Total pages in book: 241
Estimated words: 229266 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1146(@200wpm)___ 917(@250wpm)___ 764(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 229266 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1146(@200wpm)___ 917(@250wpm)___ 764(@300wpm)
As Hawke.
“Thank you,” I said hoarsely. I wasn’t sure if I was thanking him for remembering or for showing me what I never wanted to see but needed to.
His head tilted as he stared up at me, and then he rose. “Come,” he said quietly. “We have a lot to discuss before it gets too late.”
His proposal that wasn’t a proposal.
Our future that really wasn’t one.
I said nothing though as we walked back toward the keep, nor did I resist when he took hold of my hand once more. I had no idea why he did it. I doubted he feared I’d run. Maybe he simply liked holding my hand.
I liked my hand being held.
The last to do it so often was Ian, and that had only been when no one was around. But that felt nothing like this.
Maybe I liked it so much because my mind was still in that chamber—no, that crypt with no bodies, among all those people who would never hold hands again. Perhaps it was because my mind was still in the moment where Casteel remembered a part of him that was Hawke.
We didn’t speak the entire walk back to the keep or up to the room. Once inside, he led me over to the hearth. I stood by it, letting the fire warm my chilled skin.
“Will we leave tomorrow?” I asked, breaking the silence.
“The storm is weakening, but it will have to clear a little from the roads.” Flakes of snow melted and disappeared in the dark strands of his hair as he looked to the rattling window. “The wind should help with that…and possibly blow down this keep if it keeps up like this for another night.”
I laughed out loud, thinking of the tale Ian had once told me he’d heard. Casteel turned to stare. “Sorry,” I said. “I was just thinking about this story Ian once heard. About a wolf blowing down the homes of pigs. For some reason, I thought of a wolven doing that.”
“You don’t need to apologize,” he said. “You’re beautiful when you’re quiet and somber, but when you laugh? You rival the sunrise over the Skotos Mountains.”
He sounded so genuine, as if he truly meant that, and I couldn’t understand it. “Why do you say things like that?”
His gaze searched mine. “Because it’s the truth.”
“The truth?” I laughed, stepping back from the fire. The burn was back in my throat, threatening to overwhelm me. “Will you add my name to the walls once you hand me over? I’ll be dead eventually. That’s the truth. So, don’t say things like that.”
“But it’s not the truth. Not at all,” he said, his gaze catching and holding mine. “It’s why we must marry.”
“Why are you so adamant about the marriage?” I demanded. “It makes no sense.”
“But it does. It’s the only way I can get what I want, and ensure you stay alive. Hopefully so you can live a long, free life.”
Chapter 10
“What?” I repeated, this time barely above a whisper. Live a long life? Free? How was that possible if he got what he wanted—his brother’s freedom in exchange for my captivity?
“Will you let me try to make sense of it for you? I’m not asking you to trust me.”
“Trusting you is not something you have to worry about.”
He leaned back, the line of his jaw hardening. “Neither am I asking for your forgiveness, Penellaphe.”
The use of my formal name was jarring, sending my heart racing as it silenced all the bitter words rushing to the tip of my tongue.
“I know what I’ve done to you is not something that can be forgotten,” he continued. “All I’m asking is that you listen to what I have to say. And, hopefully, we will come to an agreement.”
I forced myself to nod. My need to understand what he was suggesting far outweighed my desire to argue with him. “I…I will listen.”
There was a slight widening of his eyes as if he expected me to refuse, and then his brow smoothed. “Remember when I left to speak with my father? Of course, you do,” he added after a moment. “That was when Jericho went after you.” The line of his jaw tightened. “My father hadn’t been able to show, sending Alastir in his place. There had been issues at home that he had to attend to.”
“Issues with the wolven and running out of land?” I surmised.
He nodded. “Not now, but soon, with the scarcity of the land, we will have a lack of food and other resources.”
A small part of me was surprised that he had answered the question. “When Alastir spoke to Kieran, it sounded like the people of New Haven would be leaving for Atlantia soon.”
“They will be.”
“Because you took me, and the Ascended will come here, looking for me.”
His gaze met mine. “There were plans to move them to Atlantia before I took you. My actions move up that timeframe, but the lack of land wouldn’t have been resolved before then.”