Page 191 of A Lord of Snow and Greed

Caelo followed her, bending low so the quiver full of arrows and bow he carried on his back didn’t catch on the portal. He laughed as he exited. “You are always good for a laugh, Anna!”

“That’sterrifying! Never again!” My best friend appeared bloodless.

“Painful too,” I added, watching the gateway shrink before my eyes.

“It was,” Vale agreed. “Probably because it was underdeveloped. But it did the job. I’d recognize Guldtown anywhere. Luccan seems to have deposited us outside the city wall.”

“Exactly where I requested,” I said.

“The Red Mist Mountains are that way, due west.” Caelo pointed to the mountain range that I once thought I could traverse to freedom. Stars, I’d been so delusional.

No, not delusional. Desperate.

“And the main gate is at the south of the city, right, Neve?”

“Yes.”

“Then it should be this way.” Caelo waved, and he and Vale led the way, which I was all too happy for them to do because their hulking forms cut through the deep snow.

I’d put myself in the front when it mattered, but for the time being, I fell in step with Anna, watching her carefully. Her foot rarely hindered her, but she also did not often walk through drifts this deep either.

“How does it feel to be back?” she asked.

“Like nothing.” My admission surprised me.

Guldtown was the first place I’d lived and experienced freedom. More than that, I’d lived in true luxury. For a while, I’d even considered if I might come to love Roar, which would have made this my home.

But when I thought of home, I didn’t conjure up thoughts of this place. Rather, I thought of nothing. No place, but people.

Anna, Clemencia, Saga, and Sayyida.

Vale—yes, him most of all.

In a short time, so many had clawed their way into my heart. While I had them, I had everything.

The moment the same gate I’d passed through with Frode came into sight, Anna cast me a sidelong glance.

“Stop worrying about me,” she whispered. “I’m here to support you, not the other way around.”

“Why can’t it be both?”

She smirked. “It can, but I want you to know that I notice.”

My heart squeezed. Anna had changed so much since being freed. She was more outspoken, less fearful. I loved this side of her.

“Noted. I need to show my face up front, anyway.” She didn’t reply as I caught up to Vale and Caelo. “I’ll do the talking.”

“We’re right behind you, little beast.”

The soldiers on guard did not fail to see us coming. Nor did they make a move toward us, just waited until we stood right in front of the city wall.

“I’m Princess Neve,” I said, trying to ignore the butterflies that erupted in my belly. “I’ve come to speak with Warden Roar.”

“Our lord said to be careful about who we let into the city,” one guard retorted. “No one from Avaldenn.”

So, Roarhadarrived in Guldtown. Either that had happened recently, or Lord Riis’s spies were not accurate. I would bet it was the former.

“I outrank your lord. You will let us in.” I waved to the others, and in that gesture, the soldiers musthave noticed Vale—or realized who he was for the first time.

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