Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 123190 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 616(@200wpm)___ 493(@250wpm)___ 411(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 123190 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 616(@200wpm)___ 493(@250wpm)___ 411(@300wpm)
“I should go,” Skylar says, glancing around awkwardly. “I don’t do this painful shit well.”
“Skylar, wait.” I search my memory for the name Kendrick and Natan discussed the night after I first showed them the ring. “Have you ever heard of the legend of Fienna?” It was the legend Natan pointed to as an explanation of why the ring didn’t work on Kendrick.
She lifts a brow. “Wow. That’s random. Um, yeah. I don’t remember all the details, but she’s the siren, right?”
I shake my head. “I’ve never heard it. Could you tell me?”
She gulps her wine, looking up at the stars thoughtfully. “From what I remember, she was a siren who left her island for one reason or another. She met this sailor and they fell in love, but of course he didn’t know she was a siren. Eventually she had to return to her family. Years later, the same man was sailing by. It was her day to sing on the rocks, but the sailor didn’t crash. Her song didn’t work on him because he was already in love with her.”
Remme appears, stepping up beside Skylar and nodding knowingly. “True love is more powerful than the imitation the siren’s song creates,” he says, smiling into his own glass of wine. “I always loved that story.”
Skylar scoffs. “Yeah, until the chick’s mom sends her sisters out to sing for his return journey, and Fienna has to watch as they make the man she loves crash into the deadly rocks and die.”
“Okay, so parts of the story are nice,” Remme says.
Skylar rolls her eyes. “I’m going to grab some food. Find me if you need me.”
Remme watches as she strolls away, then turns to me. “Sorry about interrupting earlier.” He clears his throat and cringes. “Again.”
I smile, despite myself. “You do have horrible timing.”
He glances over his shoulder to where Skylar disappeared into the crowd. “The Fienna thing—is that your hypothesis on why the ring doesn’t work the same on Hale?”
I avert my gaze to the fire before the concern in his eyes can pull more tears from me. I’ve had enough of that tonight. “I heard Natan mention it.”
“Well, Natan is by far the smartest person I’ve ever met. He’s probably onto something.” Remme’s eyes are bright as he nudges me. “I like you for Hale, Jasalyn. I sure hope you don’t go anywhere.”
The smile falls from my face. I’ve never had as much trouble keeping myself held together emotionally as I have in the last two days. This is the cost of waking up—the cost of the joy and yearning and passion. It’s thrown open the doors to everything I so carefully had caged up inside.
Remme frowns. “Did I say something?”
I shake my head. “No. I’m just tired.”
“Bullshit.” Somehow the word is soft and filled with compassion.
“It’s just that Kendrick’s queen is out there waiting for him, so none of that matters anyway, right?”
Remme grimaces. “Skylar told you?”
I set my jaw and nod. Didn’t Kendrick try to warn me? And I told him I didn’t care about the future. It’s not fair to change the rules now.
I need to get out of here.
“Hey.” Remme takes me by the wrist before I can turn away. “We have oracles and prophecies, but they all change constantly. They’re misinterpreted and misconstrued, bent by misconceptions and ultimately trumped by our free will. I’ll never give up on someone I love for what others claim is fate. No matter how bleak it all looks, there’s a path in your stars worth fighting for.”
“And what if you find yourself living beneath nothing but cursed stars?”
Remme hunches over so we’re eye to eye, and there’s only tenderness and understanding in his eyes when he says, “Then you go find yourself a world with a whole new night sky.” He slides his hand down to mine and gives it a firm squeeze. “And some friends who will show you how to get there.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Jasalyn
“THERE YOU ARE,” KENDRICK SAYS, wrapping his arms around me from behind.
I stiffen—not for the reason I’ve recoiled from touch for three years, but because this man holds my heart in his hands. I put it there despite all Skylar’s warnings. All his warnings. And I can’t even ask him not to break it. It turns out neither of us has a future of our own to promise.
“Are you okay?” he asks.
“Yeah.” I scan his face, dodging those beautiful ice-blue eyes. He’s promised to another, and I’m being chased by the ticking clock that’s counting down to my eighteenth birthday.
He spins me around to face him and rubs his hands up and down my bare arms. “You sure?”
“Just a little cold and tired.”
“I need to stay here for a couple more hours, but you can go back to the house if you want.”
I search his face as if it might explain why he never told me he was promised to another. He tried to tell you. “I don’t want you to keep things from me. No matter how much they might hurt. If you really think I’m so strong, prove it by telling me the hard things.”