Page 98 of Vicious Princess
I roll my eyes, bite my tongue, and slip out of the jacket and leather pants. Roman has seen me naked before, so he must have seen the scars. He doesn’t comment as I sit in my leather corset and underwear, arms and legs bared to everyone’s judgment.
Those scars are just as beautiful as the rest of you.Daegel’s words rise to the front of my mind, and the memory of his gaze on me in that moment is all I can think about.
I cling to the emotions I felt in that moment, pushing the discomfort and shame away.
The mender lifts my injured arm. Curiously, he glances between my face and the arm. “On a scale from one to ten, how bad does it hurt? Ten being horrible pain.”
I shrug. “I don’t know. I can barely feel it. Maybe, two. One and a half.”
The healer hums to himself. After a heartbeat, he says, “You’re in shock.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I snap. “I feel fine.”
“You’re shaking, cadet,” the old fae says gently. “I need to administer a calming elixir before I can stitch you back up.”
Only when he points it out do the sensations in my body finally register in my brain. Every muscle in my body trembles, and even my teeth clatter.
“Oh, shit,” I manage.
“It’s normal,” he says calmly as he sets his briefcase on the bed next to me and opens it. An array of tools is neatly organized on one side. The opposite side has a number of different vials strapped in. “I assume you’ve been under a lot of stress recently. From all the recent bruises, I guess you’ve been training excessively and sleeping little. This sort of pace takes a toll on a body.”
I clench my jaw so tightly, it hurts. “I’m fine. All cadets are under a lot of pressure.”
“Not all are training as hard as you are,” Roman says. “You’ve been going above and beyond.”
“I told you?—”
“Yeah, yeah, you’ve got to work twice as hard to be just as good as the fae,” Roman interrupts. “Little good will it do to you if you’re dead from overexerting yourself.”
“I don’t remember asking for your opinion,Mom.”
Roman winks. “You’re welcome, anyway.”
The healer hands me a glass vial with clear liquid inside. “Drink that.” When I don’t do as he says, he adds, “It’ll help your body and mind relax. It’s not poison.”
Hesitantly, I bring it to my mouth. It tastes like spring and a waterfall as the light liquid slides down my throat and warms my stomach. The weirdest experience.
I hand him the empty vial, and he picks up the thread and needle. Gently, he sanitizes my bleeding arm with another clear liquid that burns like a bitch. I don’t complain at that, and I don’t even flinch when he brings the needle to my skin.
“Why are you so adamant on fighting Kata?” Roman’s voice startles me from my concentration.
My gaze slides from my arm to him. “She’s the one who started this whole rivalry. In Ezkai Gavriel’s class, I was trying to find a way to make peace until she had to bring up this stupid rumor about my family.”
“What rumor?”
A shiver runs down my back when the healer pulls the needle and the thread through my flesh.
“She blames me for her brother’s death just because I’m from Wetra. Now she thinks it was my father who executed her brother, which is nonsense. How would she even know such a thing?”
“Nightingales are among the oldest Ezkai families. Her whole bloodline is full of Decarios, the purest kind. She’s gotresources,” Roman says. “It’s easy for her to figure out stuff about your past and family, believe me.”
I blink at him. So she may be telling the truth.
“She’s the one who started spreading stupid lies about me, right?” I sigh and shake my head. “The one about me being Wetran royalty.”
“And the one about you fucking your brother because it’s a custom amongst Wetrans,” Roman says nonchalantly.
Even the healer’s swift hands pause for a heartbeat after hearing that one.
