The Misplaced Prince[COMPLETE]

A Bloody Princess

He had recognized her.

So many times she had disguised herself as a boy to prowl the streets when the search required more direct action, and not once had any man even bothered to look her way with her lanky frame and too sharp features. A few strips of binding erased any hint of her feminine frame. Dick had even commented that perhaps she had just meant to be born a boy, and her body had gotten confused last minute.

But he had recognized her. One look over the gentleman's ring across the crowded hall—where she had even fought once or twice when frustration overwhelmed her—and his eyes had blazed fair golden with knowledge.

All she had been doing was trying to get closer, to feel some essence from him while he fought, anything that might brand him the producer of that distinct Kohl magic that night at the house party. Or any magic. And yet he remained starkly, purely human, even as he punched and jabbed, bled and sweated, he was just, essentially...

Human.

Could there really be any other clearer sign he wasn't who they were looking for? Men hardly ever were able to control their essence on the battle field. Why, if one opened themselves up to it, war was a nigh minefield of everyone's essence blazing and mixing and bouncing off each other. Spend too long exposed to it, and one became immune to it, which was why they were able to function, form armies and work together. It was why Dick didn't go sick with emotional bombardment each time he trained. But if one consciously tried to feel it? It was there.

She took a deep breath. He wasn't the prince then. She knew it already, there was no need to be disappointed. And what sort of a Prince would an entitled English gentleman be anyway? No, the reason she was disappointed wasn't because she wanted him to be the prince. It was because she wanted a reason...

A reason to be interested in him.

Because without a reason? She was just...she was just being...a woman?

She looked over her shoulder. "Oh!" her eyes widened. He was cutting through the crowd, his gaze narrowed and fixed at her.

Horrified that he might expose her ruse, she started to slip faster through the crowd, easier for her with her slim frame. This was why she should have bought Jalal with her, with his memory altering powers!

She broke into a run near the end and crashed through the doors she spied in front of her, spilling into a corridor with rooms on either side for personal training. She looked around with wide eyes trying to spot the doorway leading outside, but none was in sight. Damn it, it was on the other side of the premise. She shot a panicked glance over her shoulder before starting for a random door.

Joshua crashed into the corridor seconds before she shut the door behind her, and she pressed herself against the door moments before he stood outside it and—of all things—knocked politely.

"My Lady?"

Surprise bubbled inside her at his display of good manners, despite the bleeding lip and bruised eye she had spied him supporting over her shoulder that made him look almost wild.

"Lady Kasey." his voice was patient, so unlike the men she was used to, and she could almost picture him folding his arms, waiting indulgently, "I know you're in there."

There were a few moments in silence.

"I can stand here all night."

She stiffened, not enjoying the feeling of being a cornered rat. She was a soldier in her own right, damn it, and she could certainly hold her own against this man, no manner how well he fought against his fellow Englishmen. He had never seen fighters on her side of the world and she was confident she could wipe the ground with his face.