YASMINE
Yasmine stayed right where she was, huddled behind the sofa in the reading room, long after the Ruler’s footsteps faded away.
Her eyes were prickling with unshed tears, and she clenched her hands into fists with the effort not to let those tears well up enough to slide down her cheeks.
As a Terran, she had expected to face a little prejudice outside the Terras. If he had said something about her race in relation to how she would do her job, she would have been frustrated, but she would have understood. Terrans were physically weak compared to his kind, and lacking in his psionic gift.
But what he had said seemed so personal.
He had called her silly.
And he’d made it sound like he was practically ready to fire her already.
He hadn’t even seen her interact with his children yet.
They hadn’t even been in the palace very long. How had he already fired one nanny?
She thought about Pia having to experience one nanny after another because her father was so unyielding, and a treacherous tear slid down her cheek.
The little girl obviously had some struggles to overcome, if her desire to hide all the time was any indication. She deserved better than a constant stream of nannies who were hired to please her father’s sense of dignity and not to nurture her fiery spirit.
Yasmine wiped her face angrily with the back of her hand. Maybe someone braver would have stood up and confronted Ruler Kreed instead of hiding behind the sofa.
But she liked Pia a lot already, and she was pretty sure that lurking behind the furniture would just be one more complaint on the Ruler’s list about her. It certainly seemed like something a silly person would do.
Footsteps told her there was someone in the room again.
She froze and prayed whoever it was wouldn’t come all the way to the windows and see her.
But this time, the footsteps got to the sofa and kept on coming.
A hulking male form stopped at the windows and looked out over the grounds.
No, no, no…
When he turned, his eyes locked on hers.
She blinked at him, trying to figure out why he looked so familiar.
“Ajax,” she breathed, realizing this wasn’t a man at all, but the Ruler’s fourteen-year-old son.
He looked even more like his father in person with his dark hair and sea-blue eyes. But the sharp, cruel angles of his father’s jaw were missing in the son.
“She’s already making you play hide and seek, huh?” Ajax asked her with a smile.
And he was kind. That was a refreshing difference.
“Yes,” she smiled back, giving her eyes another surreptitious wipe, and hoping he didn’t notice.
“Hey, are you okay?” he asked, bending down to study her face, his forehead scrunched up behind his circlet, as if her unhappiness was making him unhappy, too.
But before she could answer, more footsteps were racing their way, lighter and quicker than any that had come before.
“Jax,” Pia squealed, running right for him.
Her brother swung her up effortlessly in his arms and spun her around while she squealed with delight. So, when Jax had told Pia he was too big for hide and seek, he must have meant it literally. It wasn’t just a big brother’s way to blow off his little sister. The two obviously had a very strong bond.
Yasmine watched them, feeling glad they had each other. This new life in the spotlight would be a challenge for them. But if they stuck together, they would be better off.
“Found you,” Pia said casually, glancing down at Yasmine from her big brother’s arms. “You need to work on your hiding. This is a very easy place.”
“You’re right,” Yasmine said. “I’ll have to keep practicing.”
Pia grinned at her, looking like the idea of joy made into a living being. “I can show you some good hiding spots after dinner,” she offered magnanimously.
“That would be wonderful,” Yasmine said.
Pia laughed with delight and wiggled out of her brother’s arms to take Yasmine’s hand and lead her back toward the dining room.
And though she was headed right into the tigru’s den with their father again, she felt much braver flanked by his two children.