“You can’t keep coming here.”
“I can’t?” Dane said, cocking an arrogant eyebrow at me. “Is there a law? Is it everyone, or is it only Princes who are not permitted to enter the stables?”
“You know what I mean,” I hissed, not being the least bit respectful. “Mers will talk.”
He crossed his arms over his broad chest, the muscles bulging in his handsome training suit. It was the first day of classes and I’d come to see Beazil early, as usual.
Of course, Dane had figured out my routine pretty quickly and interrupted me almost every morning over the past week. Not that I wasn’t glad to see him. I was. I always was. At least, part of me was.
I was having trouble getting used to the whole out-of-reach, not-potential-boyfriend-material, Royal Prince thing.
It was a lot to swallow.
Plus, he was distracting. Disarming. Dangerous. Dane was far too handsome and overbearing and impossible to ignore, which was what I had decided to do for both of our sakes. He didn’t flirt with me, exactly, but he was far too attentive. I just wanted to keep my head down and get through the first year of training.
To be honest, I was worried about getting through the first week!
“I thought you didn’t care what anybody thought.”
“I don’t. But this is different. Everyone is watching us now. They are making all kinds of wild assumptions.”
“So?” he said, swimming closer. I noticed with annoyance that he’d brought his own bag of treats for Beazil. Lobsters, it looked like, already cooked and cracked so the meat could be easily pulled from the shells. “Let them watch. We’re just friends, right?”
The way he was looking at me was not friendly. It was much more than that. He looked interested and more than a little bit annoyed. I kept asserting that we were friends and he wasn’t liking it.
And he’d picked the perfect time to throw it right back in my face.
Argh!
“Yes,” I said tightly. “We are.”
We should be able to be friends. Lifelong friends, even. With him as our future King, I would be serving him for the rest of my life. I knew he wouldn’t deliberately make things difficult for me, but it would be hard to be around him when I had these annoying feelings about him from the Trials.
Watching him marry a Princess wouldn’t be fun, but it did no good to worry about that. There was a chance I wouldn’t even be here. I could be on dry land. I could be on another mission for the Queen.
I could be dead.
Now that the Trials were over, it wasn’t as if we could breathe a sigh of relief. Yes, they were dangerous. But so was the training we would receive. Not everyone survived the Academy, either.
I eyed his uniform. He would be in danger if he attended the Academy as well. The teachers were a combination of active-duty and former Royal Military, Messengers, and Sparks. And some of them were mean, from what I’d heard, bored and bitter at being put out to pasture, or just hardnosed because they were loyal to the Crown and wanted us to excel.
Some of them probably just wanted us to fail.
Either way, I had thought I was the only Spark in training. Dane might have earned his position as Spark alongside me, but I’d assumed it was in name only. I couldn’t imagine the heir to the throne would be allowed to actually train.
I knew he would hate that, but it was better that way. For him and for me.
It would be far easier for me to avoid him if he wasn’t attending classes alongside me.
Easier to avoid my feelings. And his.
“Does this mean you will be joining us for training?”
He smiled brilliantly, and I felt my stomach do a flip-flop. Damn him for being so gorgeous! It was downright annoying!
“Yes. I am,” he answered simply.
I frowned at him.
“With caveats, I’m assuming? They can’t let you put yourself in danger.”
“I didn’t get any special favors in the Trials, Tri.”
“I know that. But they didn’t know you were participating!”
“Yeah, well, let’s just say I put my fin down.”
I stared at him, my emotions warring. I was happy for him. I knew he didn’t like all the restrictions his title put on his freedom. But his attendance would definitely make my life more complicated.
So much for throwing myself into my work. I sighed.
He must have sensed my thoughts because his face darkened.
“Don’t worry. I won’t cramp your style, Spark.”
“I’m not Spark yet.”
“I’m sure you will excel, as always, Katriana. Best of luck to you,” he said stiffly, turning to swim away.
“Dane . . .” I called after him, knowing I should apologize.
He turned back and tossed me his bag of lobsters.
“It’s Prince Pollux. Try and remember that, Spark.”
I stared at him as he swam away, my jaw dropped. Somehow, I’d actually done it. I’d managed to push him away completely by being a jerk instead of dealing with my feelings. I looked down at the two bags in my hands and back at Beazil. He was watching me, his magical eye whirring with colors.
“Well, there’s no need for both of us to be miserable. Might as well start with the good stuff.”
I opened Prince Pollux’s bag and started feeding my shark.