Page 18 of Thief of Hearts

His eyes lit up and he took two swaggering steps toward me. “Why do you think you’re an exception? You’ve been staring at me for the last few minutes.”

That might have been true—he was very pleasant to look at—but that arrogant grin needed to be taken down a notch. “You seem familiar. I’ve been trying to remember if you’re one of the many men I’ve had in my bed.”

His voice lowered an octave. “If I had been in your bed, I promise you, Basileia, you would remember me.”

Breathless chills. No man had ever given me chills before.

I would stay in control of myself. Even if I had to lie.

Which I did.

“Whatever it is you think you’re doing, it’s not working on me,” I said. I tried not to grimace.

“It’s working on you. You’re just choosing to not act on it.”

I wanted to tell him he was wrong, but that would require me to lie again and I’d felt ill doing it the first time.

“Where are we, exactly?” I asked.

Another grin that let me know he understood what I was doing, but he played along. “The barracks.”

This was the barracks? It was nearly as nice as the palace in Troas.

He added, “The Sagari moved their soldiers out for the week and put the competitors here.”

“Where would they move the soldiers to?” Given the size of this place, there had to be a lot of soldiers.

“They have the room.” He didn’t elaborate further. But he did show me the other points of interest, like the gymnasium, the dining hall, and the stadium where we would be competing, and he asked me questions the entire time.

“What do you know about the tournament?” he asked.

“That it exists and the prizes.”

“Ah, which of the prizes caught your fancy? The money?”

I shook my head.

He studied me, as if he could read the answer on my face. “Not the rope. That would be useless to you. Ah, you want the diviner stone. You have a question you want answered.”

When I didn’t respond, he said, “Maybe someday you’ll tell me what it is.”

That seemed highly unlikely. My business was my own.

We turned a corner and entered a large living space. There were competitors everywhere—laughing, talking, and generally being in my way. I had to throw a few elbows to keep moving.

My tour guide did not seem to have the same issue—gliding through the crowd like he was the only person in the hall. I kept him in my sights and followed. We got clear of the crowd and went down a couple of hallways until he came to a stop.

“This is our room.” He opened the door.

It was an extremely small space. It had obviously only been intended for one person. There was a bed and a trunk and not much space beyond that. A cot had been brought in for my use, and the only place to put it was alongside the bed.

He went and sat on the bed as I dropped my things next to the cot. While privacy would have been nice, I had shared rooms and tents with my siblings my entire life.

“What kind of work do you do?” he asked.

“Like a job?” I clarified as I removed my bracers. “My mother is the clan leader. War is my job.”

“Clan leader?” he repeated, and there was a strange tone to his voice that I didn’t understand. “So for all intents and purposes, that essentially makes you a princess.”