Fate's Revenge (Twisted Fate, Book 4)

Chapter Thirty-Four

"First of all, Brother, my deformity was healed not long after you left. If you care to remember, we made a trade, and what you gave me was the key to my recovery. Second, I did nothing to the girl except tell her the truth." There was a pause and then she added, "Actually, I didn't tell her, obviously, because of all of your stupid restrictions. But I did show her enough for her to be able to piece together some of the information she's been seeking."

"You told her who—"

"Enough arguing," a new voice belonging to a woman I didn't recognize ordered, interrupting Gabe mid-sentence with an authoritative undertone that suggested they were not used to anyone questioning their direction. "Leave the girl to rest. Gabe, she'll be fine. Stay with her until she wakes, if that makes you feel better." There was another pause, like the speaker took a large breath. "You. Come with me."

Someone sighed, the barely audible sound too soft to distinguish between male or female. I held my breath, the tension from the room outside the bedroom almost tangible. After a minute, I exhaled as the sound of feet started to shuffle closer. The door to my room opened and closed, and suddenly, I was overwhelmed with the scent of fresh rain. Gabe crossed the room swiftly and I felt the mattress dip as he sat beside me on the bed. He reached out and began to stroke my hair from my face but didn't stop once it was set aside. It was soothing. Even though I couldn't see him, I could imagine the scowl on his face as he studied me.

"You have got to stop taking off, Alyssa," he said without a trace of the anger he'd exhibited while speaking with the women in the other room. "That said, I wish I was here when you dumped Mike on his butt, though maybe next time you might try hearing him out."

"Or he could stop trying to talk to me," I said, my voice just above a whisper.

Gabe laughed and removed his hand from my hair. "Why am I not surprised? Did you listen to our entire conversation?"

I smiled wide and cracked one eye before nodding and opening my other. "What do you think?"

"I think you've had too much practice at this." He shook his head, a small smile playing on his lips. "Oh! Here. You're supposed to drink this tea."

He stood to get the tea and then passed me the cup from the night table. Our fingers brushed. Tingles like an oversized charge of static electricity coursed through the veins in my arm and I almost dropped the tea. That would be a shame. Its aroma, which indicated it would be the same "special blend" as before, was too good to waste. Before anything else happened, I chugged it down, grateful he wasn't berating me for going against his advice when I entered the Void.

My he already knew I knew how dangerous it had been and figured it wasn't worth voicing?

"Okay then, Champ," Gabe said, replacing the cup on the bedside table after I finished. Instead of sitting on the bed, he squatted and looked me over, only stopping to hold my gaze. "Why do you keep leaving?"

"You know why." I looked down, fingering the blanket and enjoying the warmth the tea had left behind. "You carried me from the table?"

He nodded. "Yes. You looked uncomfortable hunched over and I didn't want you to feel pain once you came back. Not that I knew what was going on at the time. It looked like you were sleeping. Renalda was already waking when I arrived, so she helped—"

My gaze darted up. "Renalda?"

I remembered him calling someone that while I was listening, but she hadn't been here when we'd left. She certainly hadn't come with us, so why would she have been waking alongside us at the table? Had Gabe gone mental? Or had the witch that'd helped the Brothers protect me and enabled me to travel with Deryk to Hell's Fire somehow managed to join us while remaining unseen? Had she been spying on me?