"Because he doesn't deserve you," I say at last.
She purses her lips as the tears well in her eyes. “I hate him.”
I nod. "I know.”
She stands, and I still see the conflicting emotions war across her features. "I don't need your pity."
Right now, she isn’t just my master’s wife, she’s a fellow person. Someone I know very well.
“And yet, I feel it all the same.”
She brushes out of the room, knocking a bucket of water on the fire she'd lit, and ensuring it won't be dry enough to heat my room tonight.
Chapter 23
RA’SA
Ilie under the stars, waiting until it’s time to visit Melisa and thinking about the day.
I see the faces of the men strapped to the rack and whipped to death, and my heart aches.I am a man who hated the open sky of the overworld, but now, lying in the snow, I watch the stars glint with a swollen, bleeding heart.
Melisa asked me to come tonight—which means she has information. I know how she got it, and I want to tear a tree down at the root.
I try not to think about it.
Try not to picture.
I fail.
What I feel for her shouldn’t be felt between two unmated people. It will only end in sadness. If only…
A flash of panic shocks me to a sitting position. My cot creaks under me. My heart races, and my stomach lurches.
Dear gods.
Melisa’s voice is as clear as day.
My mouth parts.
No, it can’t be.
When I heard her murmuring this morning, I dismissed it as wishful thinking.
My breath comes out in crystal puffs as I press a hand to my chest. There, in the center of my soul, a little bond wraps itself around my heart. Ifeelher.A song starts up. It rumbles, like thunder, and wakes up my senses. It guides me to her.
A conduit opens between us, and every emotion rages along the line. The shock. The panic. The raw, undiluted fear.
Ra’Sa, please come for me.
I stand, more instinct than thought. I whip around, facing in the direction leading me to the woods.
Melisa is calling to me.
Melisa is my…
My mate.
Sunlight floods my being. Of course, it would be her.