The Girl Who Called The Stars by Heather Hildenbrand

Author:Heather Hildenbrand [Hildenbrand, Heather]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: YA SFF
Publisher: Heather Hildenbrand, LLC
Published: 2018-07-17T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

I didn’t go after Xander. If I did, there was a good chance I’d either kiss him or kill him—and I didn’t want to be responsible for the consequences of either one. I let him go and concentrated on deep breathing until I could think past the fact that I’d been insulted so thoroughly and then distracted from it by being turned on so completely.

Also, how was I so melty over one stupid kiss?

It wasn’t fair.

It also wasn’t a question I could answer by continuing to stand awkwardly in the middle of the woods. So, in the end, I reminded myself why I’d come out here in the first place and traipsed onward.

As I walked, I opened the mental connection with Nightingale and was glad to find her happily grazing in a grove of trees not far from me. I was equally glad she was too distracted by the delicious fruit to pay much attention to my mental chaos.

When I got close enough to see her through the thick layer of leaves, I called a silent hello. Archer was nowhere in sight which made me wonder—but also meant I could keep the second apple for myself. I held out the first one as I approached.

You look well-fed, I told her with a laugh as she gobbled up my gift with zero hesitation.

She smacked her lips in response but I could hear her worrying that she’d done something wrong by being here.

You can roam free around here, I assured her. No more fences for you, girl.

Nightingale let out a whinny of excitement, and I laughed as I stepped closer. I think our newfound freedom should be celebrated by conducting a formal exploration of this place. You in?

Nightingale swung around and then stopped, clearly waiting for me to climb on.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” I said aloud.

Swinging up onto Nightingales back, I urged her to the right—the opposite direction of town. And Xander. Nightingale reluctantly left the fruit grove behind. The trees were too thick to go very fast here, but soon, we emerged into a large, open field.

I need speed, I told Nightingale. How about you?

Her response was to break into a gallop, and I held on tight as we flew over the dark, mossy ground. In the distance, rolling hills rose into hazy mountains. Not quite the cliffs of Arizona, especially with the ringed planets that hung heavy in the sky just above their peaks, but gorgeous in a totally different sort of way.

Nightingale must have agreed the way she aimed straight for them.

The wind, the openness and the way the air slid over my skin, was exactly what I needed. I threw my head back, giving in to the weightless sensation as Nightingale went faster and faster.

With the next inhale of air into my lungs, I did my best to savor the moment. The solitude. The speed.

The independence.

I committed every single second to memory for later.

Despite Peter’s note about freedom, I had a feeling the moment I went back to town, people were going to start expecting things from me.

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