Chapter 7
Three days had passedsince Fynn and I had made our deal, and not a second had gone by when I hadn”t questioned my decision.
For this to work, we would need to announce our courtship; however, my schedule had been packed with training for the past few days.
Or at least, I was blaming my training. If I wanted to make time, I probably could have, yet I didn”t.
With every passing day, I questioned the deal even more. There was no way it would work, even with our rules. As a trained strategist, I couldn”t help but see the long list of flaws in our plan.
Number one?—
I gasped as my back smacked into the training mat with a loud thump.
”Ha! Finally!” Sylvia punched the air.
An icy stream of air coated my lungs as I tried to regain my breath. I groaned out in pain and frustration. I couldn”t remember the last time Sylvia—or anyone, for that matter—had put me flat on my back during combat training. Sylvia was a good fighter, but not that good of a fighter.
I pushed myself onto my elbows. ”Don”t look so smug, Lieutenant Larpos. I was distracted.”
”Nope. Uh-uh.” Sylvia waved a finger in my face. ”No excuses, Captain. You”ve always said that if you can catch your opponent distracted on the mat or in the field, you better take the opportunity lest your back hit the mat first.”
I rolled my eyes, grimacing as Sylvia repeated the words my father had said to me a thousand times as a child. I looked over to General Walen, who was overseeing the matches.
The general shrugged. ”A win is a win, Captain Ferrios.”
I struck the mat with my fist. ”I want a rematch.”
Sylvia laughed as Walen shook his head, amusement tugging at his lips. The other soldiers who watched shifted on their feet, unsure if it was safe to join in the laughter.
It wasn”t.
Walen sighed. ”Not today, Captain. Let some of the cadets take a turn on the mat.”
He surveyed the line of eager young men and women waiting on the side. It was nearing the end of their schooling, and soon, the cadets would join our battalions. During the spring months, battalions across Pontia opened their training sessions to the nearby schools of cadets to give the young pupils a glimpse of life in the battalions.
”Take this as a lesson, cadets. Even the strongest can fall,” General Walen said.
A couple of the cadets giggled.
My nails bit into the flesh of my palms. When I had stepped on the mat with Sylvia, the plan wasn”t to show the cadets how to get knocked out.
Sylvia extended a hand, a smug grin inching across their face.
At that moment, I didn’t know what I wanted more: to slap the lieutenant’s smug expression off or yell at Fynn for distracting me. But he wasn”t here for me to do that, was he?
I could already hear the snide remark he would make: Already distracted by courting me, huh? My reputation truly does precede me, doesn”t it, Ferrios?
I scoffed.
”Something to say, Captain?”
At the voice, my head dropped against the mat with a thump.
This cannot be happening to me right now.
Nearby, someone cleared their throat as the glow of the sun disappeared behind my eyelids. I didn”t need to peel my hands away from my face to see who it was, but I did so anyway.
Dark, shaded brown eyes blinked at me through a halo of chestnut brown hair. And at the bottom of Fynn”s face, there it was—that cocky smirk and stubborn dimple shining down at me, as wide and as clear as the blue skies behind him.
”Is this what you look like flat on your back, Ferrios?” Fynn whispered. ”I should store it in the back of my mind for safekeeping.”
I glared at him. Perhaps, years ago, I would have blushed bright red hearing those words. But if there was any coloring tinting my cheeks now, it was only from anger.
”You know, in case someone ever asks.” He winked and offered me a hand.
”As if anyone would ever ask that.” I slapped his hand away and pushed myself off the ground, groaning slightly.
”General,” Fynn said over his shoulder. ”Do you mind if I borrow Captain Ferrios for a moment?”
”Wait, no, I have?—”
Fynn arched a brow.
”The rules?” I mouthed. This was not a good sign. This directly interfered with my training, which was rule number one.
But before I could disagree any further, General Walen tipped his head. ”Of course not, Your Highness.”
I looked back at Sylvia, who was no help as they stared at Fynn with curiosity freckling their cheeks.
”Lead the way, Your Highness.” I rolled my eyes and followed Fynn off the mat and away from the rest of the soldiers.
We walked for a couple of minutes until there were no prying ears in hearing distance.
Fynn turned to his guards. ”Give us a moment, will you?”
The two guards raised a brow in unison as they sent cursory glances in my direction.
I propped a hand on my hip. ”Come on, boys. What am I going to do? Stab him?”
