85: Ada's POV

I spent the next few days with Nik and Darius. Most of the time, they were busy doing other things, and they even dragged me along to a few meetings. I’d had a few visits with Lady Elizabeth Jane while Darius and I were together, but they were all relatively pleasant. She’d transitioned to wearing all black while Darius and Nik began working on plans for their father’s funeral. Her grief — paired with the all black outfits, cherry red nose, and bleary eyes— seemed rather real.

It made me feel a bit of pity for Darius. His wife had clearly been putting on a face that first morning, trying to keep it together. But she now appeared to be falling apart at the seams.

The only truly disappointing thing was that the training Darius had agreed to hadn’t ever started. Both Princes were being pulled in many directions without their father there and with them acting as Rulers. They spent their days dragging me along with them, or leaving me in my quarters with Gwynn— doors locked, of course.

Today was different.

They’d left me with Gwynn in my quarters the night before, just as they had every night. Usually, when I woke, Gwynn was sitting at a little table in the corner, sipping on a cup of coffee. Today, Darius was sitting on one of my couches and reading a newspaper. As I climbed out of bed, he looked in my direction. The paper crinkled as he tossed it on the coffee table.

“You’re up,” he sent me a smile, “Nik said he would handle everything today. I promised you we would train you.” Darius got to his feet, and I saw that he was in fighting leathers. “That starts today. Go change.”

He didn’t have to tell me twice. Not only was he going to be training me, but this was playing perfectly into my plan for Thursday— tomorrow. I ran to my closet, pulling on a plain pair of leathers. I yanked a brush through my hair and braided it up into a crown the way that Gwynn had shown me how. After pulling on my combat boots, I bounded back out to Darius.

His eyebrow arched as he looked me up and down, “Very nice. Have you had any weapons training or physical training at all?”

“Used to train with the warriors from ages eleven to fourteen,” I answered quickly, “Just physical. Nothing since, and no weapons training at all.”

Darius nodded slowly, “We’ll start with some strength and agility training today. Nik is honestly better at training with weapons, especially for people with smaller statures. I’ll leave that to him.” he opened the door to the hallway, “Let’s get going.”

He spent the next several hours barking out orders. My lungs burned as he made me run laps, my arms and core ached as he made me do burpees and weight training. My entire body screamed as he did flexibility training. Darius wanted to see exactly what my body was capable of to start. The answer: *not much*. I was incredibly out of shape. Thankfully, my flexibility was still decent but definitely needed some work.

When he looked at me and told me that now that we were warmed up, we could start the actual work, I wanted to kill him. He’d laughed at my facial expression and then proceeded to pull out a balance beam. Darius motioned for me to get on it. I did, wobbling as I positioned my feet. He hopped on the opposite end, facing me. His body remained balanced, his posture perfect.

“The first lesson in hand to hand combat is balance,” he walked forward and motioned for me to do the same, “It won’t matter how strong, how agile, or how trained you are,” he gave me a light shove and I stumbled from the beam, “If you don’t have bad balance, even a baby could bring you down. Get back up.”

I followed the instructions. He stepped down and walked over to me. He adjusted my posture, rolling my shoulder back and tucking in my hips slightly. He moved my right foot forward and bent each of my legs to balance my body weight. This time, when he gave a little shove, I stayed put.

Darius nodded his approval, “This is what it should feel like. It’s not the same when you’re not on a balance beam, but I want to teach out some basic combos on this,” he returned to his spot in front of me, “because once you have them down on here, you’ll be able to perform them loads better on flat ground. Strength comes with practice,” he repeated for the thousandth time, “I’m not looking for you to overpower me today. Just to be able to make it through these combos.”

Despite him telling me that, I spent the first twenty or some times trying to overpower him. I wanted the bragging rights of knocking him on his ass day one. On the twenty-first try of the first punch-kick combo, I realized the bragging rights were not going to be mine. I focused my energy after that on doing what he said — making it through the combos.

At the end of the four hours of combos, I was drenched in sweat and starving. By about the fifteenth time, my stomach growled. Darius said simply, “Time to eat,” and led me to the Prince's quarters. There was a small spread of food on the coffee table in front of the fire. I didn’t hesitate to sit and begin shoving food in my throat. Darius watched with an amused smile for a few moments before joining me.

I nearly choked when he looked up at me and had tears in his eyes. Managing only a small cough, I asked, “What’s wrong?”

“I’m sorry for everything lately, Ada,” he hung his head, “I don’t know what’s gotten into me. I’m not normally so reckless.”

After swallowing what was remaining of my bite, I found my voice again, “Nothing to apologize for.”

“There certainly is. I haven’t been very kind,” he rested his hand on my thigh, “I’ve been so angry, and I don’t understand why.”

“There’s been a lot that’s happened,” I shrugged, “We all have things we’re angry about. Or jealous about,” I added when he looked up at me, “Or threatened by. For instance, I am completely jealous and threatened by Lady Elizabeth’s pregnancy.” Darius raised his eyebrows, and I pursed my lips. “You’ve just got to learn to deal with it.”

“If it helps, I don’t think it’s mine,” he whispered, then cleared his throat, “And, also, if it helps, we don’t share a room or a bed. And we haven’t been together since we first got here.”

“Some marriage you’ve got there, Darius,” I jabbed his side with my elbow playfully.

He smiled warmly, “You have no idea. Is there anything I can do to help you, Ada?”

This was it. My chance. I leveled my gaze with his, keeping my voice even, “Do you think you could let me see Adrian tomorrow? I really miss our walks in the garden.”