

He left the training yard with quick strides.

I remained in the dust, bruised and bleeding.

But I knew one thing.

For the first time Zade Blackwood had not seen only a thief in me.

He had seen an opponent.