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“Is this his target or the king’s?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know who the target is,” Nuri answered.

“How are you supposed to tell me the assignment then?”

“He will send it to you.”

“He’s always so fucking dramatic,” Scarlett grumbled, rolling her eyes.

“The men have returned,” Tava hissed from the doorway. “They just entered the stables.”

“What am I to tell him?” Nuri asked, pulling the hood of her cloak up and sheathing her blade at her back.

“For fuck’s sake, Nuri, of course I’m going to do it if he will aid me in this,”Scarlett snapped as she hurried across the floor to put the sword back. She turned to face her, but she had already vanished into the shadows.

“Hurry, Scarlett,” Tava whispered. “They are going to come out any time.”

Scarlett joined Tava, and they hurried from the training quarters but not fast enough.

As they stepped out into the sunshine once more, two men came from the stables at the same moment.

“Shit,” Tava muttered. The young Lady rarely swore, being of nobility and all. She turned to Scarlett and whispered, “Mikale is here.”

“I know,” Scarlett said with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “It’s fine. I can handle him.”

The Lairwood Family had long been the Hands to the king, and Mikale Lairwood was in line to be the Hand to the Crown Prince, Prince Callan. Mikale had also set his sights on Scarlett and made his intentions clear about a year ago. The same time she had come to reside at Tyndell Manor. Despite having refused him on more than one occasion, he was persistent; and because Lord Tyndell was the leader of the king’s armies, and Mikale was currently a Commander in said armies, she found herself in the young Lord’s presence far more often than she wished. However, the fact remained that she had no noble blood in her veins, and there was no way Lord Lairwood would approve of a union to anyone without noble blood in the family.

Mikale, however, was also the reason she was now living at the Tyndell Manor.

“At least Drake is with him,” Tava said tentatively.

“Yes,” Scarlett whispered. Drake wouldn’t do much though. She closed her eyes and willed the ice in her veins to calm, soothing the anger that threatened to spill from her mouth.

“Tava. Scarlett,” Drake greeted them as he neared, eyeing them suspiciously. “What are you two doing down here?”

“Looking for you, of course,” Tava replied to her brother.

“For?” he asked with a raised brow.

“I was hoping you were back so we could go riding,” Scarlett cut in with a wink at Drake.

“Go riding in dresses?” Mikale drawled with a sneer. “How demure you have become,Lady.”

“You’d be surprised at the things I can do in a dress,” Scarlett replied coolly.

“I am sure I would be,” he answered, his eyes sweeping over the lavender colored gown that was fitted across the bodice before flowing to the ground. “Care to enlighten me?” He took a step closer to her.

“Come any closer to me, and you’ll find out exactly what I can do in a dress,” Scarlett said with calm fury.

Mikale’s lips twitched in amusement, and Scarlett saw red, her hands curling to fists at her sides.

“Take that next step, Mikale. We all know Scarlett would wipe the floor with your ass,” a man said, coming up behind Mikale and Drake. “And we’d all love to see it.”

Scarlett’s heart stumbled, and she couldn’t help the smile that filled her face as she breathed, “Cassius.”

CHAPTER 2

SCARLETT