“He didn’t have to.”
“You wanted to leave, and we let you.” Pretha frowns. “After you ran from the tavern, I followed you to the forest. Finn forbade me to follow you too closely. He just wanted to make sure you made it safely to wherever you were going.”
“Oh? And did you tell him I was nearly torn to bits?”
“Yes.” She cocks her head to the side. “It’s a good thing those wolves came along to distract the creature.”
“It’s a good thing Sebastian came along to save me.”
“So you’ve already forgiven your golden prince for his deceptions?” Finn says, stepping out of the dark hallway and into the foyer. I was so distracted by Pretha that I didn’t hear his steps in the hall. Or maybe I wouldn’t have even if I’d tried. He looks to Kane and Pretha. “I told you it would take less than a week. Looks like you each owe me five gold.”
“We don’t owe you a damn thing, Finn,” Kane says, entering the foyer behind him. “The girl didn’t answer the question.”
“If she didn’t trust that boy, she never would have gotten into that carriage with Pretha this morning,” Finn says.
Pretha shakes her head. “She can trust him without forgiving him. They’re entirely separate emotions.”
They’re betting on when I’ll forgive Sebastian. Rude. “I’m glad this is all so amusing to you.”
Finn’s silver eyes harden and glitter like the surface of a frozen pond in the moonlight. “I assure you I’m not amused in the slightest,” he says. “I’m impatient. Considering that my uncle has your sister, I’m surprised you aren’t as well. But maybe you’re content to enjoy the luxuries of palace life, busy preparing for your life as that boy’s princess.”
“How dare you—” I shuffle back a step, spotting two sets of glowing silver eyes in the dark hallway. Two large wolves prowl forward and stop on either side of Finn.
Finn snaps his fingers, and the wolves sit, sniffing the air in my direction and whining quietly. They’ve healed since I saw them in the forest, but there is no doubt in my mind that these are the same animals that attacked the Barghest.
Their silver-and-gray coats were mottled with blood when they ran away, but today they are clean and shining, and . . . much larger than I remembered. They looked so much smaller compared with the Barghest, but now I can see just how massive they are. Even sitting, they’re only a head shorter than I am.
My eyes flick to Finn. “They’re yours?”
“In a manner of speaking,” he says, absently scratching one behind the ear.
Pretha says, “I told you we aren’t your enemy, Abriella.”
The night it happened, I had wondered whether the wolves were just trying to get the Barghest out of the way so they could get to me. But looking at them now, panting happily at their master’s affection, I know without a doubt that they saved me. If Sebastian hadn’t shown up, they would have kept fighting—until the Barghest died or they did.
“Are they okay?”
“They are now,” Finn says. “Thanks to my healer.”
“What do you call them?”
“Dara and Luna,” Finn says. The wolves’ ears perk up at the sound of their names.
“May I?” I’m aware of all the eyes in the room on me as I inch forward and extend a tentative hand toward each. Finn mumbles a low command, and the wolves rise and approach me slowly. “Thank you,” I say, kneeling in front of them and offering the back of my hands to smell. “You protected me.”
The wolves lick my hands, then nuzzle my palms like big cats.
When I look up, there’s something like confusion in Finn’s eyes, but he blinks and it’s gone, replaced by the steely cold I’m used to. “Why did they do it?” I ask.
“Because I asked them to.”
“That was a terrible risk. They could have been killed.”
Finn doesn’t deny it. Instead he folds his arms and leans one shoulder against the wall. “They’re very loyal, and now that they’ve protected you once, they would do it again.”
Pretha sighs dramatically. “But it would be much better for everyone involved if you didn’t go running off and need saving again.”
Kane chuckles. “Maybe she likes being rescued by her prince. Sounds like he made quite an entrance when he returned to the palace—running inside with her in his arms and generally playing hero to her damsel in distress.”