Mountains Vast and a Kingdom So Red

Chapter 4

Leviys's handwriting is exactly how I expected, neat letters, all uppercase. The paper feels sturdier than ours. I read it four times.

Sexy, rakish Mikah

I am starting with, I would like to see you. My friends and I rented a room at a hostel in Aux Duvrex from the seventeenth day to the nineteenth and I know a good spot in the city for sparkling wine. Join me for a date? The hostel's name is Ymi or Ymb.

Say yes?

Leviys

Of course the answer is yes, my body acts out a grand dance, legs running in place. He wants to see me. He is requesting to see me. And as I envision an outfit, I realize the seventeenth is in three days. Delivering my message to Delphinia is of utmost importance. I shuffle out of the house and take the hover board to the glen where the birds flock together. It takes great pains for my sparrow to notice me, but when she does, her talons grip my letter and sail into the lilac sky. The Thewren mountains feel so far away.

Ryder does not know what quite to make of my energy. I'm eagerly shooting at him, but my eyes are downcast. In a fight, a soldier has to be concentrated on his opponent, but I am not concentrated on Ryder. Instead I am out of rhythm, destabilized when I am supposed to be present. He disarms me and asks what befalls me.

"I'm nervous about the speech I'm giving my tutor later."

"That can't be true. You ace your speeches." The tutor might lash me for the speech I'm giving. It is not done, but what I did up in my room earlier was way more fun then coursework. I scrapped my undergarments, placed a blanket over me and played with myself, dreaming about how Leviys's fingers felt inside my pussy and how his cock tasted in my mouth. Goodness, my cheeks must be read. Ryder looks at my strangely.

"You're right," I say and square my shoulders. "I have nothing to be nervous about."

"Where is the safest place to load your firearm?" He demands, inching closer to me in the compound.

"Tucked in a corner somewhere." I reply, rolling my eyes.

"What if there is no corner?"

"I do it as subtly as possible?" He shakes his head, a tendril of his hair moving.

"I get a loaded gun from my fellow soldier?" He's marginally impressed.

"What if all your soldiers are dead and it is just you?"

"Ohh. What a high pressure situation. I forget the bullets and try to knock him dead with the firearm."

He laughs, handing me back the weapon. "Good one, Mikah." It's nice to be called by my real name and not princess. I swear we could be friends if he was not stubborn.

"Small talk and strategy?" I waver, wondering if he's going to force us to go the full hour fighting.

"Yeah," he smiles. "Small talk first."

I sit down and he joins me, albeit sitting stiffly as if he's ruining his precious outfit.

"What do you do when you are not training with me?"

He raises his brows. "I train with the armada."

"Duh, Ryder what do you do outside of your job responsibilities? Do you get smashed, do you gamble, do you sleep with women?" His social life is none of my business but it is also all of my business because I am a princess and I get to ask whatever I want.

My sort of friend bites his lip, then makes eye contact with me. "My buddies and I drink. I do not gamble because I am piss poor at cards and my girlfriend and I broke up recently, so someone I was very fond of sleeping with is, well, no longer available." Guilt might be surfacing on my face because he continues smoothly. "I am too pretty and charming to rely on prostitutes like some men, so I occasionally hook up with a perfect stranger." I nod, processing the words. I guess Leviys is a perfect stranger. I hardly know him except that he is a wolf with a carrier platypus.

"I didn't know you had a girlfriend," I say.

"It's been a while since you've asked for small talk," he says.

"Hmm." He's deflecting. "To be in love must be an honor. I'm sure her breasts were enormous and very perky." It is his turn to roll his eyes.

"Let us stand up for the strategy bit. I feel like a child."

I huff as I get up. "You have not asked about my life. Aren't you dying to know what dresses I wear, what babies I kiss?"

"We skipped curl ups today," he says in a be careful tone.

I remain silent. "Are you dating someone?" he asks.

Bouncing in pleasure, I fill him in. "I met a guy at the harvest festival. We shared a kiss, and since he has the name of my sparrow we've shared letters and he asked to see me in Aux Duvrex."

"The boy kissed you at a public event? Does he have a death kink?" His glare is deadly.

"We kissed in the woods. No one saw."

He messed with his tie. "Great that's so much better." With swiftness, he checks his magnet for the time and heads out.

"Wait! We didn't get to the strategy," I call, but there isn't much conviction in my tone.

"Tomorrow," he sighs, even though we both know tomorrow is break.