After ten minutes of jogging, Gwen gave up and decided to walk instead. She could still Ace in the distance but he was the only one, all the others had left you, and for good reason, you did deserve it. She would make sure that she was last by far. She hated to admit that she enjoyed the walk. It was a nice change of pace from seeing the people from Paria-Drae every day. It was also good to take a stroll in the forest after she had such a stressful night. But all of her thoughts floated back to this morning. Her stomach flipped when she thought back to her being in Ace’s embrace. He was warm and not too hard, despite all that muscle he claimed to have. She especially liked how warm his neck was, and that he had his arm wrapped around h- No no. Not the thoughts she should be having. Gwen was nowhere near touch starved so she should not be acting like this. She would say that she has gotten too much affection. She was not the biggest hugge

She was sure that by the time she was taken to the medical room, she had fallen asleep. She did not remember much after getting into the room. It worked well for her because she actually would have not been conscious which was the point of her entire skit. She wanted to get a good look at all the guards around her so that she knew who the one following her was, but she knew their voice and that was enough for her. Gwen could easily link the voice to the face once she woke up. But after the revelation of what the Prince could have possibly known and thought about her, she was actually feeling sick and her entire day was spent with her being cautious that maybe he would appear out of nowhere and declare her guilty for something. And who would believe her over him? It was dark when Gwen finally woke up. Her mouth felt dry and she was sure her breath was rancid from the bile that probably rested in it. She could even taste it a bit when she

Flashback - Chapter 51.5When the fighting broke out by the river, Ace had time to continue thinking about why Gwen was ignoring him. He didn’t do anything recently to upset her. At least to his knowledge. But this time, she seemed to be extra angry with him. She would not even give him the time of day and it really pissed him off that she would not tell him what her problem was.Things escalated quickly and there was no second for him to stop. They were obviously outnumbered and if he turned his back for a second he could be killed, which is why he was not aware of when Gwen disappeared from the scene.A lot of the soldiers from Paria-Drae, after realizing that things were turning out bad, started scrambling to get as much gold as they could to try and take it away with them. In the midst of the battle, they ducked their heads and grabbed as many of the containers as they could. But Ace and the othe

Gwen looked at Ace curiously. What did he need to tell her? She also looked at the bruise that was next to his nose. It was dark red and she winced a bit when she saw it. She guessed she had thrown the shoe a lot harder than she had thought.“What?” her tone carried uncertainty. Gwen never saw a look like that on Ace’s face before. His eyes were wide and his hands on her arms shook a bit. He looked a bit nervous if that was what she was guessing. But there was nothing she could imagine he would have to tell her that would make him nervous.“I- uh, I wanted to tell you something.” he swallowed.“I know, what do you want to tell me?” She gently pulled himself away from his grip. “Unless it’s an apology for what you called me this morning, in front of other people. Then I don’t want to hear anything else.”Ace cursed under his breath. “I was also going to apologize for that, but th

The end of the visit was approaching and the incident (if one could even call it that) by the gold reserve was the only thing that rang any alarm bells. But that was not all there could be. And since there had been suspicious activity by the gold reserve, it told them that something could happen. It would have been more nerve-wracking if nothing happened for all of this time. Gwen would have been under the assumption that they planned to set off explosives in the castle or kill the King and Queen.After her interaction with the Prince, she decided that it was best not to worry about him or what he thought. It had been twice that he spoke to her alone and the second time he had been more obvious in what he thought about her and what he assumed her intentions would be. Gwen was also quite daring in the way she spoke to him. But that seemed to be beyond him in their conversation.She was questioned about their conversation after an