“I willleaveyou out in this forest, sir!”
“Oh, would you, please? But then who would getyouback to the Palace?” He looked around. “Did Ser Elías follow us out here after all?”
“I could manage!” I spat.
“Uh-huh. Sure you could. I believe you. In fact, you’ll manage just fine to the river, yeah?” His weight moved around on Ice’s saddle. “If you win, I’ll share what I know.”
“If Iwin?”I asked.
Cyrus took off before, cheating once again.
Still, I was able to close the gap between us somewhat, relying upon his horse’s shoes in the mud to track her. However, by the time I breached the final hill, he was already off of Isaac and standing in the greige clay by the bend. He met me at Tails to give me his hand and pulled me from my seat.
“Don’t fall on me this time,” he said.
“I should beflatteredthat you have to use deceit and trickery to best me in your games. And you should be ashamed; Tails is an old man. You could kill him, you know!”
“Tails is fine,” he said.
“Fine?” I asked. “He’s elderly!”
“I take it you failed to catch any of that?” he asked.
“Any ofwhat?”
“Ice, and her noises,” he said.
“What noises?”
He shook his head, explaining. “She gets agitated when you start on about your own bad mood. I had to run her to burn off that energy. You forget she’s not used to interacting with anybody but me, and I don’t get upset the way you do.”
“Oh.” I gathered my hands. “Then I apologize.”
Cyrus returned to the bank and picked up round, flat stones. He gave me a pile to match his, then miraculously threw one across the stream. It dotted the surface every few inches.
“Do you know how?” he asked.
I looked at the rock in my hand.
“Princess?” he asked.
With a nod, I said, “Yes,” which likely sounded more surprised than anything, but all I could think about was Willem and the games we used to play. I took a sharp breath.
“Are you sure?” he asked. “I could show you.”
“No. I know how,” I said. “I used to do this with a friend of mine, is all.”
He watched, waiting for the secret I’d never share. Instead, I made a rather pathetic attempt to skip my stone. It plopped several feet short of where I’d hoped.
“Oof. Perhaps I am a little rusty? It’s been some years,” I confessed.
Cyrus bobbed his head. With no time or space between us, he stepped behind my frame and molded his arm along mine. Then he pinched two of my fingers against a second pebble.
“Hold it like this,” he said.
He flicked it, and if not for my inability to notice anything beyond the rise and fall of his chest against my back, I might have seen that it went quite far, but it was the third rock that I cheered for, and that birthed a bright, happy snicker from me as it hopped away across the water.
I turned to Mr. Evergreen to determine if he was as impressed as I was, but then I saw exactly howclosehe was. Howclosehe was and how closehewas as the only man who’d ever beenthatclose before.
