Page 22 of The Stolen Throne

Smiling, I wipe my face, wishing I could wipe away my moment of weakness. He looks back to me as he lets out a sigh and points toward the castle. “You shouldn’t be out here. We could be attacked at any time, and you have absolutely no training.”

Clasping my hands behind me, I ask, “Would you train me?”

“No,” he replies without hesitation.

I look over my shoulder to find him looking at the ground. “Why not? If you trained me, I would be able to protect myself.”

His eyes bounce up to me, shooting me a glare. “Because I have better things to do than train a spoiled princess.” Biting my lip, I debate if I should really do what I’m about to do. Hum. He sees me smiling and asks, “What do you have planned, Princess?”

Unclasping my hands, I get ready to run. “Nothing!”

The moment I take off racing toward the house, I peek over my shoulder to see his eyes go wide.

“Princess!” he yells.

I laugh as I streak toward the castle, bumping into a few soldiers, and yell, “I’m sorry!” As I run, I can feel Kas’s dark presence gaining on me.

When I feel his fingers graze my back, I squeal, but my legs keep moving as he slams into a wall. Ash sees me sprinting down the hallway, and his eyes go wide with alarm. “What’s wrong?”

I laugh as I scamper past. “I’m running from a grumpy man!”

Ash turns to see who is chasing me and barks out a laugh. “I told you not to run!”

“Where’s Dax?” I yell.

“In the great hall.”

I manage to get all the way to the doors of the hall when I feel fingers graze my back again. With a screech, I push open the doors and then tumble inside as Kas grabs me. We roll across the floor before stopping at Dax’s feet. Well, that’s convenient.

I can’t stop laughing as Kas stares down at me. “Caught you, Princess.”

I look up to find Dax smiling at us. He chuckles and says, “You appear to have been caught, Little Raven.”

I nod from my position on the floor. “I wanted to ask you a question.”

“What question is that?”

“I was wondering if Kas could—” The rest of my words are mumbled when Kas covers my mouth with his hand.

“I told you no.”

I smile sweetly under his hand, then bite one of the fingers covering my mouth. He hisses as he jerks his hand away, and I quickly finish speaking. “—train me how to fight!”

Kas glares down at me. “You are such a bad princess.”

I grin widely as I look at him, then back to Dax. “So can he?”

He ponders the question for a moment before shrugging. “I don’t see why not.”

14

“D

o the exercise we talked about, Kasim!” Dax yells, watching from the sidelines.

I didn’t realize he had explained to Kas what to teach me. But it seems he is going off script and doing whatever he wants. If the gleam in his eyes tells me anything, it’s that Kas is enjoying kicking my ass too much.

Wiping the sweat from my brow, I huff out, “Yeah, Kas. Do what your prince told you to do.”

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