Free The Twelve Kingdoms by Jeffe Kennedy Page A

see it when you move.”
    â€œIt wouldn’t stop me from taking you down. Why are you here?”
    â€œAs much as I’d love to spar with you, Your Highness, I’d prefer to test myself against you when you’re fully recovered. Let me get that catch.”
    â€œI’m fine,” I repeated, willing it to be true, though the ache he’d spotted sent tendrils of ominous pain up my neck and down my spine. My back sometimes bothered me after long training sessions, but it had gotten worse in the last year. I hated to think it might be age. “I’m going to ask a third time, and if you don’t have a satisfying answer, I’m signaling the guards. Why are you here?”
    â€œIf I give you an honest answer, will you let me adjust your spine?”
    â€œWhy are you so determined on that?”
    â€œMaybe I just want to put my hands on you again, Princess Ursula.”
    â€œI’m not certain what game you’re playing with me, Captain, but if you mean to be flirtatious, I can warn you right now that your efforts would be wasted on me.”
    â€œI followed you.”
    So he was indeed a spy. I should be congratulating myself for seeing through him, instead of having to ignore the stain of disappointment. “For what gain?”
    Shrugging those big shoulders, he tucked his thumbs in his sword belt. “I had concerns about your meeting with High King Uorsin. So I waited until you went to your chambers. Before I knew it, you’d emerged again and come here.”
    â€œAnd you stayed to watch.”
    His teeth flashed white in the glow of the moon. “Yes.”
    â€œTo gain what?”
    â€œThat’s the second time you’ve implied I’m motivated entirely by gain.”
    â€œYou’re a mercenary. And from a race of slavers.”
    â€œWhy do you say that?”
    â€œDo you deny the truth of it?”
    He didn’t respond to that immediately. “I answered your question honestly. Time to pay the price.”
    My body sang to alert when he started toward me, and in a flash I’d pressed the tip of my blade to the hollow of his throat. “Perhaps it is you who will pay the price.”
    â€œYou are blazingly fast,” he said in an admiring tone. He seemed entirely unperturbed. Hadn’t even twitched a hand toward the hilt of his own sword. “Even with a stove-up spine, you’re faster than any fighter I’ve seen.”
    â€œTell me why I shouldn’t slit your throat this moment.”
    â€œTo begin, the contract with the High King expressly forbids my execution, even at the hands of a disgruntled member of the ruling family—we’ve learned lessons there. Plus, I’ve given you no real cause and your honor won’t let you slay me in cold blood. Besides which, by paying the price I meant that you’ll let me fix your back.”
    â€œYou’re obsessed with this notion.”
    â€œI tend toward single-mindedness. The trait has generally been an asset. Rarely has anyone wanted to kill me for it.” He returned my gaze calmly, eyes clear as the moonlight glinting off the blade at his throat.
    What in Danu was I doing?
    I lowered the tip of the blade, keeping my guard up in case he used that reach to lunge for me. “My apologies. I have been . . . on edge.”
    â€œUnderstandable, given what transpired today. Will you sheathe your blade, Your Highness? This fix requires your hands free.”
    If the cramp that had ascended to burn between my shoulder blades hadn’t been growing worse, I would have refused. I slid the blade home in her sheath, noting that he relaxed fractionally. Not so calm as he’d like me to believe, then. Made him more human.
    â€œFold your arms over your chest, palms on the opposite shoulders. Yes, like that.” He moved behind me and I turned, tracking his movement. “Your Highness,” he sighed, impatience tingeing the tone. “I have