I escaped

Cesar turns around to look at me, his black eyes digging deep beneath my clothes. "Yes?" His voice is so smooth and deep; it gives me shivers.

I shift in my place and moisten my dry lips with my tongue. I point to his body paintings. "I thought…aren't you going to

take um…Dakar dare out for the raid?" My voice is shaky. I throw a glance back to the black stallion huffing impatiently.

He simply looks at me and says, "Someone must run the kingdom." Then he turns on his heel and leaves me alone in the stables. My shoulders slump slightly. I pat my new

horse's nose before following after him.

Cesar is far ahead and he does not slow down for me to catch up to him. I stand in front of the stables and watch him enter his great stone castle. He hadn't beckoned me after him or anything.

I narrow my eyes. Fine, if he does not care about my whereabouts, why should it matter if I took Daybreak out for a first ride? I run back to the stables where my horse Is waiting patiently in her pen, and let