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"Obviously." The word was short and clipped.
"Are you really still mad at me?" She stood from her crouched position and planted her hands on her hips.
"I'm not happy with you. No."
"Oh, would you just get over it? Thank you for sharing part of your life story but some things are just better for you not to know. Trust me." She tossed him a dark glare channeling all her pent up frustration toward him and the piss poor attitude he was always wearing.
Ace tried to keep her steps light as she moved over the brush, avoiding overgrown thorns. The warlock didn't offer any sort of rebuttal as he kept after her.
He can't stay mad forever,Latsov, the god of perseverance said and she thought she heard Mina agree.
She rolled her eyes. Let him stay mad. What did she care? He could hate her all the way up until he gave her the grimoire or even until all four of the queens were dead. Maybe even after that.
Look at you…caring. How adorable,Greshta said.
I don't care. I don't care. I don't care,Ace chanted inside her head. She didn'twantto care.
The fact that you have to tell yourself that means that you do. Hate to break it to you,Sylik agreed.
This is new growth for you. It means you're healing from your tragic past,Fareesh said, her voice like a soft well worn piece of cloth.
"Now is not the time for this." Ace tipped her head up toward the sky.
"No backing out now,"Shelby said bitterly.
Several feet separated them but Ace could imagine herself closing that space to pluck his now narrowed eyes out of his thick skull.Ugh.
"No. Not this. This." She tapped her head.
"What are they saying?"
"You don't want to know." Ace wishedshedidn't know.
Sunlight exposed her as she left behind the cover of the woods. She could have snaked through the tree line longer but the closer Shelby got the more she could feel his bad attitude rubbing off on her. It was like a disease and Ace didn't want to catch it. Today would be hard enough.
The scuff of Shelby's boots told her he was lumbering after her. That and the curse he admitted under his breath. Honestly, Ace half expected a guard to shout and leap from some shadow they hadn't seen. Yet, the castle was quiet, sending a tingle between Ace's shoulder blades.
Slowing to a walk, Ace glanced around. Shelby caught up to her side, his hand finding her upper back as he tried to encourage her along.
"What are you doing? You're out in the open!"
"There is no one around!" She straightened, spinning in a circle inside the small garden. The soft petals of a rose brushed against her fingertips.
"That could change at any minute." His fingers ran up to her shoulders, digging in as he steered her to the door.
"This is dangerous," she grinned.
"Why are you smiling about that??" His mouth turned down. "Do you still have the grimoire?"
Ace patted her back pocket where the journal waited, covers and pages bent to fit in the small space. "I'll go down the main hall, you meet me at the private entrance."
A dark spell waited in the journal, burning a hole straight through said pocket. Ace didn't need a blade to kill the queen, just the element of surprise and the spell.
"Best to get this over with," she said more to herself than to Shelby. Gently, she took the door and eased it open, listening with a tension that filled her body and his.
Shelby nodded, his hazel eyes turning stormy. One minute they were standing outside the castle and the next they were trying to keep their steps light and splitting up at the nearest fork in the hall. They didn't say anything to each other as they separated. Didn't even give each other a second glance. Ace thought the space would ease the worried knot in her stomach but it only tightened as she moved farther away.
Keeping to the darkest corners, she constantly watched for any signs of the guards that should be roaming the halls. The castle remained still, nothing but the sound of her breathing echoing back to her. That only created more sweat in her palms and emphasized the thundering of her heart.
