Just look for the one with the scars.
My heart squeezes, aching as I turn my face away from him.
“Annora, look at me.”
Something about the way he says my name draws me back to him, to meet his eyes, to see the warmth glinting in them. “Tell me why you look so sad.”
“Because this is a fantasy.Youare a fantasy. None of it is real.”
“It could be real.”
“No.” I push him away and yank my nightdress down. “It may be real for you, but I am trapped in a body that isn’t my own.”
“You are the wife of the heir of a chieftain. You have prestige, power, coin.”
“Lyra is your wife.Iam not.”
“Lyra is gone.” He sits up and leans against the headboard. “You are my wife now.”
“No.” I shake my head. “That cannot be true.”
“What do you think soul linking means, Annora? She never returned from Sharhavva. You are here instead.”
“But I don’t want to be your wife.” It’s only partially true. One side of me wants to fall asleep next to him every night, to forget the world outside this bedchamber. The other side knows the moment we step outside, everything will return, and I’ll remember what his family has done. “You are from House of Crimson,” I say, my words low. “I am from House of Silver. It’s forbidden.”
“Only if people knew. They don’t have to know.”
“But I would. Do you expect me to stand by idle while more villages from House of Silver go up in flames? Or when your father hunts the people who supported my grandfather?”
Jasce remains silent.
“What if your father attacks Bakva? Would you lead the army? Would you kill my sisters?”
Jasce’s jaw clenches, but he still doesn’t speak.
“I cannot be your wife and love my family at the same time. I would have to sever my heart in half, and I will not do that,” I say, my voice trembling with determination.
“I would not ask you to.”
“But you would. You would ask me to stand next to you, to fight with you, to learn how to summon a phoenix.”
His jaw clenches as he looks away.
“And you want a child, but I cannot give you a child. Not when you would raise him to defeat my people.”
Jasce grips my hips and brings me back until I’m sitting on his lap. “You are thinking of the future instead of living in the moment.”
“I don’t want to be blinded by my emotions,” I whisper as he rotates me to face him.
“You are trying to stop a fire that hasn’t started.”
“It has. You just refuse to see the flames.”
He strokes my jaw with his knuckles. “I see yours. They burn like embers in your eyes.”
“Jasce…”
“Annora…”
