Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 83946 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83946 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
“I am okay because you are safe.”
We won’t be for long, though. My father’s men may have run, but they’ll be calling someone to report my father and Charles’ murder, and that Bothaki is loose.
“We have to leave right now,” I hurry to say. “They’ll be coming here.”
“The water. The Hallans will be at the water.”
I nod, while stepping out of his embrace to look around the room. Quickly snatching up a first aid kit from under a table, I grab Bothaki’s hand and rush from his cell. I take him through the library, towards the back staircase. If anyone is here already, they’ll be coming through the front door, meeting the soldiers there to get an account of the situation.
Or they might all very well be a lot more concerned with the horns and cries coming from the sky.
“How many Hallans are here?” I ask as we walk up the stairs.
“It must be at least a thousand, from the sound of it.”
“That many came to get you.”
I look to my side when we reach the landing to find him shaking his head, a slightly puzzled look on his face. “No. This is something else. They’ve come for me, but they brought an army.”
We don’t have time to figure out why right now. Over the sounds of the horns, which are much louder up here, I can hear voices coming from the front of my house. Either the soldiers are arguing or someone has come. Either way, we need to go. I turn right and pull Bothaki behind me as I head in the opposite direction of my bedroom. I open the door to my father’s bedroom, his distinct cologne filling the air around me, trying to make me feel guilty for killing my own father. But I refuse to, not when the choice was between him and Bothaki. I don’t even have to think to know I would do it again.
I can tell Bothaki recognizes the scent as well from the low growl that rumbles from him. We head towards the double doors at the back of his room, and I whip one open, hurrying to bring us into the field behind my house. Bothaki takes a shuddering breath that brings me up short, though. He tilts his head up, and his eyes, both the uninjured and the bloody socket, squint in pleasure as he releases a relieved breath.
“What is it?” I ask urgently.
“The sun,” he murmurs. “I have not felt it for so long.” He opens his eye and smiles over at me. “Even if your sun does not feel as good.”
A very unexpected laugh bursts out of me. “Your sun feels so much better?”
“Bey.”
I twitch my hand in his. “Show me as we walk.”
“Where are we going?”
“The water. I suspect my father drove you here, on the road. But we can cut through the field and get there quicker by foot. If you feel okay to walk.”
“I would walk anywhere with you, Zawla.”
I urge him forward and as we go, he shows me memories of his days spent basking in his sun. And in those memories of his, it does feel different. Like it’s nourishing him while my sun feels like it drains you if you stay in its rays for too long. Right when the grasses of the field begin to be short enough to see the water beyond it, Bothaki pulls on my hand to stop me.
“I don’t want my people to see me this way.”
Sadness sweeps me through me so completely that all I want to do is hold him, but instead I begin to sit, pulling on his hand to urge him down as well. He bends his knees to drop down and I end up having to get to my knees to be eye to eye with him. Well, almost eye to eye, anyway.
“I think I can help,” I say, raising the kit I’ve been carrying.
“With a … bag?”
I chuckle and his lips curve into a smile.
“I’ve never told you how much I love your smile,” I state.
His brows rise. “Love? You’ve told me about this word. That it comes from here.”
He points to the middle of my chest.
“Yes,” I answer, but the word comes out shaky with the sudden desire rushing through me from such a simple touch.
“You love Bothaki?”
I think because Hallans have mates, because they look forward to finding that person all their lives, then when they do find them, they’ve already begun their process of bonding to their mate, as a lifelong commitment. Maybe the Hallans just understand mate—that the mate is theirs. It’s possible they believe their mates will have a similar mindset. I think all of these things make him not comprehend just how huge of a question he’s asked me. How deep that single word goes. How just answering it could—will—change everything. But unlike when my mother asked and my mind looked to so many different feelings and memories for an answer, a single word instantly comes into my mind when he asks if I love him.