Because I Love You✔️

Chapter 37: Mind Reader

Ella narrowed her eyes, giving him a very familiar look of cold hatred that made Xaphile shiver.
Amelia was fidgeting back and out of the way, blue eyes filled with discomfort, but Gus looked more confused than anything.

"Do you know who I am?" Ella asked in a slow, calculating manner. "Do you know who you're conversing with right now?"

Eying the people watching them, he leaned down and spoke so quietly that Xaphile barely heard him.

"Some of the folks down south call you the White Witch and the Demon Slayer," Sinmir said, regarding her with eyes that held no fear. "The people of the capital, on the other hand, call you the Countess of Nimika."

Her face flushed with outrage and she abruptly lost her temper.

"Correct!" she hissed, putting a hand on her dagger. "Since you already know, you had better listen to me when I tell you something, or you'll face the consequences. You're not coming with us. End of story."

When she nodded and turned to go, Sinmir chuckled.

"Do you know who I am, Lass?" he quietly inquired, making her pause. "Addressing me in that kind of manner would have gotten a normal woman hanged."

Ella stiffened and fixed a glare on him, brows furrowing.

"Hanged?" she scoffed, cocking her hip. "Oh, really?"

"Aye," he chuckled, taking his helmet off and shaking out his wild, lion-like head of hair; Ella frowned up at him when he unstrapped the sword across his back. When he held it out with the front of the sheath facing her, she jumped and her mouth fell open.

"That crest!" she squeaked, lifting her eyes with horror on her face. "A-are you... are you, by any chance, Sinmir Ein Vindrael, the crowned prince of Adanac?!"

He merely grinned in a toothy manner.

"Aye," he growled, waggling his bushy blonde eyebrows at her, "that I am, Lass."

Ella blanched, and then, much to Xaphile's surprise, she abruptly bowed at the waist, clapping a fist over her heart in a formal manner. Amelia gasped and Gus jumped, mouths falling open.

Both of them looked just as stunned as he felt.

"Forgive me, my Lord prince," she murmured, lifting her eyes and regarding him with firm respect. "I did not know who you were, so please forgive my disrespect."

"Bah, skepticism like yours can at the very least keep one's head where it belongs," Sinmir grunted, slinging his sword back on and regarding her with a smirk. "It's a good quality for a political ruler to have."

Ella's brow wrinkled with confusion and she righted herself, giving him a slight frown.

"I apologize if I am intruding," she muttered, "but what exactly are you doing this far South in Aerika without an entourage or, at the very least, guards? I was not informed that someone of your status was actually within our country's borders."

Sinmir's amusement vanished.

His steely grey eyes slowly flitted across her face, alarmingly cold and calculating, and there was something about that strangely icy expression that completely intimidated Xaphile. His tail fluffed out and he swallowed tensely, but as quickly as the look appeared, the moment passed. 

Suddenly the prince was smiling again, although the look in his eyes didn't really fade away.

"My reasons are my own," he said curtly, but pleasantly. "If you must have something to sate your curiosity, I will say this: I'm on a personal political errand."