The Girl Who Ruled the Stars by Heather Hildenbrand

Author:Heather Hildenbrand
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Heather Hildenbrand, LLC

Chapter Seventeen

I followed Eamon all the way back to town and into a small back room off one of the buildings on the main square. I’d never been inside it before, and from the looks of it, no one used it for much beyond storage. Crates were stacked along one wall and coils of rope had been tossed along the other. Farther back was a door that led to a smaller room—a closet, maybe? I didn’t ask who the space belonged to. It didn’t matter. Instead, I waited for the lecture I knew was coming.

Eamon didn’t waste any time.

The moment the door shut behind me, he growled, loud and low. No words came with it. Only the sound of frustration no longer contained.

Fine. If that’s how this was going to go…

Equally frustrated, I took a deep breath and let loose with my best attempt at mimicking him. My growl was nowhere near as impressive.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Venting, same as you,” I said.

“That,” he said with a shudder, “was not the same as me.”

“Whatever,” I muttered.

He cocked his head, studying me. “Why do you think I growled just now?”

I shrugged. “To release some of your anger and frustration?”

He snickered before catching himself. “I’ll give you that. It probably did help. But that’s not the reason.”

“Then what?”

“Did you know that the wolf warriors have been the official guardians of the Leone royal family for over a thousand years?”

“No,” I admitted, wondering what that obscure fact had to do with his growling at me now.

“And did you know that, as a people, we fought in and successfully defended against every single enemy who attempted to invade or overthrow the Zorovian people for a millennium?”

I didn’t answer.

“Losing your parents was a blow personally and politically—and historically. It meant we—I—had failed where all others before me had not. Do you understand what that’s like? The pressure and responsibility of that kind of defeat?”

“I’m starting to,” I admitted.

Eamon’s eyes held mine for a long moment, and then he looked away, hanging his head. I realized he wasn’t angry. He was scared. And more than that, he felt guilty and responsible for everything that had become of our people.

I bit my lip, angry at myself for not seeing it sooner. I’d been so wrapped up in losing Nightingale and Archer, in how all of this was happening to me, that I’d forgotten it was also happening to Eamon.

The real leader while I’d been gone.

“I’m sorry, Eamon.”

“Alina,” he began, but I cut him off.

“Please, just let me apologize.” I took a deep breath then blew it out again. “I’m sorry for the years you spent searching for me. I’m sorry about the way I ran out of that last council meeting. And I’m sorry for running off without telling you about the medallion. But mostly, I’m sorry you feel guilty about my parents’ death, because you’re not. That burden belongs to Tharos. And I won’t stop until he’s paid for his sins, I swear it.”

“Don’t swear promises to me, Your Highness,” he said wearily.

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