Chapter 20
It was barely dawn when the bedroom door burst open.
I jolted awake, clutching the sheets to my chest as I blinked blearily at the figure silhouetted in the lanternlight.
“Rise and shine, Eidra,” Segolayne announced loudly, clearly delighted by how badly she'd startled me.
She swept into the room carrying a precarious pile of clothes with a pair of boots balanced on top. She dumped the entire armful onto the bed. Not my bed.
I froze. I lay beneath the canopy of an enormous four-poster, large enough to sleep an entire family, its wood carved with swirling suns and crescent moons.
The room rose around it, the ceiling soaring overhead beneath intricate crown molding.
One wall was almost entirely glass, revealing the Virellan Sea beyond, the dark water stretching toward a horizon just beginning to lighten.
Where... was I?
I frowned, looking around the unfamiliar room once more. Then the memories crashed into me.
The tavern.
The alley.
The knife.
Rìan.
My breath caught. I threw back the blankets and yanked up the hem of my nightdress, my eyes flying to my side.
Nothing. Not even a mark.
Only smooth, unbroken skin where the blade had been buried. "What..." I breathed. My thumb drifted absently over the fabric of the nightdress, then stilled.
Not mine.
A cold awareness slid through me. Someone had dressed me. Someone had washed me. Heat rushed into my face. I didn't dare ask who.
"This isn't my room."
"Rìan had you moved to the royal apartments."
"What?" I sat bolt upright.
No. There was no way I was sleeping here. In his rooms. The thought alone turned my stomach.
"Relax, Eidra. The Dark Prince isn't staying here. But I'll be in the room next door." She rapped her knuckles smartly against the wall.
"No," I said, shoving the covers aside.
"It's not up for debate." Segolayne's mirth hardened into something colder. "You could've died in that alley. Which means he could've died. Trouble seems to find you—he wants you carefully supervised."
"I didn't do anything wrong," I protested. "I was attacked."
“Exactly.” She nudged the pile of clothes toward me. “Now get dressed.”
"Dressed?" I asked, still struggling to catch up. "For what?"
"Your first self-defense lesson."
I blinked. "My... what?"
"You heard me." She crossed her arms, looking unbearably smug.
"You're as defenseless as a mewling kitten.
If his life depends on yours, you're going to have to learn how to survive a basic confrontation.
Aedric may have enjoyed keeping a blushing wallflower at his side, but Rìan has no use for that. "
He didn't want me to die in case I took him with me. I ground my teeth so hard my jaw ached.
"You have ten minutes." Segolayne turned on her heel. "If you're not ready by then, I'll drag you through the castle in your nightclothes."
The door snapped shut behind her. I had no doubt she was standing just outside, counting every second.
Muttering a curse, I threw back the covers and climbed out of bed, the dusky marble floor surprisingly warm beneath my feet. I lit the lantern on the nightstand and examined the clothes Segolayne had brought me.
Tight black trousers made from some kind of supple hide. A white tunic. A linen breastband. A belt. Thin socks.
Grumbling under my breath, I pulled the nightdress over my head, goosebumps prickling across my skin in the cool morning air, and dressed as quickly as I could.
I ducked into the bathing chamber just long enough to drag a brush through my tangled hair, tie it back, and clean my teeth with the spare toiletries that had been laid out for me.
By the time the door banged open again, I was as ready as I would ever be for whatever fresh torment Rìan had planned for me.
Segolayne crossed to the wall and crouched beside a shallow stone basin.
She tipped her lantern toward it, touching the candle flame to the dark oil pooled inside.
Veins of milky quartz embedded around the perimeter of the enormous chamber flared at once, the glow racing outward in branching channels that climbed the walls and spread across the ceilings high overhead.
The hall brightened at once, revealing a wall of mirrors opposite racks of gleaming weapons.
Wooden practice swords hung beside blunted steel blades, axes, spears, and rows of dulled knives.
Stranger things rested among them too—wicked crescent-shaped weapons mounted to long poles, their curved edges like hooked claws.
Heavy chains hung from hooks, thick enough that I doubted I could wrap my hands around a single link.
A sudden gust of wind swept through the chamber as Segolayne flung open the towering glass doors at its far end, revealing a broad terrace overlooking the Virellan Sea.
The thunder of waves crashing against the cliffs below rolled through the chamber, making the floor vibrate beneath my feet.
I hugged my arms tightly around myself, teeth chattering against the cold.
Segolayne stood before the weapons, studying them with the focused anticipation of a cat eyeing a bowl of cream. She actually licked her lips before she turned back to face me.
