Free Abide: An Awakened Fate Novella by Skye Malone

rather than answer. “If Ren finds out–”
    “I don’t care.” Irritation returning to his face, he looked away. “Princess, I’ve made a fool of myself over you for weeks . I’m the laughingstock of the palace. And quite frankly, given that I raced out here and yes, risked my father’s position when there’s not even the tiniest chance in hell that you feel the same way about me as I do about you… I probably deserve to be.” He exhaled. “But it doesn’t matter. Do what you want, order me back to Nyciena, I don’t care . I’m staying.”
    “But–”
    “No one saw me leave and no one knows I’m here, alright? I was careful, and everybody was a tad busy with the panic caused by those asshole guards shooting at you.” His jaw muscles jumped as he gritted his teeth. “The way I see it, though, if I’m wrong and word did get out that I went to help you, your brother will view it equally as treasonous for me to leave you here as anything else. So I’m screwed either way. Least I can do is make sure you don’t get kidnapped or killed.”
    I struggled to find a response.
    “Come on,” he said. “The guards will be searching for you.”
    He started off, leaving me to follow.
    I watched him, not moving for a moment, and somewhere inside I almost couldn’t decide if I would have rather been out here on my own than have him around. Yes, it’d be good to have someone else to watch for Vetorians and yes, I’d thought about asking him, but it’d been just a passing thought. Not like I’d actually have gone through with it. It’d been a relief, in fact, to know there was no way he could help.
    It meant I didn’t have to deal with how the damned idiot would probably insist on talking about us in the middle of this hell.
    “Princess?” he called.
    I scowled. There was no us. There never would be. And the sooner we found my grandfather, the sooner I could get on proving that to Egan.
    The thought felt uncomfortable for some reason. Shoving it away along with the rest of the problems Egan caused inside me, I swam after him.
    ~~~~~
    “So did your grandfather mention anywhere he might be?” Egan asked.
    I didn’t respond. We’d been swimming for a few minutes, keeping up a good pace toward the northeast, and so far the guards hadn’t appeared behind us. I worried it couldn’t last, however. Egan had been right on one thing; they’d be coming, regardless.
    “Princess?”
    I grimaced. “No.”
    He waited.
    “Granddad was looking for information about Zeke, and Niall said he thought Zeke headed inland by the Washington coast,” I sighed. “I’m hoping that’s where my grandfather went too.”
    Egan nodded. I watched him from the corner of my eye, anticipating the next question. The one where he’d want to know why I hadn’t asked Niall for help, or what I thought Zeke was doing, taking off with a possible spy.
    “There are some villages east of here,” he offered. “He might have gone there to find out if they’d seen your brother.”
    I hesitated, but he didn’t say anything more. “Okay.”
    We kept going.
    I continued studying him. He’d maintained his distance, staying a good dozen feet away from me while we swam along, and short of that one question, he hadn’t said a word. It was annoying. I’d expected him to want to talk, and his silence just kept me waiting for the moment he’d finally start pressing his idea that we needed to.
    It was probably irrational, but I’d never met someone who frustrated me as much as Egan.
    Miles passed, and villages did as well. Small and nestled into the rare hills on the flat terrain, the towns housed fewer people than filled a single wing of the palace. They eyed us warily and offered up little information in return for our questions about my grandfather. He hadn’t been there. No one had seen him.
    And we moved on.
    I scanned the water while the fifth village for the day fell behind us. We’d gone miles off course from Washington, but that