Page 68 of Soul Forge

Some of the mirth left her. “I smashed it when I found out I had to marry Horthan,” she admitted. “I was planning to fix it, but I never got the chance to steal more glue.”

Sypher started laughing,properlylaughing. Elda’s eyes widened, her lips curving upwards at his grin. When he smiled without reserve, he haddimples.

“Trust me to marry the only princess on Valerus that moonlights as a thief.”

Elda woke up surrounded by silk pillows and sheer curtains, stretching happily when she remembered she was no longer confined inside her palace. Her grin widened when she thought of the change in Sypher.

He’d stayed a while longer with her the night before, asking questions about her life and telling her stories of Eden from before she was born. He even told her the true account of a basilisk demon almost eating her father, something the king had always declined to disclose. She had no idea he could talk so much, and she’d hung on every word.

She was taken by this new side of him. The Sypher underneath the trauma was quick to smile, incredibly intelligent, and he had a wicked sense of humour. He was still sarcastic, and small things would make him retreat into his shell, but he was softer with her. His comments were no longer barbed, and she saw in the small touches that he was already working hard to be comfortable around her.

She was giddy at the thought of her first real day as his wielder. He finally trusted her, and she couldn’t wait to see what hehad to teach her. The thought of leaving Eden with a stranger had terrified her, the idea of fighting monsters even more so, but something in her soul sang every time she heard the title.Wielder. It called to her, and she was beginning to believe that a wielder was exactly who she was meant to be.

A quiet tap on her door had her leaping out of bed, panicking that she’d overslept. She slipped a long silk robe over her nightgown and threw open the door to find Sypher behind it with a tray of food. There were dark circles under his eyes again.

“Morning,” she grinned. “You look tired.”

“Nightmares.” He shrugged. “You hungry?”

“You brought me breakfast?”

“Don’t get used to it. It’s part of my apology.”

“I already forgave you,” she frowned, stepping aside to let him in.

“Oh, this is a different apology.”

She shut the door and narrowed her eyes at him. “Now what did you do?”

His chuckle was quiet. “It’s pre-emptive. I’m going to kick your ass today.”

Elda swallowed, remembering the bruises she’d been left with after sparring with him in Falkryn. “Like last time?”

“Worse,” he grinned. “You’re going to learn how to throw a proper punch today, one way or another. We need to work on your bad habit.”

She scowled. “How am I supposed to concentrate on my thumbs with everything else I also have to think about?”

“You’ll figure it out. If you can’t break the habit, you’ll break the bone. And I promise youthatwill make sure you never throw a bad punch again.”

Nerves settled in her stomach. She looked down at the food she was too anxious to eat. “How bad is this going to be?”

“Nothing you can’t handle.”

“I spend more time on the ground than on my feet,” she complained. “I’d say there’s a lot I can’t handle.”

“Improvement takes time and work. You’ll only get better by pushing yourself. You didn’t learn to use a bow in a day. This is no different. Training starts in fifteen minutes. If you’re not out by then, I’m coming to find you.”

Elda watched him leave, then went to study herself in the tall mirror, slipping the robe from her shoulders. She was still short, still thin, and willowy. Feminine grace topped with sparkling blue eyes and a waterfall of golden hair. The phantom grinding of stone began its first rumblings in her ears, reminding her of the frightened princess that had accidentally gotten a man maimed.

Elda was not that person anymore. She turned away, and the scrape of shrinking walls haunting her thoughts faded to nothing.

Forcing down some fruit, she threw on one of the tunics and a pair of trousers left by Gira, barely managing to get her hair braided and her boots on before it was time to leave. She grabbed the dagger Sypher had given her and stuck it through her belt on her way out.

Gira’s villa was a maze of doors and hallways, but eventually, she managed to find her way out to the gardens. Sypher and Julian were chatting quietly with one another, the former stretching his shoulders in preparation for a day of sparring.

Reiner sat off to one side with Atlas, feeding him an apple from the palm of her hand. When she noticed the elf, she gave a single nod. Elda smiled back in greeting, glad that her shadow seemed content to be a watchful presence whenever sparring was involved.

“There she is,” Julian beamed when he spotted the princess lurking at the edge of the gardens. “Sypher was getting ready to drag you out here himself.”

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