Free Chasing Shadows (Saving Galerance, Book 1) by Natalie Reid Page B

an
expression of anger on his face. She had known him long enough to know that he
didn’t like surprises. Regardless of what he thought about Ashlin, she was
certainly a surprise.
    “Come on,” he ordered Norabel gruffly with a sweep of his
arm. “We’re going back.”
    Silently obeying, she followed him out of the forest grass
and onto the main road. They travelled in silence for a few minutes, before she
chanced to ask him a question.
    “What are you thinking?”
    “I’m not sure,” he answered tersely, staring at the road
ahead of them.
    Norabel waited for him to add anything to his answer, hoping
for the smallest insight into his head, but found, once again, that he was
shutting her out.

Chapter 6
    That next day, Mason found Norabel at lunch once more,
informing her that he had decided to go back to Valor Wood in the afternoon,
and that he was going to tell Logan and Archer what had happened. She silently
nodded and said nothing as Mason promptly left her. She wasn’t about to argue
with him when he had already made up his mind. She wondered how he could be so
sure about something so quickly, when she was completely at a loss as to how to
feel about the whole thing.
    When work ended for the day, she was supposed to hurry home
and then make for the path up the mountain that eventually led into the woods,
but she found herself dawdling in thought.
    “Something on your mind?” Hunter asked her when she appeared
at his checkpoint.
    She had not even realized where she was, and looked up to
him in mild surprise. “Hmm?” she asked.
    “You seem troubled by something,” he said, his worried green
eyes contradicting the smile that was forever on his face.
    “Oh, it’s nothing, just…” she was about to leave it at that,
but somehow she felt it would be rude not to tell him her thoughts when he had
shown so much concern for her. Taking a peek behind her, she saw that a woman
named Kaylee was waiting to pass through the checkpoint, and Norabel stepped to
the side, saying good-naturedly, “Why don’t you go in front of me.”
    Kaylee blinked in confusion for a moment, before graciously
moving forward and into the checkpoint. Hunter quickly found her name and put a
check next to it before waving her through. When she had gone, Norabel stepped
back up to his station box.
    “I was just wondering,” she said, looking down at the large
ledger open in between them. “What happens if someone is transferred to another
village?”
    “Transferred?” he repeated.
    She looked up from the book and saw even more worry on his
face.
    “Do you think you’re being transferred?” he asked.
    “No,” she answered quickly, before adding, “I mean, a few
years ago I was actually offered the chance to move somewhere else. Though it
wasn’t exactly a transfer, so much as an invitation.”
    “Wow,” he commented with a shake of his head. “That must say
a lot about you.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Uh…” he stuttered slightly before he explained, “What I
mean is, it’s really rare to even get a transfer. We haven’t had one here for
the past couple of years. But the fact that they actually asked you about where
you wanted to go…”
    “Sorry, what?” she interrupted, her small voice barely
breaking past the sound of the summer bugs chirping in a nearby bush. “No one’s
been transferred here for the past few…” she trailed off, scrunching her brow
in confusion.
    “No,” he replied, eyeing her carefully. “Not since two
winters ago. I’d know. It would be in my ledger.” He cleared his throat before
asking, “You’re not regretting your decision to stay here, are you?”
    “What?” she asked, looking up to him and trying to clear her
head of the hundreds of questions and worries that were going through it. “Oh,
no,” she finally answered, giving him a sweet smile. “There’s a lot that I love
about Breccan.”
    Hunter’s gaze shifted behind her for a moment, eyeing a man
that had just