The Forsaken (Book Three in The Illusion of Certainty Series)

Inside Your Heaven

We didn’t stay in the room long. Aidan decided it would be fun to go ice skating.

“I’ve never been ice skating,” I said as he tied on my skates.

“Roller skating? Roller blading?”

I shook my head. “No.”

“Then this should be interesting,” he said, finishing tying my skates.

He helped me up and kept a hold of my hand. “Ready?”

“As I’ll ever be. But if I break something, I am going to be pissed at you.”

“Speaking of that,” he lifted our joined hands, “care to share?”

“Present.”

“From?”

“Max.”

“Who’s Max?”

“A friend.”

“You aren’t going to tell me are you?” He smiled.

“Nope.”

He led me out on the ice, the ring surprisingly in lack of visitors today.

“Hold on,” he said, smirking.

It wasn’t too bad after I got the hang of it. But the idea of having sharp blades under my feet was a little scary. But I got it and I was soon gliding across the ice.

“Not bad, Vertigo, for a first timer.”

I smiled at him. “I try.”

“Must be all that balance training.”

I laughed. “Hours and hours on that balance beam could never compare to this.”

When my nose got too cold for comfort we stopped. That and the rink was closing early since it was Christmas.

“Hungry?” he asked.

“Considering the only thing I’ve eaten was that sandwich on the plane, then I would go with yes.”

He just shook his head as he undid his skates. “Ana, you need to eat more than that.”

“Blah blah blah,” I said, undoing my own laces. “What are you, my mother?”

He looked up at me, a mischievous grin on his face. “That’s definitely not how I would describe me.”

I smiled and slid off my right shoe. My foot hurt, where Jason had sliced it open. I placed it gingerly back on the ground. I took the other one off, getting the same results for my leg. I hadn’t realized they’d hurt that much.

“Aidan,” I said. “I think we should go back to the room now.”

Even though my injuries had time to heal, they still hurt when it got really, really cold. He looked up at me and nodded, figuring out my meaning. He took our rental skates back to the old man and exchanged them for our shoes. Aidan quickly slipped his on and helped me up after I was done.

“Can you walk?” he asked, sounding a bit concerned.

“I’m fine. Don’t treat me like they do, ok?”

He nodded. “We’ll go back to the room and order room service. Watch a movie, relax.”

“Just like we used to?”

He smiled. “Always go back to your basics.”

I made it all the way up to the room surprisingly. But he had to help me after that. Aidan didn’t make any comments or ask any questions. He brought me my duffle so I could change and went out to the living room to order dinner.