Page 21 of Until the Stars Fall

How could I tell this woman—who looked genuinely concerned for me—that I wasn’t interested in sex just for the fun of it? Despite balking at romance for most of my life, I now craved love more than anything else. And not just any love, but his. Brennan’s. The very prince whose body Raven had just been gossiping about.

Pressing my lips together, I bobbed a shoulder as I stared down at my empty bowl. “Trust me, I know what I’m missing. But I need to get over him.”

“Get over who now?” she asked, and I mentally kicked myself for letting those words slip out.

Shaking my head, I stood and asked, “Where do we take care of our dishes?”

I expected her to ignore me and keep pushing for an answer, but instead she offered me a warm smile as she rose from her seat and pointed to a washbasin on the other side of the fires. She looked up at the morning sun and sighed.

“Training starts soon, so I guess we’ll have to resume our chat later.”

“Who is training me anyway?” I asked, hoping it wouldn’t be one of the brutal women I’d witnessed fighting yesterday.

Raven donned an easy grin and lifted her brows high as she answered, “Me.”

My breath came out in painful wheezes, and no matter how much air I sucked in, I couldn’t find any relief. Bent over at the waist, I stared at my feet. My lungs burned almost as much as the sun beating down on the back of my neck, and my legs angrily protested this abuse I’d inflicted upon them.

Not me, actually.

But Raven, at the direction of her parents.

Her toes came into view as she bounced her heels off the ground in front of me.

“You weren’t lying when you said you weren’t athletic. We haven’t been running that long.”

“Why—” I took another unsatisfying gulp of air as I tilted my face up to look at her. “Why would I lie about that?”

She beamed a smile that begged to be smacked off her perfect face. “Oh, you know. Some people play up the humility to make their performance more impressive. You though…” Her words trailed off into a string of giggles.

Pushing my hands off my knees, I forced myself to stand upright. “At least I’m good for a laugh,” I said, thankful that my voice was finally coming out a bit more evenly now.

Raven stepped forward and gripped my shoulders with both hands. “We’ll make sure you’re good for much more than that before we send you back to the palace. But it won’t be easy. You ready to head back?”

A groan rumbled in my chest as my head fell forward.

“I’ll take that as a yes. We’re already late, and I really don’t want to miss lunch,” Raven said, spinning away from me and bounding off through the trees before throwing a final command over her shoulder. “Hurry up, Lieke!”

The wooden sword smacked into my hip, pulling a hiss from between my teeth as my shaky, weary legs did their best to spin me away from Raven. Every muscle in my body, from my calves up to my neck, screamed. Between the run this morning and the last hour of weapons drills, they’d been pushed beyond their limit.

“Lift your weapon,” Raven commanded patiently, gesturing toward the sky with her palms.

My shoulders slumped, and I rolled my neck in a fruitless effort to stretch out some of the pain. “I can’t,” I said, defeated.

Tucking the tip of her practice blade behind my elbow, she nudged my arm up. “You must learn to, Lieke. Up.” I winced as I forced my muscles to obey, and gritting my teeth, I reset my feet as she’d demonstrated earlier. “Good,” she said.

I didn’t wait for her to give the word before I lunged forward, putting any energy I could muster into thrusting the blade toward her. She easily pivoted back and to the right, avoiding my strike. Still, she smiled and offered another word of praise.

“Now what do you do?” she asked.

Instead of answering verbally, I growled as I pulled the blade in a wide arc toward her, stepping my left foot forward so my body could turn to face her.

“Yes, exactly,” she said, lifting her weapon to meet mine with athwackthat reverberated up my arm. I fought through the fatigue as best I could, trying to ignore how my entire limb shook uncontrollably from the exertion.

“Now, shift your weight more to your back foot,” she instructed. “More on the balls of your feet. Yes, like that. See how that makes it easier to back away from me as I pursue?”

Lightly, I stepped back several paces, and she moved with me, circling her blade away from mine. My arm dropped heavily to my side.

“I can’t do this,” I said, shaking my head slowly.

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