Chapter 52: what Do I Get If I Win?

Naya was still recovering from three straight days of polite smiles and carefully measured conversation when Kael announced, over breakfast, that she required a proper introduction to Moonball.

"Is this an actual royal responsibility," she asked, "or are you simply bored?"

"Essential cultural education," Kael said, entirely serious.

"He’s lying," Ronan said, not looking up from the report in his hands.

"I’m not lying. I’m informing her of tradition."

"He only calls it tradition because he won the last match we played."

Kael’s grin widened. "You only call it unimportant because you lost."

Ronan set down the report.

Naya looked between them with immediate interest. "He lost?"

They moved out to the training grounds shortly after, where Kael explained the basics with the enthusiasm of someone who’d clearly been waiting years for an excuse to teach it properly. Two teams, a weighted leather ball, controlled physical contact, and scoring gates on either end of the field. Naya caught on quickly, asking sharp, sensible questions that made Kael nod with approval.

"Tell her about the last match," Naya said, glancing at Ronan.

"There’s nothing to tell."

"He attempted to score against four defenders alone," Kael said, undeterred. "Refused to pass the ball once. Lost spectacularly."

"You did that?" Naya asked, delighted.

"I was winning," Ronan said.

"You lost."

"I was winning before I lost."

Naya laughed so hard she had to steady herself, and Ronan realized, too late, that allowing Kael to tell the story had been a mistake he wasn’t going to recover from easily.

Kael organized a short practice match soon after, pulling in a few guards and court attendants to fill out the teams. Naya struggled at first with the weight of the ball, but her agility and ability to read movement quickly gave her an edge. She slipped past a defender on her third attempt and scored, the small crowd of players cheering as Kael celebrated like he’d personally discovered a champion.

Ronan watched from the sideline, something unmistakably impressed crossing his face. Naya caught the look and immediately tried to replicate her success, only to overcorrect and lose the ball entirely on her next attempt, trying too hard to impress him instead of playing naturally.

"Watch their hips," Ronan called out. "Not their shoulders. The shoulders lie."

She tried it on the next play and scored cleanly, the advice settling into her instincts immediately.

"Then play against me," Ronan said, finally stepping onto the field himself.

Naya assumed he’d go easy on her. "You’re not going to hold back, are you?"

"I don’t insult people by pretending they’re better than they are," he said.

"That’s a very convenient excuse for arrogance."

Kael declared himself referee, mostly, he admitted, because he wanted to witness his brother losing again. Naya and Ronan ended up on opposing teams, and the match began in earnest.

Ronan was faster and stronger, every advantage of size and strength clearly his, but Naya used her agility to slip around him twice in the first few minutes. At one point she stole the ball directly from his hands, and the watching players erupted into noise as Ronan turned toward her, genuinely startled.

"Were you saying something about pretending?" she asked, grinning.

His expression promised he intended to win regardless.

The match grew more competitive from there, Kael narrating every mistake Ronan made with exaggerated commentary from the sidelines. Somewhere in the middle of it, Naya called out, "Let’s make this interesting."

"What did you have in mind?" Ronan asked.

"If I win, you grant me one reasonable request."

"And if I win?"

"You’ll have to come up with something yourself."

"This is a terrible contract," Kael announced. "She’s clearly going to win."

Ronan accepted anyway.

"What do I get if I win?" Naya pressed.

"Whatever you ask for, provided it’s reasonable."

"Who decides what’s reasonable?"

"I do."

"That defeats the entire purpose!"

Kael raised his hand eagerly. "I volunteer to arbitrate."

"No," Ronan and Naya said together, and the accidental unity caught them both off guard for a moment before Kael burst out laughing at their matching expressions.

The score stayed close through the rest of the match, both of them trading advantages back and forth, until Ronan finally secured possession with a clear path toward the scoring gate. Naya anticipated the direction he’d take and cut across his route, forcing him to shift course at the last second rather than trying to overpower him directly. The gap she created opened a path for her teammate, who passed the ball straight back to her.

Naya scored the final point.

The field went silent for exactly one second before Kael erupted into celebration loud enough to startle a flock of birds from the nearby trees. Ronan stared at the scoring gate as though it had personally betrayed him.

Naya walked over, breathless and flushed, delight written plainly across her face. "You lost."

"I noticed."

"You could congratulate me."

He looked at her, triumphant and glowing, and found himself smiling despite the loss. "Congratulations, Naya."

It was sincere, and she found she liked that far more than she expected.

She considered her prize carefully on the walk back, weighing jewelry, royal privileges, and other obvious rewards before settling on something else entirely.

"One day," she said. "You don’t give me a single order."

Ronan raised an eyebrow. "Not one?"

"Not one."

"What if you need instructions on something?"

"Then you ask nicely."

Kael looked thoroughly delighted at the prospect of watching his brother behave like an ordinary husband for an entire day.

"You’ve used your prize to make my life difficult," Ronan said.

"You agreed to the wager."

He sighed. "Fine."

"Thank you," Naya said, smiling sweetly enough that Kael muttered something under his breath about enjoying tomorrow enormously.

Later, walking back toward the palace together, Ronan asked whether she’d genuinely thought she could beat him.

"I knew I could," Naya said.

"You’re becoming insufferable."

"You married me."

"I’m beginning to understand the consequences of that decision."

She laughed and took his arm, and for once, neither the crown nor the unresolved mystery hanging over both their lives pressed down on the moment at all. They were simply two people who’d spent the afternoon enjoying each other’s company, nothing more complicated than that.

As they reached the palace doors, Ronan leaned closer.

"You’d better enjoy your victory," he said.

Naya smiled up at him. "Oh, I intend to."