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Noora nodded, putting the empty bowl back on its tray.

“Then leave.”

“I cannot just up and leave.”

“Why not?”

He shuddered. “You are the only one who knows why not.”

She nodded again. How cursed love could be sometimes. Raphael straightened up again. His shoulders squared with determination and the light of the sun caught the hazel of his eyes. Despite his antics to hide, Noora could see right through him.

“I do believe you mentioned your observations because you want to use them as a wager.”

Noora glanced up at him contemplating her request. She knew she should feel bad for using this information against him, butin two weeks’ time, she would see him and this kingdom never again. Raphael was too stoic to warm up to and her injuries were painful enough to put her in a bad mood.

“Raphael, are the guards trained in swimming?”

“Of course we are, we have any combat skills we need to survive anything residing in Oy Frossen,“ he said. He seemed like he could not follow her thought process.

“That’s fantastic because a friend of mine needs help and you are the perfect man for that task.”

Nikolai

The amber colour swished in the crystal tumbler as Nikolai poured himself another two fingers, the glass clinking as he put it back on his office’s desk. Papers and contracts were strewn above the place a few wet from the liquid he spilled earlier. His head was already pounding like someone was taking a hammer repeatedly against his skull. His hair was disheveled, he was lying half on his settee as he watched his mother trail in front of his window, her hands clasped on the small of her back. Her black hair was as silky as ever, women her age slowly started to show a few grey hairs but not his perfect mother. For all he knew she was probably ripping them out of her scalp every morning to make sure she maintained her perfect outer appearance.

“This will be a bloody aftermath,” she mumbled, though Nikolai knew the words weren’t directed at him. He let her mutter on, a picture of Noora lying in her bed, beaten and bruised forming before his eyes. He needed to delay the third trial for her to heal properly,ifshe would heal properly. No. She would. If not by the care of the palace healers, her magic wouldmake sure her calf would knit itself together again, her broken arm and ribs weaving themself back to health.

“This should not have happened. It makes us look careless and like we do not know our own kingdom. We should have held the second trial in the palace as I mentioned. The architects could have built an appropriate parkour on the palace grounds.”

“And what? Let them build a deathly parkour in a matter of days only to tear it down afterward? That would be a waste of gold, gold that we need for other things.”

His mother whirled around, her jade eyes throwing daggers at him. “Do not patronise me, Kai.”

He raised his brows. “I am not. Just making sure you have your information right.” He took a sip of his glass.

“Then we could have come up with something else. Anything would have been better than this disaster!”

“Disaster? I might call it a success. The crowd was going mad when Noora dropped the head of the dragon. Even Koa-Ailani was impressed and I judge that it says a lot.”

“The opinion of a Sosye hunter is worth nothing because they are worth nothing, Kai. You know that better than most, we only have the chief sitting in the jury to satisfy the clans and make sure that there will be no uproar until you marry Princess Aileen-Akamu of the Southern Kingdom.”

Nausea appeared at her words and Nikolai sighed, staring at the ceiling. The liquor was numbing his worries rapidly and though he knew his mother was going ballistic, her eyes flaring with the tenth fires of hell, he could just not care.

“Your ways of thinking, mother, are outdated and obscene. You might consider changing them since the world has been changing around you with every second that rushes past us.”

“There is no honour in changing things that have always been right.”

Nikolai let out a small unamused laugh. “Do you even hear yourself talking?”

Her hair swished around her face as she turned to look at him again. “Sosye hunters are as bad as witches, with their rituals and inhumane powers. No one should have powers like that.”

Nikolai frowned and slightly inclined his place on the settee.

“Their power does not come without a sacrifice, you know that.”

She laughed cynically.