Total pages in book: 32
Estimated words: 29980 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 150(@200wpm)___ 120(@250wpm)___ 100(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 29980 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 150(@200wpm)___ 120(@250wpm)___ 100(@300wpm)
Now she was imagining that, which was treacherous territory for her mind to go wandering around in. Such danger called for caution over curiosity, so instead of responding again, Sarya simply kept on walking.
Bannin fell in beside her, his axe propped casually against his shoulder and his keen eyes scanning the trees around them. Only a few seconds passed before he asked, “Where are you headed?”
“Home.”
“It’s that way.”
Did he think she’d lost her wits? She hadn’t been that affected by his tongue. “My harvesting basket is this way.”
He nodded. “And then I’ll walk you home.”
Though wary of what else he might say along the way—what else he might try to tempt her with—Sarya wouldn’t argue. A tree demon was stalking the forest, and her only weapon was a knife. “You’ll warn Helana?”
His sister could then spread that warning to everyone else in the nearby village.
“I will this night. You ought to come along. Helana said to invite you to supper when I saw you today.”
“How did she know you’d see me?”
“Because I mentioned that I was walking to your cottage.”
Sarya threw him a perplexed glance. In three years, nobody had visited her cottage. “Why?”
“So I could court you. Then marry you.”
“All in one visit?” Couldn’t the man be serious for one moment?
“After finding out what the tip of my tongue can do, I didn’t figure you’d want to waste time until our wedding night.”
She grinned despite herself. Then his words hit her again, differently. Painfully.
Bannin abruptly halted. “What’s that look?”
Any possible response to his gruff demand seemed to lodge like a lump in her throat. “Nothing,” she managed and attempted to continue on.
“Not nothing.” Expression dark, Bannin snagged her wrist, pulled her to a stop. Sarya turned on him furiously, though most of her anger deflated when he added, “Something I said hurt you and I don’t know why. But I sure as stone know I don’t want to hurt you again. So what was it?”
He had no right to ask. And Sarya didn’t let herself wonder why it was so easy to tell him. As if she wanted to tell him, instead of just wanting him to go away.
She tugged her wrist free as she said, “I was thinking that I’d already learned my lesson about not waiting for a wedding.” When he furrowed his brow, clearly not understanding, she sighed. “I was almost married before. Then the cursed stone sickness struck.”
It had struck her.
To Sarya, it had been only a blink of time between the terrifying moment she’d fully turned to stone and the bewildering moment she’d opened her eyes again, flesh restored and the curse broken. For everyone else, a decade had passed.
Understanding softened his gaze, yet his focus on her only intensified. “It got you, or it got him? Or both?”
“Me.”
“How long?”
“Ten years.” She’d been one of the first in Galoth to succumb to the curse.
“He must have died while you were locked in stone?” Bannin guessed in a voice more gentle than she’d ever heard from him before. “That’s what put the hurt on your face?”
“He didn’t die.” Her cheeks heated. “He married another.”
Bannin blinked slowly, then blinked again, as if she’d just told him a story more unbelievable than any tale he’d ever laid on her. “He what?”
Face burning, Sarya turned away. “He married another. The very next summer,” she added bitterly.
A deep chuckle had her swinging back around. To her astonishment, Bannin was wearing a wide grin.
“So you had a lucky escape.”
“Lucky?” she echoed in disbelief. Her heart had been ripped open. Her entire life had been torn apart.
“You deserve better than a man who’d give up hope so quickly.” His amusement hardened into contempt. “Or a husband whose heart is so weak and unsteady.”
That wasn’t fair. “You don’t know him. He’s a good man.”
Sarya would never have wanted to marry Crase if he hadn’t been.
Bannin shrugged carelessly. “Not good enough for you.”
“And you are?” she flung back. Not that she took his intention to marry her any more seriously than he took her heartbreak.
“Probably not. But with me, there’d have been no lesson to learn.” His voice roughened. “If I’d known you then, if you’d been my woman, it wouldn’t have mattered whether you were a stone statue for ten years or fifty—I’d have waited for you. I blasted well wouldn’t have married someone else.”
Once upon a time, she’d dreamed of hearing those words. After the curse had broken, she’d been caught in a nightmare. Over and over, she’d imagined that the man she’d promised her life to had loved her enough to wait. She’d have been overjoyed hearing such a speech. Now, she just wanted to cry.
She lashed out instead. “You expect me to believe that of someone who’s always gone?”
“I come back for you, Sarya.”
Sarya scoffed despite the foolish lurch her heart. “Not for your own family?”