Ruins of Camelot by G. Norman Lippert Read Free Book Online

made for one another.  Perhaps that only happens in stories, but I don't think so.  I think we're like those two magnets in Professor Toph's laboratory.  We're either going to come smack together like two pieces of hot iron, red from the forge, or push apart like God and the devil.  It's all just a matter of which direction you're facing.  You've been so busy raging against the truth that I daresay you've never even really seen it."
    Gabriella had felt strangely terrified.  It was as if he could see through her armour and clothing, even through her skin, right into her deepest being.  Suddenly, for the first time in years, she'd remembered the kiss that he had given her, back when they'd both been children, quarreling over a pilfered bag of Whisperwind powder.
    "You should not say such things," she'd said again, nearly whispering.
    "Perhaps I shouldn't," Darrick had replied with a half shrug.  "But that's never stopped me before."
    In her bed, Gabriella smiled, remembering it all.  She had walked away from him that day feeling the strangest mixture of emotions: shame and embarrassment, yes, but also an unexpected, giddy excitement.  She had grown so used to impressing people as the Princess that it had never even occurred to her that she could impress anyone as Gabriella.  Suddenly, the thing that she had most detested about Darrick—that he never called her by her title, but by her given name—became the thing she was most intrigued by.  Was he right?  Were they like magnets, destined either to repel or attract?  Even if it were true, how could it ever possibly be?  She was the King's daughter after all, and kings' daughters simply did not marry the sons of blacksmiths.  Of course, even then, some small part of her had known that such things didn't really matter.  Gabriella was a sensible girl, but she was still a girl.  Even for her, no amount of imperial politics could win out over the possibility of true love.
    She did not love Darrick from that day forwards, of course.  But she did begin to turn around, to not defy and resist him at every opportunity.  And just like the magnets in Professor Toph's laboratory, the turning around made all the difference.  Soon enough, repulsion turned to irresistible attraction.  Once she gave in to it, the force of it was so strong, so pervasive, that it was rather frightening.  It pushed all of her practicality aside, made all of her sensibility and reasonableness seem insipid, like paper castles on a child's windowsill.  She still attempted to goad him sometimes, to command his respect or cow him into submission, but it never worked, and deep down, she was glad.  He loved her because she was Gabriella and not because she was the Princess.  Over the past three years, this fact had stricken her as simultaneously incredible and sublime.
    Now, on the morning of their wedding, it still did.
    The door of the bedroom burst open, wafting the curtains that surrounded her bed and admitting a staccato of bare feet on the wooden floor.  A moment later, the curtains were thrust aside, and a figure jumped up onto the bed.
    "Sun's up, Bree!  Who's ready to be the royal blushing bride?"  It was Rhyss, of course, who had spent the night in the adjacent bedroom.  She knelt on the bed and bounced with excitement.  "Because if it isn't you, I'll be happy to take your place.  What are friends for, hmm?"
    Gabriella smiled.  "You had your chance already.  You ended it with him, remember?"
    Rhyss shrugged languidly.  "I was a child then, but I do end it with all of th em eventually.  I'm born to be a breaker of hearts .  It's my lot in life.  Come, let's sneak down to the kitchens before Sigrid knows we're awake.  It's our last chance to breakfast with the cooks like old times!"
    Gabriella looked at her friend affectionately, knowing this really was the last chance they would ever have to simply be girls together.  "Race you," she said, throwing off her covers and