Page 63 of The Shadow Heir

I cocked my hands on my hips. “I may not be able to do magic, but I apparently can retrieve informationyoucannot, so I would refrain from the derogatory comments.”

His lips quirked as his sister approached from behind, but he didn’t break eye contact with me as he stepped aside to include Alba in the conversation.

Alba smiled and lifted her sword so the tip pointed at the ceiling. “Hello! Ready for another sparring session?” Before Ianswered, she looked at her brother. “You’re right, she is good, for a mortal.”

I glanced from her to Casimiro. His eyes darted away from me.

“I stabbed him,” I blurted, feeling the need to prove thatfor a mortal, I’d been good enough to wound the prince of shadows.

“Youwhat?” Alba said, turning to her brother with a gaping mouth.

“And shot him with an arrow,” I added.

Alba used her free hand to smack her brother. “You didn’t tell me that.”

The fact that he’d said anything at all about me to his sister was shocking enough.

Cas turned aside, one hand moving to tousle his sweaty hair. “You wanted a sparring partner. You’ve got one. Now I can go.”

Alba’s face fell, then brightened quickly. “But we were having so much fun.”

“You said it yourself, I’m too busy to do this with you anymore,” Cas said, storming off toward the abandoned sword.

Alba winked at me, then hurried after her brother. She turned back and waved me forward. “Come on!” she whispered.

Cas glanced over his shoulder but only increased his pace. “If you enjoy winning, you’ll have much more fun with her.”

“She stabbed you,” Alba said, catching up with her brother as I walked rather bewilderedly toward them both.

I should have turned around, gone back to my room, and awaited whatever torture was next. But I’d come here to tell Casimiro what the servant had said and to demand he give me some pointers for how to draw out this magic-locked information.

“I wasn’t there to fight,” Cas retorted.

“Oh, so youlet herstab you?”

He didn’t respond. “Use the wooden weapons.” He pointed to one statue. In each hand was a wooden sword and strapped to itin a dozen places were wooden weapons of all shapes and sizes, from a battle axe down to a dagger.

Alba disappeared and reappeared in front of me holding the hilt of a wooden knife toward me. Her sword was gone, replaced by a wooden dagger of her own.

I was too stunned by her fast movement to respond immediately. Finally, I took the proffered dagger, mostly to get it out of my face. Casimiro lifted his sword from the ground with a single move of his foot and caught the blade in the air with his hand. He dissolved into shadow, and I blinked, furiously searching for him.

Alba pinched her lips and nodded toward a statue that now had a sword replaced in its upraised hand. Casimiro had put it there without me ever seeing him move, and he was nowhere in sight. My cheeks flared under her scrutiny. It didn’t matter if Cas left without talking to me again. He was the heir of this court of monsters, and he had better things to do than—

“You should speak to Ariana, your servant. In the confines of your room, she might divulge some information,” Cas said from behind me.

I whirled around, the wooden dagger pointed toward him instinctively. “She hates me.”

Cas tilted his head. “Even now that you’ve given her my ruby?”

“Her religion tells her that I’m not supposed to be alive, that my life doesn’t matter.”

“Is that so?” He clasped his hands behind his back and tipped his chin at me. “Then you will just have to prove to her that your life does matter.”

The way he said it shook me to my bones. This was the same man tasked with ending my life for sport. He’d told me a mortal’s life was nothing but a breath, a pointless little blip that could at least be laughed at by those more powerful. He certainly didn’t thinkmylife held any value.

“But…” I stammered, unsure how to respond or how to keep my heart from racing so much as he looked at me with those two dark eyes.

“Cas, catch,” Alba said.

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