by Cate Tiernan
River came over to me. I felt like I’d been put in a blender and put on Shred. All my emotions were raw, my nerves stretched tight.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
I thought about it. “No. Not really.”
She gave me the barest of smiles and rubbed my arm, then looked over at Reyn. Tilting her head to one side, River turned back to me, as if she was sensing some sea change inside my soul, had sensed it even before I had.
I let out a deep breath. Her eyes were still on me. “What do you want?” she asked softly.
I swallowed. “I want to belong here,” I said, telling her what I’d realized during dinner. “To be content and at peace, needing nothing except to learn. I want to feel safe, and not like an outsider. I want… to belong, here. To be worthy of being here. As long as I can.” Stupidly, I was near tears, like a child, like someone who had her heart on her sleeve. Panic throbbed in my chest, but I ignored it.
Her gaze sharpened, and I thought I could see more than a thousand years of emotion behind her eyes.
“Yes?” she asked.
“Yes. But… most of all—I want to be myself. I want to be Lilja, of the House of Úlfur.” I rubbed my hand across my face, very tired. “I know that now, and I understand everything that that means. I want my power back. I want my heritage. I want to be my mother’s daughter, my father’s heir.” My voice choked up, and I got that hot, pre-cry feeling behind my eyes. It all seemed so clear to me now, so inevitable.
A new light flared in River’s eyes, a new wonder on her face. I thought I saw relief, gladness, anticipation in her expression. She put her arm around me. “Yes,” she said simply. “Yes. I want that for you.”
“Wait,” Brynne said, her voice seeming unnaturally loud in the silent night. “You guys were kissing?”
I groaned and covered my face. Reyn shifted from foot to foot, looking anywhere but at me. Things weren’t over between us—not the bad things, and now I knew, not the good things, either. I wanted to see how it came out. I was done running.
Be sure to read
the next book in the
IMMORTAL BELOVED
trilogy,
available
September 2011!
Table of Contents
COPYRIGHT
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
