“Evangeline!” Gabriel barked at her, but she kept walking.
He stormed after her, grabbed her by the shoulder and spun her around. There was an exchange of angry words before she yelled at Kelly, “Fine! I’m sorry!” and stomped off.
Gabriel walked back into his room, shaking his head in exasperation. “I apologize for her,” he said. “I sent her to her room for the rest of the party. She’s got some teenage drama going on in her life, but it’s no excuse for her behaving like that.”
“It’s all right. I was all ‘woe is me’ too, when I was a teenager.” Kelly shrugged. Of course, that had been because her father was in prison and all the kids in school hated her because her dad had bankrupted their parents, and her mother was thrown out of their country club and continually railed at Kelly and Teresa as if it were their fault, but still. She understood angsty teenagers. “So, what’s on the agenda now?”
“Well, tonight we feast. Then, according to tradition, we’re supposed to come up to my room, where I pleasure you all night long. That’s certainly an option.” He looked at her hopefully.
“Pass,” she said dismissively.
“Ouch.” He placed his hand on his heart dramatically and pretended to look wounded.
She snorted. “You’re still a suspect, and therefore it is not appropriate for me to be romantically involved with you,” she said primly.
He just smiled and shook his head. “You’ll change your mind. And in the meantime, the wedding is a month from now.”
“There will be no wedding.”
“Your hallucinations are so cute,” he said to her with an infuriating smirk. “Anyway, according to tradition, tonight we have the celebration banquet, then over the next few days I take you on a tour of the castle and of the town, and you get started on your wedding planning.”
Yes! A tour of the castle! She could search for the Dragonsblood to her heart’s content.
Things were finally looking up.
A shrill voice drifted down the hallway. “Is she there? I swear to God I’m going to kill her!”
Gabriel quirked a brow in amusement. “Your beloved sister, I presume?”
She groaned. “You presume correctly. Why, universe? Why can’t I just once catch a break?”
