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I fought a smug smirk.I should scare you, Princess.

She stepped away from the bed and clasped her hands at her waist. “I hope this room will be okay for you.”

“Yes, it’ll do nicely,” I replied.For now.

She smiled nervously, biting her lip, and I found it difficult not to stare at her mouth as she did.

“I prepared the room next door as well. I’ll let you two decide which one you’d each like.”

“Thank you for your hospitality,” I said, pushing away from the doorframe and slipping my hands into the pockets of my slacks as I approached her. “It sounds like I owe you a debt.”

“Oh, no, not at all,” she said, shaking her head. “I did what anyone would. You don’t owe me anything.”

If only that were true.

“Tannin tells me you used magic to heal me,” I said conversationally. “I’m very grateful. You must be exceptionally talented at wielding, indeed.”

She blushed, her sweet scent teasing my nose and pulling me closer to her. “Well, I don’t know about that. I’ve only recently begun to study the old ways. I didn’t even know I could heal before trying the spell on you.”

My brows twitched with interest, and I nodded. So, she wasn’t taught. Her referral to the “old ways” suggested wielding had become a lost art. She might not be that big of a threat, after all.

“Well, er... I should go,” she said abruptly, walking past me.

“Go where?” I asked, turning to watch her.

“To make dinner,” she said, pausing at the door. “I thought you two might enjoy a nice meal.” Then she ducked out.

She was an odd girl, that was for sure. She didn’t seem to know how to hold a conversation, and she stared for longer than was comfortable. Tannin had said she’d been alone here for over a year. I supposed that would make anyone a little eccentric. Maybe we could use that to our advantage.

Following her from a distance as she descended to the ground floor, I watched as she went out the kitchen door to the garden. I wanted to study her, gain an understanding of the foe I was dealing with.

Surprisingly, the garden was lush and plentiful. She’d tended to it alone all this time. An unlikely skill for pampered royalty. It showed resilience, and I both respected and resented that. It meant she might put up a fight when we took the kingdom as our own.

If only she’d starved before now. And yet, that thought stabbed at my gut like the talon of the cusith who’d nearly killed me. Why was this princess, this odd girl, my mortal enemy, affecting me in this way? I should want her dead, but the prospect pained me in a way I didn’t understand.

I followed her around the back of the castle to a fenced-in yard where the clucks of chickens sounded. She opened the gate and slipped inside.

The next ten minutes were an entertaining show of her chasing annoyed hens around and failing to catch a single one. It was both amusing and pathetic. So much for resilience. She clearly hadn’t done this before, which suggested to me that she hadn’t eaten meat in over a year. No wonder she was so thin and frail.

When I couldn’t stand watching her ineptitude any longer, I shoved into the yard to show her how it was done. I snatched a fat hen with ease, clutched its wriggling body against my chest, and snapped its neck in front of her.

She winced at the terrible cracking sound, then looked mournfully at the dead bird bundled limply in my arms.

“Th-thank you,” she said in a small voice.

I took the bird by its loose neck and extended it to her. “You’re welcome,” I said, not bothering to hide my irritation.

She accepted it with hesitant hands and cradled it like an infant. So gentle. And so foolish.

“I don’t suppose you need me to pluck and gut it, too?” I ask gratingly.

The first sign of anger pinched her features as she glared at me, and she straightened her posture indignantly. “No, I can manage.”

Then she strode past me with her head held high, and I snickered at her display of attitude. I rather enjoyed getting under skin. I trailed behind her, intent on watching her struggle with the task of cleaning the bird, which should prove highly amusing.

I smelled the odor of putrid decay before I heard the snap of a twig in the nearby trees. I whipped my head in that direction to see the ash-gray beast emerge from the shadows.

And its glowing red eyes were set on the girl.