Abandon: An Orc Monster Romance (Monsters & Artifacts Book 3) by Trish Heinrich

Author:Trish Heinrich [Heinrich, Trish]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2023-05-15T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Andromeda

It wasn’t really a surprise that what I had tried to ignore had appeared and slapped me in the face.

What was a shock was the fact that a dance that symbolized passion, love and so much more to me was actually the catalyst. In a way, it was a relief. I didn’t have to carry the burden of starting this conversation, of destroying our little pocket of ignorant happiness by injecting much needed truth into it. Luke had done that, bravely and directly. Honestly, it was a shock. He’d always avoided arguments with me until there was no other choice, constantly trying to fix what he thought was wrong as if it were solely his fault. He blamed himself a lot during our marriage, assuming that it couldn’t be me. I hated it, the feeling that I was too perfect to be at fault, the work of trying to reassure him that nothing was wrong, or it wasn’t him. And then doing it all over again after we fought.

But this time was different. This time, Luke hadn’t tried to sugar coat it, hadn’t made it about some flaw of his. He’d met it head on, without trying to protect me. It was a relief as much as it made me a bit afraid. What was I in for, now that Luke didn’t feel the need to keep my feelings from being hurt?

As we made our way under the cover of darkness to the chapel, the sounds of celebration getting more distant by the minute, a heaviness settled between us. Gone was the ease we’d carved out on our way here and we were shrouded in tense silence. It wouldn’t distract from the mission, I knew that. We’d done much more difficult work in the middle of screaming fights. Still, it was uncomfortable, like a hair shirt on my back.

The chapel was set about a quarter mile from the town itself. If we’d been heading for it directly, we would’ve traveled along a well-kept gravel path lined with these strange moon blooming flowers on either side. As it was, we approached from the side and came upon a small lean-to like shed on the west side of the structure. There were lights on inside, though dim and flickering, like candles. The space was a long rectangle shape. The belfry was at the front of the church, with a simple cross at its top that shone white in the moonlight.

“I don’t want to damage the building if we can help it,” Luke said.

I nodded, pushing all of my emotions aside and finding that cool, calm spot in my mind. Focusing on the puzzle in front of us was a relief, and I dove head first into it.

“We could just try the door,” I suggested. “They don’t seem the type to lock the place.”

Luke frowned.

“It can’t be that easy…can it?”

“Stay here and let me do a perimeter sweep real quick, make sure we’re alone, then we’ll try the front door.”

Luke nodded and I took off around the back of the church.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.