“Shoes,” she ordered, and I reluctantly pulled off my boots. She slipped out of hers and kicked them aside.
She pointed to a pile in the corner. “Mat,” she commanded.
I shot her a seething look before grabbing the corner of a black mat and struggling to drag it across the floor to the center of the room where she waited.
She stepped barefoot onto it and crooked a finger for me to join her. “Today we start with the basics.”
I eyed the endless assortment of weapons lining the walls. “You mean I don’t get one of those?”
A feline grin flashed across her face. “Let’s see if you can earn one.”
I scowled and stepped onto the mat opposite her.
“Stand properly.”
I shifted awkwardly.
Her expression flattened instantly. “Gods.” She moved before I could react, planting a hand against my shoulder and shoving.
I stumbled backward hard, nearly losing my footing entirely.
“That,” she said, “is why you don’t get the pointy things.”
Heat flared in my face as I straightened.
“Feet apart. One slightly behind the other.” She demonstrated the stance. “You’re not a tree. Stop standing like one.”
I copied her more carefully this time.
“Better.” Barely, I could tell.
She circled me slowly, eyes flicking over every inch of my posture with ruthless scrutiny. “Bend your knees.”
I did.
“Not like you’re squatting to piss in the woods.”
My jaw tightened.
She reached out suddenly and shoved my shoulder again. This time I managed not to stagger as badly.
“Better.” A nod. “Again.”
For the next several minutes she did little besides reposition my limbs and repeatedly knock me off balance. It frayed at my patience quickly, each stumble and correction making humiliation burn hotter beneath my skin. Finally, my temper snapped.
“Are you planning to actually teach me something today,” I demanded, “or are you just pushing me around for fun?”
Something flashed in Segolayne’s eyes. Then she moved—almost too fast for me to follow. One moment she stood in front of me. The next, her hand had caught my wrist while her foot hooked behind my ankle.
The floor vanished beneath me.
Pain burst up my spine as I slammed flat onto the mat, the breath driven violently from my lungs. I sucked in a gasp, stars dancing in my vision.
Segolayne appeared above me a second later, looking thoroughly unimpressed.
“Oh,” she sighed. “You are tragic.”
I coughed, struggling to breathe.
“Most fights are decided in the first few seconds,” she said lightly. “Panic. Bad footing. Hesitation. It doesn’t matter how strong someone is if you can find the flaw in their balance—and use it.”
Resentfully, I nodded. I understood exactly what she meant. But actually doing it? That was something else entirely.
“Get up.”
I groaned dramatically instead, milking my windedness for all it was worth.
Segolayne let out an impatient breath through her nose and thrust a hand down toward me. “Gods above, Eidra.”
I grabbed her wrist. The moment she hauled me upward, I surged forward suddenly, throwing my full weight and momentum into her. It didn’t send her sprawling the way I’d hoped, but her footing faltered enough that she had to catch herself with a quick step backward.
Surprise flashed briefly across her face before it vanished. “Interesting,” she murmured, beginning to circle the mat again.
Trying not to look too pleased with myself, I reset my stance and followed her movements carefully. “What is?” I dared a taunt. “That I knocked you off balance?”
She scoffed. “No. That there appears to be a functioning mind hidden somewhere in that doe-eyed head of yours.” Her grin turned wolfish. “I was beginning to suspect otherwise.”
I lunged for her immediately out of sheer irritation. A mistake. Segolayne sidestepped effortlessly, caught my arm as I stumbled past her, and twisted. I crashed onto my hands and knees hard enough to rattle my teeth.
“Satisfied?” I wheezed up at her.
“Very,” Segolayne said, smirking down at me. “Enough playing. Time to work.”
Slowly, the sun rose, turning the chamber molten with light. The quartz veins glowing through the walls dimmed beneath the growing dawn while the Virellan Sea shifted from black to slate gray far below the cliffs.
Under different circumstances, it might have been beautiful.
I was far too miserable to appreciate any of it.
“Higher,” Segolayne barked.
I bit back a groan and forced my knees upward again as I ran another lap around the enormous chamber, my bare feet slapping against the polished stone. Sweat clung damply to the back of my neck and slid in slow trails down my spine, the thin shirt plastered to my skin.
“Stop dragging your feet.”
“I’m not—”
“I said higher!”
I scowled at her as I passed. She only smirked and pointed down toward the floor. “Pushes.”
Not again. Every muscle in my body protested as I dropped onto my hands.
“What are you waiting for?”