“Fine.”She dropped onto her bottom, facing the pond.“I am getting cold, and the sun is setting, and all I want to do is return home to my father, but I made you a promise, and I intend to keep it.
“Therefore, I will sit right here until you tell me the truth.”
Chapter 9
Riven took full advantageof his amphibious form, poking his eyes and nostrils out of the water behind some reeds opposite Bella’s stationary figure.
She only moved to collect the additional clothes from Nocturne’s saddle, which she draped around herself for warmth.After a few hours, he noticed her head nod and bob as she drifted off.She tipped to the ground and draped herself with her new clothes.
He watched her for two full hours, based on the moon’s trek, before guilt crept in.
She was alone and helpless, sleeping beside a filthy pond in the cold night air because of her promise to him.
All she had asked for was the truth.
And he had run away and hid like a petulant child, all because she had echoed his unspoken fears.Poisson,Luc, likelywasbehind all this, but Riven could not let his people suffer because of it.He might not be lord of this castle, but heknewthese people.Hewouldprotect them.
Even at his own expense.
Bella didn’t deserve any of this.This washisfate, not hers.All she wanted was to get home, and instead, she was sleeping on the cold ground as if she had been punished alongside him.
Riven was not acting very princely right now.In fact, he was the furthest thing from it.
He needed to get her home.To her sick father.Which he had pledged to do.
Riven considered what Bella would need for travel.Whenever he left his castle to play the mandolin, he would pack unprincely clothes, his instrument, good walking boots, a cloak to disguise him, and even bread to disperse to the needy.
None of those would work for Bella.
He would let her take Nocturne, of course, with the hopes she would return his favorite steed when he returned to human form.Ifhe returned to human form.
For such a long journey, Bella would need coins, as he doubted the girl carried any wealth.He closed his eyes and concentrated.“Coin.I need an assortment of coins.Enough to buy meals, lodging, and incidentals until Bella makes it home, whenever that may be.”And he focused hard on finding them in the enchanted pond.
One by one, the images came to him, and he spent the next hour diving, digging, and retrieving the coins, hoping they would be enough for her journey.
Another thought came to him: would an enchanted pond provide magical items?He wanted Bella to have a quick and safe journey, but he also hoped to see her again.“I need two magical sugar cubes for Nocturne, to make the longest of journeys take but a single day.”
