Page 9 of Even Angels fall
I didn’t forget the position I’m in, though. The muscles in my thighs are burning with the strain of the position, and I’m starting to think that I won’t survive the entire meal sitting on empty air.
“I’m going to repeat myself, since her majesty Angélique thinks she’s above her etiquette lessons.” He pauses and then hedrops the news. “You’re to be married next Saturday. Are you ready?”
Dread settles in my stomach.
Yes, I’m ready to leave this cursed place, but like they say, “The devil you know…”
No, I’m not going there. I can’t think like that or else it’ll feel like there’s no hope.
I take a slow breath and talk.
“I am.”
“Now, how are your lessons with Anne?” he asks.
It’s worded like a question, but I’m sure he already knows the answer and is just waiting for me to mess something up again.
“She’s hard, but fair, and I believe I’m in good shape.”
Here, simple, efficient and I didn’t brag, because I know I could. I train twice as much as most of Michaël’s warriors and there’s a high chance that if I was to attack one of them, they wouldn’t see me coming, but I’m not going to say that out loud.
First, because I learned the hard way my father doesn’t like bragging—unless it’s him doing the bragging—and second, because if I could best his warriors, knowing that he himself doesn’t train much more than them, it would mean I could best him, and I’m not sure he could live with that.
I’m not sure he would let me live with that.
My answer isn’t the best, but it seems to satisfy him.
“Speed?” he asks, and it takes me a second to realize he still means to ask about my training.
“Above average,” I answer. It’s not my best skill, and I know it. I can run fast for my size, and let’s be honest, for my gender, but I’m a crow. If I were to escape a lion or even a wolf-shifter, I’d be no match, especially since I’m not authorized to shift, and the sky as an escape is forbidden to me.
“Climbing?”
“Very good,” I answer, and try to keep any pride from my tone. I’m not just good, I’m amazing at climbing. I’m fit, I’m light, and my fingers are smaller than men’s, so I can find purchases where they wouldn’t manage any. I can climb any wall, and I’m not sure anyone could race me. Well, unless they’re in the sky. If they’re in the sky, I’m fucked.
“Hand-to-hand combat?”
“I can hold my own,” I answer before holding my breath. This is the tricky question. I don’t know if Anne told him the truth. I don’t know if she told him that she tires me for hours before starting hand-to-hand combat because it’s the only way she still manages to come out on top and beat me, but if she did, I’m doomed.
I’m still holding my breath, feeling my thigh contract at the lack of oxygen, when he finally asks his next question.
“Guns?”
“I can shoot a two euros coin at three-point-five kilometers,” I say, as matter-of-factly as I can. It’s good, but I’ve seen some of his men do better. Usually on bigger targets, but still, I know I’m not the best at shooting. I’m not sure that’s the most important, though. I’m not meant to shoot someone from afar. If I believe the innuendos Anne made for the past few weeks, and the focus she put on hand-to-hand combat, I’m meant to kill someone from up close.
“Seduction?”
What? What the fuck is wrong with these men today? Why do I have to talk about that withmy father?
I take a deep breath and try to forget who I’m talking with.
Imagine you’re talking with Léandre, or even Anne. They wouldn’t judge.
“I have learned everything that is available in the library and witnessed all techniques to please a man,” I answer, and I’m pleased when I don’t feel any blood rush to my cheeks. I’mprobably already becoming red, but it’s not full-on red. I could easily say it’s because of the exertion of the position my tyrant of a father imposed on me.
Oh, and I’m authorized to blush. When I say I witnessed all techniques to please a man, I don’t mean pornography. In his twisted mind, my father thought I needed first-hand experience, and since I’m still to be left untouched for my future husband, the closest to that was to make me go sit in rooms while other people had sex.
Let me tell you, if I had any voyeur kink, it died young.
