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"Aren’t you afraid of lanced at his sword belt "Or are you as deft at handling your sword as Captain Westfall?"

He stepped closer, tightening his grip "Better," he whispered in her ear There: she was blushing and blinking

"Well," she began, but the ti, Your Highness"

He bowed dramatically "I do what I can But you can’t have Princess Neheoing to kill her? Why would I kill the one person in this castle who isn’t a babbling idiot?" She gave hiested he was part of the uards would kill me before I even lifted a hand"

"It simply can’t happen She’s here to learn our customs, not to spar"

"She’s a princess She can do what she likes"

"And I suppose you’re going to teach her about weaponry?"

She cocked her head "Perhaps you’re just a little bit afraid of me"

"I’ll escort her back to her chaestured widely for hih his black hair and approached the princess, aited for thehness," Dorian said, uard to join them "I’m afraid we must return you to your chambers"

The princess looked behind his shoulder with a raised eyebrow To his dis in Eyllwe to the princess, who sto at hie was spotty at best, and the princess spoke too fast for him to understand Thankfully, the assassin translated

"She says you can return to your cushions and dancing and leave us be," Celaena said

He tried his best to look serious "Tell her it’s unacceptable for her to spar"

Celaena said so, to which the princess only waved a hand and strode past the floor

"What did you say?" Dorian said

"I said you volunteered to be her first partner," she said "Well? You don’t want to upset the princess"

"I will not spar with the princess"

"Would you rather spar with me?"

"Perhaps if we had a private lesson in your cha" She curled her hair around a finger

The princess twirled her staff with strength and precision thatthe daylights walloped out of him, he walked to the rack of weapons and selected tooden swords "How about some basic swordplay instead?" he asked Nehemia To his relief, the princess nodded and handed her staff to one of her guards, then took the practice sword Dorian extended to her Celaena would not make a fool out of hi a defensive stance

Chapter 18

Celaena smiled as she watched the Crown Prince of Adarlan lead the Princess of Eyllwe through the basic steps of fencing He was charant sort of way But someone with his title could have been far, far worse It made her uneasy how he’d made her blush In fact, he was so attractive that she had difficulty not thinking about how attractive he was, and again wondered why he wasn’t married

She sort of wanted to kiss him

She sed She’d been kissed before, of course By Saer to it But it’d been over a year since she’d lost the assassin she’d grown up with And even though the thought of kissing anyone else had once made her sick, when she saw Dorian

Princess Nehe Dorian on the wrist with her sword Celaena bit down her laughter He grimaced and rubbed the sore joint, but then s so handsoainst the wall and would have enjoyed the lesson had soh to hurt

"What is this?" Dragged fro Chaol

"What is what?"

"What is Dorian doing with her?"

She shrugged "Sparring?"

"And why are they sparring?"

"Because he volunteered to teach her how to fight?"

Chaol practically shoved her from him as he approached the pair They stopped, and Dorian followed Chaol to a corner They spoke quickly--angrily--before Chaol cauards will take you to your chambers"