“Do you need help with anything?” Duncan asked. He’d folowed me down to Tove’s, since he folowed me everywhere.

“Sure, if you want.” Tove shrugged.

Duncan went in and puled out some of Tove’s clothes from the drawer. I stayed where I was, hating how awkward everything felt between us. When we were training or talking politics, everything was good with Tove and me. We were almost always on the same page, and we talked openly about anything having to do with the palace or work.

But when it came to our wedding and our actual relationship, neither of us could ever find the words.

“Did you want to train today?” I asked Tove.

“Yeah, that’d be great actualy.” Tove sounded relieved.

Training helped him a lot, too. The palace was so ful of people, and Tove could sense their thoughts and emotions, creating loud static in his head. Training silenced that and focused him, making him more like a normal person.

“Outside?” I suggested.

“Yeah,” Tove nodded.

“But it’s so cold out,” Duncan lamented.

“Why don’t you stay in here?” I asked. “You can finish packing up some of Tove’s stuff.” Duncan looked uncertain for a second, so I went on, “I’l be with Tove. We can handle ourselves.”

“Okay,” Duncan said, sounding reluctant. “But I’l be here if you need me.”

Tove and I headed out back to the secret garden behind the palace. It wasn’t realy secret, I guess, but it felt that way since it was hidden behind the trees and a wal. Even though a strong January storm had been blowing the last few days, the garden was peaceful.

The garden was magic. Al the flowers stil bloomed, despite the snow, and they sparkled like diamonds from the frost. The thin waterfal that flowed down the bluff should’ve frozen over, but it stil ran, babbling.

A drift of snow had blown over the path. Tove simply held out his hand, and the snow moved to the sides, parting like the Red Sea.

He stopped in the orchard under the branches of a tree covered with frozen leaves and blue flowers.

“What shal we do today?” Tove asked.

“I don’t know,” I said. “What are you in the mood for?”

“How about a snowbal fight?” he asked with a wicked grin.

Using only his mind, he threw four snowbals at me. I held up my hands, pushing them back with my own telekinesis, and they shattered into puffs of snow from the force. It was my turn to sling a few back at him, but he stopped them just as easily as I did.

He returned fire, this time with even more snowbals, and while I stopped most of them, one of them slipped by and nicked me in the leg. I ran back, hiding behind a tree to make my counterattack.