Abide: An Awakened Fate Novella by Skye Malone Read Free Book Online

find you soon, okay?”
    I nodded.
    “And Ina?” Niall called as I started for the door again.
    I glanced back.
    He gave me a lopsided smile, almost looking like his old self. “Thanks for… you know.”
    I smiled too, and then turned, leaving them both as I headed for the hall.
     

Chapter Five
     
    I was fairly certain days had passed while I stayed in my apartment, obeying Ren’s orders and swimming the length of the place dozens upon dozens of times. Early on, I’d tucked Egan’s gift away in a storage box in a closet, and now I was trying to push all memory of it from my mind.
    Because Niall was home. Granddad would be soon too. And there was no way Zeke would head inland beyond what we could handle, all for the sake of some girl who was probably lying about where she’d come from anyway.
    Everything would be fine.
    I spun and did another lap of the room. I really needed to put a few games in here. I’d never really had cause to think about it before, but this place was mind-numbing.
    And meanwhile, it’d been days. Or hours. Or some other way-too-long amount of time since I’d heard any word of what was going on out there.
    I wondered if Granddad had come back already.
    Cutting a lap short, I veered over to the window. The guards outside hovered on the slope of the mountainside, their gazes scanning the area all around, but one of them glanced to me when I pushed past the leaves.
    “Has my grandfather returned yet?” I asked him.
    He hesitated. The man next to him cast us a quick look.
    “Returned, princess?” the first man asked.
    “Yeah.”
    The hesitation came again.
    My brow furrowed. “What is it?”
    “No,” the man said, “he has not returned yet.”
    The words were careful, as though he was choosing them from a selection that might bite if he didn’t handle them properly.
    “Okay,” I allowed. “Well… tell me when he does, then.”
    “Yes, princess.”
    I watched the guards for another moment and then slid back through the leaves to my room. My expression unchanged, I hovered inside the window, replaying the stilted conversation through my mind.
    That’d been weird. The guards always tried to stay formal – and getting them to break from it was a never-ending source of entertainment – but that’d been something else.
    Kicking my tail, I crossed the room to the door and stuck my head out to the guards there.
    “Hey,” I said.
    The man and woman looked to me. “Yes, princess?” the woman said.
    “Is there something going on about my grandfather? The guys at the window seemed… odd about him.”
    The man glanced to the woman. “Besides the arrest warrant, highness?” he asked.
    I blinked. “The what ?”
    He gave the woman a nervous look. “T-the arrest warrant. King Renekialen issued it two hours– princess!”
    I shot past them into the hallway. Servants stared as I sped by with guards chasing after me. The archway to the main hall fell behind me and I cut a sharp angle upwards, heading for Ren’s floor.
    Niall emerged from an archway above, surrounded by soldiers and locked in intense conversation with one of them.
    I raced toward him. “Niall!”
    He looked away from the soldier. His brow furrowed at the sight of me. “Ina? What are you–”
    I pulled up fast, coming to a stop. “What the hell is this about an arrest warrant?”
    He blinked and glanced to the servants hovering in various places around the main hall. All of them were staring at us. “Ina,” he hissed. “This isn’t really the place–”
    “Why is Ren trying to arrest Granddad?” I demanded.
    Niall paused. His gaze twitched to the soldiers. “Okay,” he said to me. “Let’s just get back to your room, and we’ll talk about it.”
    “No, I’m–”
    “Ina.”
    He looked pointedly to the servants, his expression becoming insistent. I scowled. He was right, we couldn’t talk here. Not really. I’d already probably given enough fodder to the palace gossips to last them a week or