brush against the base of Snowy’s neck. Her presence steadied me, absorbing some of my shock.
“Yes, we were all as astonished as you.” Gabe shook his head. “It would have been startling enough before, but with the curse on Palinar…”
He looked at me, a question in his eyes, and I sighed.
“Brylee may be isolated, but we did hear about both the ongoing curse and the fact that Palinar has now been freed,” I said. “There have also been stories of new kingdoms and foreign princesses, but I’ll admit I didn’t take them too seriously…”
No doubt I would have heard of Dominic’s Tourney, and more of this Sophie and Lily, if I hadn’t been distracted around the time of their arrival. The disturbance they caused in our land had coincided with a personal disturbance of my own—my entrapment by Leander. It had taken me some time to reintegrate into life in Brylee afterward, and I hadn’t had the means or inclination to follow up any references I heard to strange happenings in distant places.
It had been shock enough months later when I learned that the border with my kingdom had been opened and the inhabitants freed. Many nights since I had spent awake, wondering what it meant—but each time I remembered that I had left that old life behind. And with good reason. I had long since come to terms with that.
“So you knew the curse had been lifted, and yet you didn’t return.” Gabe kept his voice soft, as if I were some untamed creature that he feared spooking.
“I have nothing to return to,” I replied. “I have made my peace with that.”
“But what of your brother? He searches for you everywhere.”
“I am astonished to hear it,” I said, and then regretted my words. I had no obligation to open myself or my old life up to Gabe. He had already admitted that searching for me was merely an escape from his own life—an entertainment of sorts.
“What happened between you?” he asked, abandoning subtlety in favor of a direct approach.
I raised a single eyebrow before turning away from him.
He sighed. “Very well. But I have answered your questions, surely you would not refuse to answer some of my own. All of us have wondered many times what became of you. Everyone will be so excited to hear that I’ve found you! I’ll send word to Dominic and Jon first thing in the morning.”
I spun back, rushing forward to grip his arm tightly.
“No. You must promise me you won’t tell anyone. Give me your word.” I gazed up at him, making no effort to hide my desperation.
I had left my old life behind, and the knowledge that an unknown foreigner sat on my mother’s throne and slept in her royal suite did nothing to entice me back. And while it might be true that my brother had changed—Palinar’s current liberation supported such a notion—I had trusted him before, only to be abandoned in my moment of greatest need. He might search for me, but I had no desire to be found by him.
And all of that was nothing beside the far more pressing concern of my imprisonment, anyway. What would Dominic do if he learned of my current entrapment? I couldn’t even hazard a guess, and I couldn’t risk him—or anyone else—blundering into such a delicate situation.
“I can’t keep such a thing from them,” Gabe protested, frowning down at me.
“You must!” My entreating look changed into a glare. “It’s my life, isn’t it?”
A softness lingered in Gabe’s eyes as he looked at my upturned face, so close to his, and it unnerved me. But worse was the look of calculation that gradually replaced it. His new look shouldn’t have concerned me—it was nothing like the chilling cunning Leander wore behind every expression—but it frightened me just the same. A laugh seemed to lurk behind every one of Gabe’s moods, and I didn’t want to be the object of one of his games—even if he sought to draw me into it alongside him.
Slowly he peeled my fingers from his arm and stepped back, crossing his arms across his chest.
“Convince me then,” he said. “Why should I keep you a secret? Something very strange is clearly going on here.”
I bit my lip and glanced toward my wedge of swans, who seemed to be ignoring the two of us for the most part. Did I dare tell him my story?
I examined him sideways, frustration overtaking me. What choice did I have? If I couldn’t