So he was looking for the dagger. “You took the dagger from me,” she stated calmly. Elissa was used to not giving away clues to her feelings during a negotiation. She’d made many a good deal in her ability to keep a straight face. “If I did have it, don’t you think your surgeon would have found it when he tended to my wound?” Her calm voice hid the pounding of her heart. She hadn’t planned on him realizing it was gone so soon. She wouldn’t give it up without a fight, especially when it was clear he didn’t remember her. It broke her heart to think that her best and only friend didn’t remember her, especially after all they had been through as kids. Elissa knew that she wouldn’t stand a chance in a fight against Joseph. He’d win. He had been the one to teach her how to fight. Growing up the local nobleman’s son had bullied her. Bullied her for her hair, her multitude of freckles, her father’s job and how she’d never be part of real high society since they were only rich from him working a commoner’s job. He teased her for her love of the ocean and how she always hung out with commoners and weirdos like Joseph. It would always make her cry, or at least it did until Joseph had taught her to fight.

She had been awkward looking as a kid, taller than other girls her age, thin and freckles. Elissa was still tall and not quite as thin as when she was younger. The freckles remained, dotting her face and arms like confetti, they became more prominent the more time she spent in the sun. 

Elissa gave a shrug of her shoulders. “If you believe I have it, search me.” She leaned forward, resting her arms on her knees, a mischievous smirk on her face. It was almost a dare, as if she believed he wouldn’t search her. She’d find a way to make him remember her, he had to remember her, her life depended on it. He was the only one that could save her.