Chapter 32

NOLAN

Nolan returned to the palace and rounded up a few of his best Gamma warriors to come practice fencing with him. He was frustrated and needed to let off some steam.

In the morning, he tracked down that chauffeur from the umbrella incident photos.

The man told the prince that Yena had taken a ride to campus the previous morning, but not to attend classes. She said she was meeting with a professor and asked the driver to wait in the parking lot, saying she would only be a few minutes.

It was about half an hour, the driver said, between their arrival at the school and the start of the sudden downpour, when he spotted Yena coming out of the building under her teacher’s umbrella.

Nolan had the driver take him there. To the exact building where Yena had gone for that meeting.

He convinced his protective detail to leave the motorcade behind for this quick trip to the Academy. They sent one guard along in the car with him as a compromise.

Nolan had not been planning to actually leave the car, but when the driver came to a stop, he leapt out. The guard was all over him immediately, looking all kinds of irritated and insisting that the prince get back inside the vehicle.

Nolan skirted him and hoofed it to the front of the building.

He saw what he needed to see. Just the name on the building.

Then he turned around and high-tailed it back into the car, and they drove straight back to the palace.

It was the Department of Philosophy building.

And that meant that Yena did not run into Adan yesterday on accident. She had come here expressly to meet him at his office.

Nolan felt like he might vomit.

How long, he wondered, had the two been acquainted?

How had they even met?

And what was Nolan going to say to Yena about all this when he saw her next?

One of the Gamma warriors shouted, “En Garde!” and Nolan snapped back into the present.

The man was standing before him with his sword up, ready to engage.

Nolan got into position and struck his opponent’s blade immediately, beginning a fast and furious attack. The warrior put up a good fight, but Nolan had him beaten quickly. He sent him away and called forward another to spar with next.

He passed a few hours like this, taking no breaks between bouts. His mouth was dry and his body started to tire, but his anger had him in a state of focus, and it felt good to just keep moving. Keep fighting.

There was movement by the door, and from the corner of his eye Nolan glimpsed a woman stepping inside with a jug of water and a tall glass.

It took another moment for it to register that the woman was Yena.

He lunged at his opponent and took him to the ground.

Then he turned around and looked at the princess. She smiled at him innocently.

The prince walked over to her, his pace unhurried. He took his fencing mask off and gave her a hard stare.

“Just thought I’d come and bring you some water,” the princess said. “I haven’t seen very much of you this week.”

Nolan had been feeling so furious with her all morning, while obsessing over that photograph.

But standing here with her now, he remembered… she was innocent in this. All the malice was Adan’s doing.

He reached out and grabbed Yena’s face. She giggled and shoved his hand away.

“This looks like fun,” she said, stepping close to him and putting one hand flat on his chest. “Will you teach me how to do it?”

He looked down at her.

“You want me to teach you how to fence?” he asked.

She nodded and smiled.

“I want to get stronger,” she said. “I’ve been thinking I need to do something active. And I’ve been missing you, too.”

He agreed to do it and she squealed in delight.

“I will warn you, though,” Nolan added, “that fencing is a serious sport. It’s not as easy as it might look. And I will be a very strict teacher.”

She gave him a wry smile and said, “Sounds great.”

YENA

Nolan sent me away with instructions to get changed into some light, loose-fitting clothing. Something I could move in, he said.

I went back to the fencing room after I changed, and he was there waiting for me. He had sent all his guards and attendants away, so we were alone.

I let him help me into the fencing jacket, not minding the warmth of his touch on my body as he did so. He showed me how to put the mask on and how to hold the foil, then we made our way to the fencing strip in the center of the room and stood facing each other.

“First, the En Garde position,” he said, assuming the posture and narrating each part of it for me as I copied his movements. “Put your dominant foot forward.”

I looked down at my feet.

“Which one is that?” I asked.

He gave me one of those blank, neutral faces that I knew by now meant I had said something stupid, but he had too much princely self-control to tell me so. Then he dropped his sword, stepped forward, and shoved me with both hands.

I stumbled backward, dropping my sword, but caught my balance.

“What was that for?” I asked.

Nolan smiled mischievously.

“The right is your dominant foot,” he said. “That’s the one you stepped back onto, to keep yourself from falling.”

I shook my head at him. “And there was no other way we could have figured that out?”

He shrugged. “No faster way.”

We picked up our swords and started back up. I put my right foot forward and followed his other instructions to get into the En Garde position. Once he was satisfied with my performance, he walked me through a few basic moves.

We advanced and retreated against each other in unison, following a step count he called out in the loud, commanding voice I’d heard him use when speaking in front of crowds. It felt like a dance, and we kept in perfect time with each other the whole way through. I paid close attention and did everything exactly the way he said to.

The afternoon slipped by quickly in a flurry of sword swashes and choreography.

I was red-faced and drenched in sweat by the time the deaconess appeared at the door and began to plead with me to come and get myself changed into something decent for dinner.

I started walking over to her and my legs suddenly got wobbly. I realized I’d overexerted myself. For a second, I was sure I was going to hit the ground.

Nolan swooped me into his arms just as my body slackened, and he caught me before I could fall.

He smiled down at me. Our faces were just an inch apart. The smell of him was overwhelming, in the best possible way.

He helped me get back onto my feet but kept holding me close.

In my periphery I noticed the deaconess, who had been waiting for me, was now vanishing out the door.

Nolan’s sweat smelled sweet, like grass in summer.

I had a sudden, intense desire to lick it off him.

His eyes were flickering across my skin, and I wondered if he might be thinking the same thing about me.

The shaky feeling had passed. Nolan loosened his hold on me and gave me a small, sympathetic smile. He held onto both my hands till he was sure I was stable, then got me some water and instructed me to sip it slowly.

“You did alright for your first time,” he said, smiling.

It might have been the nicest thing that the prince had ever said to me.

While sober, at least.

I beamed with pride.

“You’re an excellent teacher,” I replied.

I reached out to touch his arm, but he started to walk away.

“Let’s go and get cleaned up,” he said, “and then have some dinner together. There is actually… something that I need to talk to you about.”