Lance, the younger of the two guards, scratched the back of his neck, shrugging. Lance was six or seven years older than me. When I was a private, he had been the captain of my company before he had been tapped to join the prince”s royal guard. Several years had passed since then, but I was only marginally less lethal with a blade back then.
With an exasperated sigh, Fynn brushed a hand through his hair, the waves flowing back. ”She”s not going to hurt me. You saw her get knocked flat on her back a moment ago, didn”t you? I can take care of myself.”
”Very well, sir,” Lance said, holding back a snicker. Then, he and Telis, the quieter and more seasoned guard, nodded and walked out of earshot.
Folding my arms over my chest, I turned my attention to Fynn. ”I was distracted.”
Fynn chuckled. ”Oh, about what?”
My gaze narrowed on his smirk, and I wondered how long he had been watching. However, we were not here to discuss my failures.
”Are you going to tell me what was so important that you needed to interrupt my training?”
Fynn inspected the peonies in the garden beside him, his long fingers brushing over one of the pink petals. ”We should make the announcement. We cannot keep delaying this?—”
”I”m not delaying anything,” I said, quickly interrupting—too quickly, based on Fynn’s raised brow. I cleared my throat. ”You”ve been busy.”
Instead of pointing out the lie we both knew I spoke, he stared at me.
I chewed on the inside of my cheek and peered at the crowd of soldiers who continued fighting on the mat. ”Do we need to do this right now?”
Fynn snorted and shook his head. ”Gods, no. We need to do this right. I can”t just say that I am courting you. It doesn”t work like that.”
”Why not? When Sylvia started courting Riana, they didn”t make a whole show of it.”
Tugging at the back of his hair, Fynn sighed. ”Dani, I”m the Crown Prince. Nothing is ever simple.”
”Of course it isn”t.” I rubbed a hand across my face, then shoved my hands in my back pockets. ”Do you have any ideas, then?”
The smirk that slipped over Fynn”s face had my heart beating rapidly against my ribcage. A thin layer of sweat coated my palms. That look never meant anything good.
”I do.”
I wanted to scream.
So I did.
Straight into a pillow.
Over the span of an hour, I had nearly emptied my entire closet of clothes. Dresses lay across the back of the vanity chair, over the end of the bed, on the floor. All that remained inside my closet was an abundance of training gear, which was not helpful for tonight”s outing with Fynn.
When I finally stopped screaming, the back of my neck prickled.
”Is courting me that bad that you need to suffocate yourself, Ferrios?”
At the sound of Fynn”s voice, I screamed again, squeezing the pillow closer to my face.
After seeing me get knocked flat on my ass, apparently him finding me in precarious situations was our new normal.
Eventually, I peeled the pillow away from my face and hugged it close to my chest. ”Fynn, what a pleasant surprise,” I said with a grimace.
”Surprise?” Fynn leaned against the door frame, his hands stuffed casually in his pockets and his ankles crossed.
He wore a freshly pressed suit, one more extravagant than his earlier ensemble. It was a rich, dark purple with an elegant floral design embroidered on the lapels. It was so royal—the opposite of anything lying in my room. The corners of his lip twitched with amusement, the faint mark of his dimple appearing. ”I told you I was going to meet you before dusk.”
”But it”s—” I looked out the window, where golden light streamed inside the room. Dusk had already arrived, yet I still had nothing to wear, even though my entire closet was on the ground, sprawled out around me.
”What happened in here, anyway?” Fynn asked, pushing himself off the doorframe and taking a few steps inside my room. ”It looks like someone ransacked the place.”
I slammed the pillow down on the bed. ”Very astute of you, Fynn,” I said, annoyance and frustration coloring my voice.
Fynn snorted.
”It”s not funny!” I grabbed the first item of clothing my fingers touched and chucked it at him.
Fynn caught it without even looking.
Stupid mind-reading ability.
”Stupid? Or useful?” he asked, arching a brow. He held up the blouse I had thrown at him, inspecting it.
”I”m serious, Fynn.”
He tossed the shirt onto one of the many piles of clothes littering the floor. ”Let”s go, Ferrios.”
”Go? I”m not ready.”
”Just follow me, will you?”
”Follow you where?”
He hit the door frame with his hand and glanced over his shoulder. His dark eyes sparkled gold in the soft, warm hues of the sun. ”Ferrios, I know you better than most. I also know you dislike being late, so I made arrangements.”
Before I could respond, he disappeared around the door. Despite the anxiety turning in my stomach, there was nothing else I could do but follow him.