The Keep by Veronica Wolff

Author:Veronica Wolff [Wolff, Veronica]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Speculative Fiction Suspense, (¯`'•.¸//(*_*)\\¸.•'´¯)
ISBN: 9780451416360
Publisher: NAL
Published: 2013-06-04T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINETEEN

OhmyGodOhmyGodOhmyGod.

Frost had been right about one thing—I had made a mistake. But not like she thought. My error hadn’t been in writing the runes; it’d been transposing active for passive verbs: Sonja ruled by versus Sonja ruler of.

Sonja. Ruler of vampires.

As in:

A woman.

In charge.

Because there was no other way to read that. Sonja. That was a woman’s name. It wasn’t the sort of name that could go either way—not Pat, or Taylor, or Carter. It was so surreal, I’d repeated it in my head over and over, considering it from all angles and all nationalities, until it seemed like an unreal mashup of vowels and consonants. But it was real. Sonja was a name, and it was undeniably feminine.

Did that mean there’d been a ruler of vampires who was a woman?

I blew off Frost as best I could after that, head reeling and hands trembling from the revelation. And, by the way, thank God she didn’t see the original rubbing. As it was, she just thought I was crappy at Old Norse, and that was fine by me. Those original runes were burning a hole in my bookshelf, but I dared not take them back out now. Who could I even show them to?

Carden. I could show them to Carden. I wanted to share them with him.

Yeah, right.

Screw him. He’d apparently ridden off into the sunset, leaving me to deal with this by myself.

All right. Not screw him. Not really. I was hurt, not angry. Heartbroken. Aching to see him. Missing him physically. Longing for his touch. For the feel of our bond igniting whenever I fed from him.

How had I ever let myself get so vulnerable? I replayed our last night. As you grow stronger, as our bond grows deeper, you will be able to part from me.…Like he was setting it up so he could leave me. And though he’d said we could part for longer periods, I was beginning to feel that familiar unpleasant ache in my belly—the ache of the blood fever.

Why would he put me through this? What had I done wrong? Should I have gone further with him? Was that what he’d wanted?

And then there was all that stuff he’d said. Had it meant anything to him? Or had he just been trying to get in my pants? You are an innocent. You help me to remember. Blah blah blah…Helped him to remember what? That I was an inexperienced virgin who wasn’t ready for more, while he was?

Of course, his disappearance had another explanation, one that I dared not consider. He might’ve disappeared because he’d…disappeared. Something bad might’ve happened to him.

But wouldn’t I have felt it? I was certain I’d know if Carden were ripped from this earth. The thought was too painful—I couldn’t even touch it. Much easier to think I’d been blown off. And how pathetic was that?

Which put me back at squares one and two: hurt and pissed. If and when I saw Carden again, I’d be too angry to tell him anything but off.

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