“Why do you hurt yourself?”
“Let me go.” I try to pull away, but his grip remains firm.
“Every time I touch you, you get angry. Why?”
“I don’t like…”To be touched by you.The words freeze against my tongue as I inhale and exhale, desperately seeking my calm.
“What are you hiding?”
“Please,” I say. That one word desperate. “Let me go.”
Almost as quickly as he grabbed me, he frees me. “There’s hate inside you. It’s deep, like a canyon gouged into the earth, yet you agreed to this marriage.”
“Ineedto belong,” I say, my words tender, raw against my throat. There’s truth there. Real truth.
“You didn’t belong with the Kyanites?”
I lay my hands against my thighs, palms facing up. “No. I could never do what they wanted. My hands were useless. My spells nothing more than dust.”
“So, you came here to live with the Bloodstone people. For what purpose? What do you think we could give you that they didn’t?”
Revenge.I lick my bottom lip and speak. “A new beginning.”
“Then you’ll be sorely disappointed. Astarobane isn’t where you go for new beginnings.”
“Astarobane?” I brush sticky strands from my cheeks and grimace as sweat drips down the small of my back.I’m going to need a bath after I leave this lodge.“What is Astarobane?”
“My home.” He rolls his neck and stares into the pit. “At least, for a few months.”
Inwardly, I assess the name, testing it against my tongue. It doesn’t sound familiar. Is it in Tarrobane? Surely, these Bloodstone people don’t live outside of Tarrobane.
“Is that where you’re from?” Why are the Bloodstones so secretive about their homes? Even the patrons who visited the alehouse were tight-lipped.
“No.”
“Is Astarobane the only Bloodstone city?”
Instead of answering, he stares blankly.
All right. So, he obviously doesn’t want to divulge that information.
I decide to shift the subject. “Why did you agree to this marriage?”
“The Seer,” Gabriel says plainly.
“Do you always obey the Seer?”
He studies me in the low light for several moments before speaking. “You don’t understand my people. If you did, you wouldn’t have asked that question.”
How can I understand when they’re so guarded with their information.
“Help me understand.”
“No,” he says bluntly.
“Why is the Seer so important to you?” I ask, trying to get him to open up to me.
“The Seer is important to all Bloodstone people.”
