Page 119 of A Liar's Twisted Tongue

“I grew up with him,” Aralia says. “Why?”

“I think he’s into me.”

“Careful with those Royal kids,” she says with a small hint of the sarcasm she once exuded. “I only have a fraction of their fucked-uped-ness, and I can tell you, it’s a lot.”

“Noted,” I say.

“Plus, his real name is Malakai,” she says, and I can certainly hear her smile.

I smile too.

I start checking on Lilac every day and giving updates to Aralia. She looks better each day, and a week later when a healer changes the padding that covers the wound, she takes me into account.

“I see you here a lot,” the woman with green eyes and white scrubs says while she wraps the bandage around Lilac’s torso. “Are you a friend?”

“We have a mutual friend,” I answer. “I check on Lilac for her.”

The woman smiles, her lips widening. “That’s sweet.”

I won’t lose this opportunity to ask, “Do you know what happened to her?”

“Based on the traces of magic we found in the wound, we know the corenth that attacked her is from Soma.”

She finishes bandaging Lilac, and I work hard not to swallow my heart. A corenth from Soma attacked the princess, and I know for certain that a moonaro was here. The princess’s brother knows too.

“Thank you,” I say and mumble a goodbye to the unconscious girl before I leave the infirmary.

Screwed. I’m screwed. Lucian must know that the creature that attacked Lilac didn’t attack me. I have to watch my back. Would he kill me? I can’t think of any reason why he wouldn’t. He hates me now, maybe even did the whole time. I mean, he only ever kept me around because of my mom, and I made the foolish mistake of thinking a prince could see anything more than the scum in me.

Another week passes, and I still haven’t seen Lucian. The paranoia of what he might do has put me into a frenzy. I’m not sleeping well, not that I ever was, but certainly worse than before. I keep one eye open at all times, petrified of his retribution.

In training, when Leiholan knocks the spatha out of my hand again, I say, “I can’t do this.” I know that getting better at fighting is exactly what I should do for my situation, but I can’t keep my eyes open or my back straight or my thoughts from going to the inevitability of what Lucian will do the next time I see him.

“More vesi for me.” Leiholan smiles.

Everything feels like a dead end these days, with no way to save my mom and a prince who has every reason to kill me when he finally comes back to school.

Another three days pass and Leiholan tells the class that we will be doing hand-to-hand combat. Lately, our chats and “training” have been going nowhere. Basically, he gets annoyed with me quicker than usual and I tell him to shove his vesi up his ass. It’s no fun, but it’s the most human interaction I’ve had these past weeks, apart from Kai. At least I don’t have to constantly be putting on a show for Leiholan.

“You are allowed three daggers on your person. You drop ‘em, you lose ‘em,” he says to the class, slurring his words. I perk up when he says, “Desdemona, you’re with Yuki.”

This is my first challenge.

Yuki meets me on the mat, and I’m anything but hopeful. This is Lucian’s partner—I’ve watched them train together hundreds of times. What if Lucian asked for this and Leiholan is setting me up?

This anxiety only worsens when Leiholan keeps pairing me with Yuki for the next few days.

That unwavering fear finally comes true two days later when Lucian shows up in Combat Training. I ignore him and he ignores me, and I can’t help but feel like we’re worse than we were at the start.

Leiholan calls Yuki’s and my name together again. I watch Lucian while he talks to Yuki. I’d be dumb to think he wasn’t planning something. Maybe he’s trying to convince Yuki to do his dirty work for him on the sparring mat today. It’s not like stabbing your opponent is against any rule. I try to ignore that heavy beating of my heart.

But it’s not Yuki who meets me on the mat. It’s Lucian. I decide to use the adrenaline to my advantage—to help my odds in this game of survival. Because if I know one thing, Lucian has a plan at play here, which means I have to have one too: stay alive at all costs.

I punch first, right for his face. Lucian is out of the way of impact with his forearm up before it lands. I punch to his defenseless side. He blocks. I kick at his chest. He blocks. Lucian’s fist comes for my face and I swing my own arm up before punching twice. He blocks them both, but not the kick that I send to his stomach.

Lucian comes back fast and traps my bicep in his arm, punching me twice in the side. I push my knee into his gut with all the force I can muster, then aim for his throat. He spits blood and stalks closer. I punch again, he ducks, and then I fall on my face. The impact of his blow to my shins works its way through my body in waves before I’m able to pull myself up. His foot comes for my nose. I roll out of the way and get to my feet, the room spinning.

One punch for my face, but he hits my forearm and pain spirals up into my shoulder. One punch for my gut and I fall to the floor again. This time I kick his shins, but he doesn’t fall.

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