Hidden Heart by Anne Avery

Author:Anne Avery
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Anne Avery
Published: 2015-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

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He left her in the great bed, alone with the shadows and the storm-tossed sheets and the silence. His body felt heavy, sated, yet still he ached for more of her. His face still burned where, afterwards, she had delicately traced each line and curve and hollow, letting her fingers see in the dark what her eyes could not.

That subtle exploration had shaken him more than he cared to admit. He’d instantly known it for what it was, an offering to memory...and a farewell. Marna already knew what he lacked the courage to tell her.

He would not visit her again. Not like this. He wasn’t strong enough or brave enough to touch that kind of passion and not want to claim it for forever.

She hadn’t said a word, not even when he’d drawn away from her, gathered his clothes, and fled.

There was still the meeting of the Tevah ahead of him, and he was late.

As Tarl slipped through the gardens and out into the night-shrouded streets of Diloran Central, he forced away the memory of Marna and tried to keep alert for any sign of an Internal Security patrol among the dwindling flow of traffic.

Yet even as he maintained a wary eye for possible pursuit, Tarl found himself studying the city around him, noting the trick of lighting on a building, or the cool drift of the night air, or the way a solitary resident, shoulders hunched against the darkness, hurried down the other side of the street, intent on reaching home and his bed.

Simple, ordinary things. Things he would soon be leaving behind forever, because once he left Diloran, there would be no coming back.

The thought made Tarl falter, just for an instant. Then anger rose to his defense. If he could leave Joeffrey and the life of power and wealth that was his for the taking, if he could leave Marna—

Marna!

Tarl stopped dead in his tracks.

He would never see Marna again.

The thought hit him with like a laser blast.

He’d known it. Known it when he’d entered her room tonight. Known it when he’d taken her in his arms and let the fire within her burn away the anger and pain in him. Known it when he’d left her without a word of farewell, there in the shadowed, secret bed amid the tumbled sheets.

Yet knowing was, somehow, not the same as understanding. He felt like a child who knew he might be hurt if he jumped out of a tree, but hadn’t understood just how long the drop and how painful the landing could be until he actually jumped.

For the first time, there in the silent streets, Tarl understood what it was to jump. Worse, he had the awful feeling that he was still a long way from landing, and that the landing, when it finally came, was going to be far more painful than he’d ever imagined.

Dazed, he shrank back into the shadows of a building entryway. He felt as if the wind were rushing

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