Forbidden Honor (Dragon Royals #1)(17)

I’d learned to fence at my boarding school, but I’d been pulled out long before I had the chance to master any skills. And the past few years my sole exercise had involved a lot of scrubbing.

“I don’t mind.” He vaulted back over the fence, but this time he stopped at the top, one leg on either side, and reached his hand back toward me.

He was gorgeous as hell, limned by the sunlight that was getting into my eyes, his dark hair waving in the breeze.

“Why?” I demanded.

“I’m curious about the girl who intrigued Talisyn so much,” he said. “And who jumps like a naughty cat from one balcony to another.”

“A naughty cat? Cats are just living their lives. They can’t help it.”

“Are you just living your life?” he asked me lightly. “You just can’t help it?”

“I can’t,” I said, taking a step back. “Talisyn was right the other night when he said he was making a spectacle of me. No one’s going to judge you for amusing yourself, but I… I have responsibilities.”

I wanted to spar with him so badly. To test myself against these arrogant men, even knowing I wasn’t quite as good, not with my abbreviated education. I wanted the chance to fight. To relieve some of the pent-up aggression that burned in my chest after watching Alis hit Hanna and doing nothing.

“What responsibilities?” Branok asked quietly, his bright blue eyes dancing with curiosity.

But I turned and fled.

I could feel the princes staring after me, their eyes daggers in my back.

I wanted to go back to them, to give in to the pull between us, to fight and play and lose myself in the pretend that I could matter to this world like they did.

Instead, I walked down the steps, letting my aching shoulders slope, letting the exhaustion of the day drag me down.

Today, I was a good broomstick.





Honor



The next day, I turned my supplies in and changed clothes. My footsteps echoed in the empty halls of the academy, the students already having scattered.

In two days’ time, I’d know exactly what I was, or rather, what my soul creature was. Part of me would prefer to keep it a mystery, to believe I might be a wolf or a tiger or a panther or even a clever, quick-on-my-feet cat. But Alis had told me the story a dozen times of how my father had pitied me after I was found beaten and abandoned by my first parents. I came from the worst kind of stock, not the kind that created sleek, gorgeous predators, but the kind that would eat their own young.

As I was passing the training yard, a sudden explosion of color and movement and growling startled me.

I whirled to see two dragons fighting each other. They took up the entire yard, with their lashing tails and their enormous, winged bodies covered in rippling rainbow-colored scales. They were as beautiful as they were fierce, and I stopped dead, overcome by longing.

Two other students passed by me, saw the dragons, and broke into a run as if they were afraid they would accidentally be stomped into little piles of jelly.

Flames burst past me as one dragon breathed fire at another, heat beating against my face, and I stepped backward.

Right into a hard chest.

“Honor.” Jaik said, his voice curt. “Here you are again.”

I pulled away and whirled to face him. His dark hair was damp with sweat, and more drops of sweat trickled down the broad, flat planes of his chest and down his tanned abs.

Did these men ever stop training?

Did they ever wear shirts?

“Quite often,” he said drily.

I’d said that bit about the shirts out loud.

Maybe I should tell them I was a spy and let them murder me so I’d be out of my misery.

“You like to watch us train.” There was no hint of question in his voice.

“Because I’d like to train myself.” Not because you’re gorgeous. Although that was true as well.

He scoffed, stuffed his hands into his pockets. “Why?”

“I don’t know, in two days I’ll probably discover I’m a field mouse, but for now I can pretend I could be anything.”

I shouldn’t have blurted out the honest truth. Jaik wasn’t the kind of person who deserved my honest truth. The prince would just use it to mock me now.

“You wish you could be something more than…this.” Jaik’s gaze swept up and down me as he fell silent, as if he’d searched me over and could understand why I’d want to be more than the pathetic thing I was.

“Well, we’ve established that I’m pretty bad at being a housekeeper.”

“Servants are supposed to be invisible,” he chided. “You are certainly…not.”

“I’m trying.” I took another step back, even though it was the wrong direction, back toward the academy.

I felt just as hot and uncomfortable when I was near Jaik as I did when dragon flames seared too close.

He glanced me over one more time, then said, “Come spar with me. You can pretend for today.”

“I can’t.”

“You can and you will.” His gaze searched mine, no hint of kindness or teasing in it. “I can make it an order.”

“Let’s not.” I flashed him a big, bright smile. I hated the feeling of being trapped, even if this was the exact scenario I’d longed for before. “Let’s save your dignity and pretend I want to be here with you.”