Page 47 of Rise of the Vicious Princess

“This is not a time to make jokes. I think I’m going to be sick.”

He blanched. “Don’t you dare. I’m a sympathetic vomiter. If you start, I’ll start, and then where does it end?”

“Where does it end?” She threw the words back at him. “With me dead. Or you dead after trying to save me. I can’t . . . you shouldn’t have made me eat breakfast.” She glared at him.

“I . . . what?”

“You made me eat breakfast.” She pointed at him to emphasize her list of grievances. “And became my sparring partner. You let me sleep on your shoulder in the carriage. You brought me hot chocolate and Hildy when I’d had a bad day, and you made me laugh at your terrible impersonation of Lady Everly. And you told me about your sister and your favorite cat and sneaking out to eavesdrop on Montevallian soldiers and about the time you fell off a horse trying to impress a girl, and you shouldn’t have done any of that.”

He opened his mouth, apparently decided reclining in bed wasn’t the most effective position to argue from, and struggled to sit up. His face went gray as he bumped his injured shoulder against the wall, and Charis whipped her hand into the air, palm out.

“Stop it. Stop moving.”

“You don’t tell me what to do.”

“Of all the foolish nonsense—”

“All right, fine. You tell me what to do. But not while we’re arguing.” Tal managed to get himself halfway up, and Charis leaped to her feet and hurriedly stuffed pillows behind his back before he could collapse.

She fisted her hands on her hips. “We aren’t arguing.”

“We most certainly are.” He glared at her.

“Nobody argues with me.”

“Maybe someone should.”

She threw her hands into the air. “This is exactly what I’m talking about! You said the same thing when you made me start eating three meals a day again. And then you made me interested in listening to you. And before I knew it, I felt safe around you.”

“Clearly, I am doing an awful job at being your bodyguard if you feel safe around me.”

Heat flushed through her, driving away the nausea and leaving something else in its wake. Something like anger, but softer and far more fragile. “I don’t feel safe around you because you’re paid to protect me. Reuben is paid to protect me, and I would never dream of falling asleep against his shoulder or talking to him about ways to stop the war or . . . I don’t care about Reuben’s favorite cat.”

Tal blinked. “Reuben has a favorite cat?”

Charis’s voice rose. “How would I know?”

“Because you brought it up!” He raised a finger to aim it at her, and they both ignored the way it trembled. “If we’re making a list of foolish reasons to be upset, I have a few I’d like to add.”

“We aren’t making a list.”

“First, you’re supposed to be just a job. A favor to the king, whom I like very much.”

His words stung, and Charis didn’t want to consider why.

“Second, nobody asked you to be more than the ruthless, cunning, rather terrifying princess you show most of the world. Nobody!” He looked around the room as if to prove that there was, indeed, no crowd of people asking Charis to be something beyond her reputation.

“What does that even mean?” she demanded.

“And third, I told you about my sister and that stupid horse trick and my cat because you made me care about you. You made me see you as a friend, and then you walk out of that shop today, as regal as you please, and you nearly get yourself killed! If you think I signed up for this job so that I could lose a friend, you’re wrong.” His hand fell to his lap, and he pinned her with his gaze. There was an intensity in his eyes that made something in her ache. “I could have been too slow. Or I could’ve been at the wrong angle. Or—”

“Or you could have died, and if you hadn’t made me eat breakfast or laugh at your jokes or listen to stories about your cat, I might have been able to survive that.” The words left her lips and hung in the air between them, their honesty scraping Charis raw inside. She swallowed hard and whispered, “I didn’t want to be your friend.”

“I didn’t want to be your friend either.” His voice was soft, and when he patted the edge of the bed, she sank down beside him, her hands shaking more than his.

“You scared me today.”

“You scared me too.” He leaned back against the pillows as though too weak to manage anything else.

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