Page 82 of A Tale of Treachery

We had to leave before the fascinated onlookers realized who she was.

It looked like we would be taking a ride on the pookas after all.

CHAPTER30

Gabriella had hardly left my side after that night, which I found shocking, to say the least, considering how it had turned out. In the ten minutes that I’d been gone, she’d managed to finish off my wine and flag down the barmaid for two more glasses, which she also chugged. By the time I was able to corral her from the bar, her words were unintelligible, and she could hardly walk, so I did the only thing I could do in order to get us home: I flagged down a pooka, the same one that I’d insulted earlier in the night.

Let’s just say he was all too willing to give us a ride back to the kingdom.

The journey had been wild, and I was sure Gabriella would decide against our friendship, but when we finally made it back after the six-hour ride of doom, she was sober and grinning from ear to ear. She claimed the ride was the most exhilarating adventure of her life instead of finding it frightening, as most people would.

I’d created a monster, a thrill-seeking monster. She was a changed woman, taking larger risks with each passing day, addicted to the rush of new experiences. She wanted to do it all, and every morning since that first night, she’d barged into my room, ready to drag me into some insane adventure.

I loved it.

Aiden wouldn’t know what had hit him. It had been a week since he’d left on the collection hunt, and I couldn’t wait for him to return to his new fiancée. George, on the other hand, was obsessed. Gabriella honed her distraction techniques on him, and he bought right into it. He knew we were up to something but never bothered prying. It was working out in his best interest, after all, which was the only thing that mattered to him.

I’d used George’s distraction to my advantage and spent most nights searching for Ryken, using the cord between us to scout out his location, but he was always one step ahead of me. Whenever I drew close to his location, the cord that connected us would simply disappear.

I didn’t know what he was doing to keep me from tracking him, whether he was having Fin sift him out of distance, or whether he was somehow destroying the link between us, but it felt painful.

Sitting at my bedroom window, watching the snow fall, I felt the link between us now. I was braiding my cherry hair down my back, still dressed in the casual clothes hidden beneath my bed. I’d refused to touch the clothing Aiden had given me. He was gone and didn’t need to know.

Winter had come in Aiden’s absence. The chill seeping through the cracks in the windows made the palace feel more desolate than ever.

The door to my chambers burst open, and an icy draft filled the room.

“I want to go sledding! Lord George told me you can slide down the hills on large pieces of wood for sport,” Gabriella said in greeting. She was wearing a light blue winter dress, her dark hair curled and tossed atop her head.

“Well, good morning to you,” I said. “It’s cold, and the last thing I want to do is leave the fireplace. Can’t we stay in today? We can drink wine and lounge.”

“If it’s not fairy wine, it’s not worth it.”

I chuckled. The girl was addicted.

“Fine, just let me put on my cloak, and we can go to the courtyard and search for some sleds to steal. But I don’t want to be out there for too long. The cold and I don’t agree.”

Gabriella clapped her hands excitedly. “Amazing! Afterward, we can come back here to rest up, and once we’re all rested, we can sneak out again!”

She was going to be the death of me. Never had I been so exhausted.

I threw my cloak on and followed her out the door and down the stairs. George stayed close behind us with a pep to his step. He’d grown accustomed to our little morning routine, Gabriella retrieving me to do gods-know-what for the day, while he watched. Every night, she asked him to escort her to her quarters, and he did. And while he was gone, I sneaked out to the stables and waited for her. It was our new routine. My sleep was suffering, but it was worth it.

The courtyard was packed, covered beneath a foot of snow that was trampled and stained brown with activity. The children of the nobles ran around building snow forts and playing games. The sound of laughter filled the air, reminding me of when I’d first come to this kingdom, and how George, Brandon, Aiden, and I would play those same games. I glanced over my shoulder at George, suddenly filled with nostalgia. We were once inseparable.

The thought made me snort. We were still inseparable, just in a different way.

“I want to build a snowman like those children over there,” Gabriella said under her breath, her tan cheeks rosy from the frosty air.

“You missed out on some really important aspects of your childhood,” I responded with a pang of sympathy. “Let’s do it.”

We built a snowman, which looked like an extremely malformed creature, then followed it up with a snow fort. I convinced George to play invaders with us, but he pretended to moan and groan as if he didn’t want to.

He did.

He took the opposing side, barraging our fort with a steady stream of snowballs, while Gabriella and I ducked and avoided his attacks, occasionally springing a defensive snowball attack of our own.

George smiled when Gabriella managed to hit him in the face with a clump of snow, and it warmed my heart. I couldn’t stay mad at him forever, even if he had manipulated Aiden and me to get what he wanted.

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