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THIRTEEN

THIRTEEN

The emotions swirling in Vale's gut made it difficult to do anything but focus on keeping moving through the crowded market place. The people around her parted with every step she took, like they knew she was a ticking time bomb just waiting to explode. Hell, she even felt like she would detonate at any point. The anger and the confusion only fed into the growing paranoia that seemed to be festering in her mind. How long would it be before the Council actually showed up for her? How could she have been so stupid?

A young girl suddenly bumped into Vale. The girl scuttled backwards and stared up at Vale with bright green eyes. "I-I am so sorry, miss... I have to go!" Before Vale could respond, the girl was taking off in the opposite direction, throwing worried glances over her shoulder until she had finally disappeared from sight. Unease settled in the pit of Vale's stomach. As odd as that was, she kept making her way through the crowd.

Vale stopped at a nearby booth and purchased two blankets and three outfits that would keep her warm with the dropping temperature. The owner of the stall stared at Vale with wide eyes the entire time and had nothing to say unless she had questions about his goods. He kept a safe distance, his eyes flickering back and forth between Vale and the guards nearby. She was unsure what was going on, but whatever it was... She definitely didn't like it. She paid for her things and quickly left, heading towards the stables.

Vale pulled the hood on her cloak up over her head and kept her eyes to the ground, trying to slip away from all of the stares she received the entire way back to the castle. She could hear the whispers and the laughs directed towards her. It was obvious that word of her little stunt had spread across Cairn's Keep. At least the rumors couldn't follow her where she was going. She clutched her blankets and clothes closed to her body as she walked through the gates of the castle. One of the guards stopped her, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"What do you have there, Vale?" The other guard snatched the bundle out of her hands and tore it open.

She glared at both of them and reached for her things, but the guard holding onto them just laughed and backed away. "Come on. This isn't funny. Just give it back and let me go on my way. It's nothing interesting."

"Blankets and clothes? What are you doing? Planning to run away like a scared, little coward? Of course you are. The only reason you got this far is because you are the prince's bitch."

Vale let out a long breath at what the mn had said to her, trying to keep herself from lashing out. The last thing she needed was to accidentally kill one of the guards and practically sign her own execution warrant. "Just give me my things. It is not against the law for me to buy clothes with gold that I have earned. Now knock it off."

"What are you going to do about it?" The guards holding Vale's things growled deep in his throat and threw them into the snow and used the heel of his boot to grind them into the snow. She glared at him, her heart racing so hard in her chest that she was sure for a half second that she was going to lash out at him and claw his throat out. Instead, she just stared at him, fire in her violet eyes. "See, you are a coward."

Vale didn't hear the footsteps of who came around the corner of the gate just then. "Actually, I would not call her a coward. She is simply smarter than you are, Edd. I suggest you pick up her things and give them back to her." Vale was shocked to see Riordan standing there, his black feathered cloak flapping in the wind behind him as he stared the guards down.

"I don't take orders from you, traitor. You left your position with the Council dishonourably. You are no better than me or my men. Walk away and mind your own business before you get the same treatment as this bitch." The guard that had ahold of my shoulder looked at his friend before letting go of me.