Chapter 3: That’s Why He Ran Away

Gemma placed the salve down on the vanity in front of me, wiping the greasy sheen off her fingers on the fabric of her skirt. This stuff is so messy”

“I don’t think I need it.”

Gemma grabbed my shoulders and turned me toward the mirror of my vanity, her face hovering above mine in the reflection. She was a normal color, her cheeks rosy from the heat still seeping from the open windows.

Me, well, I was more than a little pink. I reached up to touch the tip of my nose, the skin burnt to a vibrant red that

envied the color of the evening gown I had worn to my usual dinner with Ernest only an hour ago.

“Thank Goddess that man got you into the shade!” she said, shaking her head as she reached for the greasy can of salve again, struggling to pry it open. “What were you thinking wearing that jacket out on a day like this? It’s still almost ninety degrees outside, and the sun is setting!”

“It’s spring! How was supposed to know it was going to get this hot?”

“How many times do I have to remind you that we’re not in Winter Forest anymore? There are real seasons in Valoria, Maeve. Not just Winter and Break-up.”

grunted, pulling away from her as she reached for my face with a glob of yellowish salve on her fingers. Gemma was right, though. Our springs and summers back home were brief and often chilly, Break-up signified the breaking up of the ice over our rivers and lakes, basically another word for spring. But the snow still hung on the mountains even in late summer, most of it never melting at all.

“I just wanted to wear Rowan’s jacket, that’s all. It’s not even that thick, you know. It’s a flannel.”

“How many people do you see wearing any type of flannel here?” Gemma attempted to smother my face in the salve a second time, but I dodged her touch. She leaned back, giving me a steely look. “Stop moving!”

1 surrendered, grimacing at the smell. “What the hill is that?”

She shrugged. “One of the kitchen maids gave it to me. The servants have been talking about your sunburn all evening. You looked a right mess at dinner, from what I heard.”

“It smells awful!”

“Well, you wouldn’t have needed it if you used your brain and stayed out of the sun.”

“I was a little busy”

“Hanging out with your lunatic, I almost forgot!” she laughed, shaking her head as she screwed the lid back on the salve and tossed it unceremoniously into the top drawer of the vanity. “Put it on in the morning, too.”

Gemma turned around, disappearing through the bathroom door. I heard water running, then her voice as she murmured curses while she tried to scrub the thick salve off of her hands.

She was my closest and dearest friend. Gemma and I had been thick as thieves when I was a kid, even though she was ten years older than me. She was often tasked with looking after me and Rowan, but eventually our relationship grew into something more than that. She was family, truthfully.

Gemma was the daughter of Seraphine, who had been a close friend of my mother, Rosalie. Gemma had also seen much of the world in her short life, which had given her an air of worldliness that I had found intoxicating as a child. During the war, she’d lived on the island where our mothers had first met. Our games of make-believe went beyond the scope of my limited imagination if she was in control, and when it was decided that I would relocate to Valoria, well, there was no way I was going without her.

I was to be Luna, after all. Maybe one day the White Queen of the north. I would eventually require my own staff. There was no one I trusted more than Gemma, and no one who would even come close to being experienced enough to be my advisor. Her position put her in the upper echelons of Pack Drogomor, granting her unlimited access to the castle and

antations to the ten parties and gatherings Emest held within the castle’s walls

Ontertunately, it also meant she had to work closely with Horace, the decrepit old man who served as Emosi’s advisor

Hes the absolute worst Gemma said as she sat down on the edge of my bed, crossing one leg over the other and vipina bet damp hands on her skirt “He has me running about all day right now, readying things for your breeder’s

i blanched I hadn’t thought about Aaron all day, not after meeting the man in the market.

Oh Gemma, did he tell you who it is?” I asked, turning in my stool to face her. I leaned forward when she shook her head, her eyes flashing with playful anticipation.

Hopefully someone handsome

“It’s Aaron Cressner!”

‘Not Aaron of Red Lakes

“Yes!”

“No!” she cried as I buried my face in my hands. We were both resisting the urge to laugh, and I knew that the second we made eye contact we would dissolve into uncontrollable girlish giggles. “I thought he hated you!”

“Oh, he loathes me.” I laughed into my hands. “How could he not?”

“I mean, you only maimed him

a little.”

A little? He fell ten feet out of a tree and had a branch coming through his shoulder!”

In my defense, he had agreed to climb the tree. I had only called him a baby, twice, when he protested the activity. I did warn him not to go too high, but did he listen?

Gemma snorted with laughter, her face reddening as she rocked back and forth on the bed.copy right hot novel pub