“I’m going to tell you what I once told Rowan: Lies are easy to believe; the truth is brutal. So sit, starve, sulk. Whatever choice you make is exactly that—your choice. Don’t expect pity. Not from me. Not from anyone.”
“You think this is easy for me?” My voice cracked like brittle bone.
“No. But that doesn’t mean you get to brood like a child all day. Get up, eat, and then decide that you’re going to get past this.”
With that last thought, she left to join the others queuing for supper.
Her words kindled the dimmest spark, but it was something—a light in my darkness.
Chapter 21
“What you choose to remember holds power—even long after the moment has passed.”
- The Old Book
Asharp kick to my ribs tore me out of sleep.
I cracked my eyes and found that Rowan was hovering over me with his arms crossed, glowering.
He roused me with his boot. Not a gentle nudge, but a soldier’s command.
“What are you doing?” I groaned and attempted to close my eyes again.
Rowan kicked again, but harder, sending shocks through my side.
“What?“ I spat, sitting up on my elbows and looking around the cavern. The others were still asleep and nestled under their blankets.
“I have given you space, but my patience has run out. You are going to get up, and then we are going to go for a walk.”
I rolled my eyes and sank back into my blankets. The action earned me another swift kick, but this time to my thigh. I winced at the sharp pain.
“That’ll bruise!” I growled while imagining sticking pins in his eye sockets. Rowan saw the glimmer of animosity in my stare, and his lips twitched.
“Anger. Good. We can work with that. Now, get up.”
I reluctantly got to my feet. Rowan’s arms were still crossed as he tapped his fingers on his forearm impatiently. I scowled at him as he gestured for me to walk.
We meandered for several minutes in silence. Though the silence wasn’t awkward, I could still feel the lurking tension between us. I knew an uncomfortable conversation was on the horizon, and that Rowan would not allow me to evade it any longer. He put the lantern on the floor and looked at me expectantly.
“I don’t know what you want from me.” I huffed, rubbing one arm with the other.
“I want you to stop letting yourself decay right before my very eyes.”
“I’m not sure why you’ve suddenly grown interested in my well-being, captor.”
“Will you give that shit a rest?” He sounded genuinely exasperated. “For such a bright woman, you can be so incredibly daft sometimes. Once we reach the Crown of Ethoria,I will have no say in what becomes of you. I will have no power to protect you there. Everything that happens will be out of my control.”
Every whisper I’d ever heard about The Crown rushed back to me like a flood. A place no one returned from. A place meant to be forgotten.
“Our destination is the Crown of Ethoria?” My jaw dropped.
“I suppose that would be all you heard,” he grumbled.
I ignored that comment as well, not wanting to touch on anything emotionally related to him. Instead, I thought about the landmark.
The waves that crashed onto the three peninsulas, which jutted out like a crown, were said to be hundreds of feet high, coating the land in thick sheets of ice. The coastal storms that brewed there were notorious for being the most lethal in all of Ethoria. Even the wild beasts of the tundra didn’t dare venture that far north.
While the Great North was uninhabitable, the Crown of Ethoriawas inescapable. I had heard whispers of a secret prison located there, but the concept seemed too far-fetched to have any merit.
