Free Through the Looking Glass by Rebecca Lorino Pond Page A

credit though for at least trying. If he had been in her shoes, he would have done the same.
     
                  When he had left her in the room, he had planned on coming back and talking with her without getting angry. It wasn’t fair of him to be angry with her if what Nana and Nyla told him was true. The entire time he was growing up, Nana had told him the story of the woman who would come from far away. The one who would play a big role in defeating the one who ruled the south and now, it supposedly has come to pass.
     
                  Instead, he became instantly furious with her for the stupid risk she decided to make. He pushed through the hidden door and looked up just in time to see her slipping. He went to yell at her but was too late. She fell the rest of the way to the ground and landed with a thud he knew had to hurt. At first she didn’t move or breathe. He thought she might have broken her neck or back until he saw her close her eyes and suck in air.
     
                  His heart that was pounding wildly in his chest, slowed a fraction when he saw the small movement. The sound of her breathing deeply alerted him to the fact that she was ok. He stood over her prone form as he controlled the anger that now seeped out after relief swept over him.
     
                  “Did you have a nice fall?” He stood over her with his arms clasped behind his back. Her eyes popped open and stared up at him. Her mouth moved as if she was trying to say something but no words came out. Maybe she was hurt.
     
                  He squatted down next to her. “Are you hurt?” He ran his hands over her limbs to check for any obvious breaks.
     
                  “No,” she croaked out.
     
                  “That wasn’t a very smart thing to do.” He helped her to a sitting position. “Do you realize you could have killed yourself?” She refused to answer the question. “Can you walk?” He wanted to get her back inside and into dry clothes.
     
                  “I…I don’t know,” she said when she tried to get to her feet.
     
                  He went to assist her, but she brushed his hand away. When she was finally standing it didn’t take long for her knees to buckle. He caught her before she hit the ground and swept her up into his arms.
     
                  She tried to protest. “I can walk.”
     
                  He laughed at her comment. “Sure you can.” He wasn’t about to put her down. Her small body felt wonderful in his arms and she fit perfectly in the crook of his arms as he walked to the door he had come through. Her teeth were chattering by the time he had her in the castle and back into the room. He gently placed her in one of the chairs sitting in front of the fire then wrapped a blanket around her. He didn’t want to say anything else to her until the anger he had felt at seeing her hanging from the window subsided. He stirred the fire with the metal poker then threw another big log onto the roaring fire.
     
                  “I…I…had…t…to…t…t…try,” she said as her teeth chatted together and her body shivered.
     
                  Her eyes followed him around the room. He ran his fingers through his damp hair as he paced back and forth in front of the fire. He chanced a look at her and what he saw clenched his heart. Her green eyes were wide and round and shimmered with unshed tears.
     
                  “Well, it was a stupid thing to do!” He was almost shouting as the tension slowing ebbed from his body. “It was incredibly dangerous. You could have fallen and broken your neck!”
     
                  “I know…that! What do you care anyway? You think I am some…some kind of spy!” She pulled the ends of the blanket closer together as the warmth of the fire slowly seeped into her