Page 38 of House of Lilith

“It’s just what you get for showing off,” I tell him, feeling this flutter and fighting the urge to smile.

Chapter 8 - Dahrian

There’saflutterinmy stomach when I see that little smile tug at her lips.

“Why don’tyoutry it?” I dare her. “Or better yet, why don’t webothdo the entire obstacle course? See who’s better.”

Her eyes narrowing, she folds her arms. “It would only discourage you,” she says in a snarky voice, “me wiping the floor with you for the second time in two days.”

It makes my smile wider.

Give her a little shove on the shoulder, my fox urges.

I ignore him. Instead, I get a little closer, leaning in to say in a low, teasing voice, “Why don’t you put your money where your mouth is?”

For a second, she just looks at me. Then, like the flip of a switch, she turns cold. “That’s not what we’re here for,” she snaps, like a prickly little ball of fire. “Come on, I’ll show you the Main Hall and then you’re free to go.”

She turns around and starts walking out of the gym.

I move to follow her, needing more of what I just got. Struggling to keep my distance as we go back the same way we got here, I allow myself to throw a little glance at her here and there. Giving some student a barely noticeable nod in greeting, swaying left to evade a professor appearing out of thin air, throwing a look over her shoulder to check whether I’m still here. Or just show she’s not forgotten about me as we go back down yet another staircase in silence.

Who manages to look just as good in a plain uniform and a ridiculously elaborate dress like that?

Call her Your Highness again, that seems to get her worked up.

“Will you shut the fuck up,” I warn him.

I really can’t have him make a fool out of me right now. So I raise the barrier between us a little higher.

But if I just keep letting her lead, she’ll show me the Main Hall and that’ll be it.

Then it occurs to me, and I find myself falling into step with her. And I notice her tense up so I back away a little before I say, “You know, I’ve heard about this room in the Academy that’s not restricted, but has some forbidden magic cast on it.”

She doesn’t stop marching. She just throws me a look. It’s in a cordial but stern voice that she says, “There are a million places like that. And I’m not taking you to any of them.”

And she keeps marching. But I can’t seem to stop myself from poking at her, trying to get another reaction out of the little vixen in the elaborate dress marching in front of me. So I get a little closer to say, “Sorry, forgot I was talking to a princess.”

She stops and turns to face me, frowning. “I’m not a princessyet.”

I drag my eyes down her dress, no longer suppressing the snicker as I say, “I only know what I see.”

My eyebrows shoot up when she gets in my face. “You know, this is not how I normally dress,” she tells me in a voice much less flat than a second ago. “I have a formal dinner and this is just the kind of thing you wear to a formal dinner.”

Wow. Sure touched a nervethere. But looking at the flush on her cheeks… ‘Twas worth it, I think with a smile.

I rush to follow her as soon as she starts walking again. “So a formal dinner, you say?” I ask, finding myself in desperate need of more information. “What do you do at one of those? Is it as fun as it sounds?” I ask sarcastically.

She turns to shoot me an annoyed glance. “Noteverythingis about fun.”

“Are you always this prickly?” I ask as I follow her down the last flight of stairs and back into the Entrance Hall.

“Only when I’m being asked stupid questions. Otherwise, I’m a ray of fucking sunshine.”

And she throws me a look that makes my blood rush around a little, my fox poking his nose through my barriers.

And just as he’s about to get a whiff of her, she turns left and I follow her through an archway into a massive common room.

“There,” she says, in a flat yet a little pissed-off voice, as my eyes sweep across the huge yet somehow cozy space, “the Main Hall.”

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