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Trevor’s face was draith concern He shook his head “No, that can’t be right This isn’t your battle …”

“Apparently the queen thinks it is She said I ht be helpful, and she is anxious to have Pestale routed out and captured so that she can return him to the Dark Realm before he does any further harh as she continued to take in the scene around them

“No,” Trevor repeated “Red—you can’t mean it—she didn’t actually think you would be able to help us?”

She took instant ue and folded her arms across her chest with her jacket tucked in under her arm “Excuse me, Trevor?”

“Well, you never took your warrior training seriously at all, did you? When it ca, hand-to-hand combat, and such, you always cried off Royce, you can’t really fight”

She relented It was true She had never enjoyed participating in the actual contact fighting that went on “Well, as to that, perhaps I didn’t find it as wonderful as you did, but I did take it seriously, and you are wrong about me I had quite a few combat sessions, with Breslyn in fact When he heard I orried about taking another Fae student on and possibly hurting hiht me how to control my royal powers” She put up her chin “And he said I did very well, in fact” She smiled superiorly at him “And then, I didn’t need to keep

practicing the sas to do”

“But, Red … you don’t even have a death weapon … do you?”

She pointed her open hand into the air above her head, and her Death Sword appeared She closed her fist over it and said, “What do you think this is? My brother has my father’s sword, and I have my mother’s” She sent it off once more

“But … look at you You aren’t even dressed for this—jeans and sneakers!”

She looked down at herself “What’s wrong with the way I’m dressed?” Her hand waved over his leather vest that he wore over a brown tee, with leather pants and sandals “I’ht-perfect as you”

“You don’t look intiirl,” he added on a laugh

“What, and you think that you look inti in that leather outfit? You look like a hunk on themore” She snorted

His well shaped broent up “A hunk? Really?” And then he reument and stuck out his chin “I am a warrior, dressed in the leathers of a warrior You … well, Red, you look like a young and inexperienced Fae—if it weren’t for your torque, I wouldn’t even notice that you are a princess” He shook his head “Pestale will laugh if you pit yourself against hier!”

Unconsciously her hand went to the gold torque around her neck, a sign of her royalty She often forgot it was there She sighed and silently conceded that what he was saying had a ring of truth to it She often dressed like a human, toned down the iridescence in her eyes, tried to fit in with thely tried to mimic them Did that diminish who she was, she wondered At any rate, she waved this aside “I don’t intend to challenge him Ihim for instance”