Font Size:  

And he couldn't even bother to give her a gift.

Sienna waved her fork, a fruit stuck to its end. "Oh, we all know I grew up in a pathetic, nothing of a town. Hollis is from there too. We were both very poor. Hollis, how are your riches faring today?" She knew she shouldn't have asked that. It was technically considered rude and she wouldn't bother to ask anyone else that question no matter what their financial status was but she needed the small jab. She needed some way to show him up. She wasn't going to let him do whatever he wanted or say whatever he wanted.

The smile on Hollis's face, which wasn't really a smile, it was more of a smirk, fell flat. "Sienna and I grew up together. She's quite the different person nowadays. Perhaps I should tell you all more about that. It’s much more interesting than my financial status."

"No use dredging up our past," Queen Sienna said firmly.

Hollis was going to need to be put on a leash and trained how to behave while here on stay. Sienna wanted nothing more than to do just that.

Ace

The sun had long since set. For a while Ace had turned her gaze away from the streaks of pink and orange in the sky; while they were beautiful at times, it reminded her far too much of holy fire. She'd always thought, and she found it to be a common belief, that holy fire was pure white.

No, holy fire was colorful and vibrant. It was the orange that now stained her irises, it was hot pink where the flame was the hottest. So all in all, holy fire and sunsets had far too much in common.

Maybe it was the gods' way of showing that humans had burned away another day. Now it was so dark that Ace could hardly see in front of her and the only way she was able to follow Shelby was by listening to his heavy steps. He'd been so quiet when he had followed her before but now he walked almost ridiculously loud.

Ace had tried to talk to him, first just out of pure boredom because her head was so empty. After a while, Shelby just quit answering her questions, not that he really gave her answers to begin with. It felt like they had walked in circles for nearly hours though Shelby was quite convinced he knew where he was going.

Ace’s calves began to ache as the sun faded, the day called off so significantly that she shivered without her cloak. She was certain that Shelby could hear her teeth chattering and that he just didn't care. In fact, he was making a point to ignore her.

"Almost there," he said, his voice so near it startled her.

"Almost where?" She squinted into the darkness, not able to make out any figures other than the trees nearest to her.

They’d even gone so far that they’d lost the sound of the river. Could they have gone that far? How far could you get in half a day?

"Are we going to another cave? Because I'm not sure I can survive being this damp and cold all night." It wasn’t as if she had anywhere she could steal from at the present. Shereallymissed her small bedroom.

"No, it's not a cave. You're awfully picky for someone who was given a second chance at life."

"Second chance at life? You make it sound as if I wanted this?"

"Well, I’m assuming you didn’t want to die. Is that the scar on your neck?” His steps stopped for a second.

Ace’s nose smacked into his broad back as she was forced to stop too. Shelby started walking again while she rubbed at her nose. With her other hand, she shoved Shelby forward a little bit, mumbling under her breath. "Yes, that's what my scar’s from."

"Guessed it," Shelby said, not that Ace thought it was something particularly hard to guess.

Shelby turned enough that Ace could see around the shadow and outline of his form. She cocked her head as she tried to figure out exactly what she was looking at but after a minute it came to her. There was a small cabin with curtains drawn over every window to keep the light from poking out into the woods. The slightest bit of smoke came from the chimney but there were no signs of anyone outside.

"Is this yours?"

Shelby scoffed. "Something like that. Let me do the talking.” He turned to look at her and she swore she could see him grimace even in the dark. "You just avoid making eye contact."

"Why? Will I get turned to stone?” She followed behind him up to the porch of the house. Their steps immediately made far too much noise on the old creaky wood.

"I mean turning to stone isn’t out of the question if you don't compliment her on her cooking, but I doubt she’d do anything. I just don't want you to give her a heart attack."

Her? A friend? Family? Lover? Who did Shelby know that was living all the way out here outside of the city?

Shelby took a deep breath, raising his hand to the door and knocking to the tune of a children's song, if she was remembering correctly. She chuckled a little but otherwise said nothing. The cabin door swung open and the faintest bit of firelight fell over their faces.

“Who—Is that? There is no way!" a short woman with her hair pulled into a scarf on her head with small salt and pepper curls poking out the side of her face said. She was already stretching her arms up towards Shelby's face. There had to be at least a two-foot difference between them.

"It's me, Grandma," Shelby said, almost breathlessly before he squatted down and swept the woman up into his arms.

She chuckled and gave him a fierce hug, her hands patting his back until the moment he set her down, and then her hands were rubbing up and down his arms and touching his face as if to make sure he was really standing in front of her.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
Articles you may like