Bound (Bound Trilogy) by Kate Sparkes

Author:Kate Sparkes
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Sparrowcat Press
Published: 2014-06-22T22:00:00+00:00

He smiled tentatively when I brought his plate over. “Thanks.”

“Yeah. I mean, you’re welcome.” I sat across from him. “I’m going to ask you something, and you need to answer me honestly, even if you think it’s not what I want to hear. No tricks, no side-stepping, no vague responses that I can interpret as I choose. Can you do that?”

“You know me too well.”

“Can you?”

“I’ll try.”

“When all of this is over, what are you going to do?”

He raised one eyebrow. Maybe he’d been expecting a different question. “I suppose that depends on what you mean by ‘all of this,’ and even more on how it actually ends.”

“Would you go back to your old life if that were possible?”

“It wouldn’t be. But if in some other world Severn were willing to forgive me and let things go back to the way they were, rights and privileges reinstated, all is forgotten?”

I nodded, not wanting to speak and risk saying the wrong thing.

He looked down at his plate, thinking. I sipped my tea.

“No.” He looked up. “No, I wouldn’t.”

“Why? You went back after you left Stone Ridge. You were going to betray me. Why not now?”

He took a sip of his own drink, but his eyes never left mine. “I don’t think I could. When I went back, I just wanted to forget about you. That was the plan. But then Severn made me tell him about you, and I’m ashamed to say that I turned you in to protect my own ass.” He lowered his gaze. “I think I was trying to prove something to myself, too. That I was strong enough to do what needed to be done, for Severn and Tyrea. And as much as I hated how much control Severn had over me, and the person he was turning me into, I did have a lot to protect. Family obligations aside, I had a good life in Luid.”

He reached up to rub the back of his neck. He seemed less certain and confident than I’d ever seen him. I stirred my tea, not wanting to push him to finish even as the waiting tore me apart. “But as I’ve spent more time away from that life,” he continued, “I’ve realized that it was killing me. I meant everything I said last night. I’m not a good person. But I hate what I’ve become. I thought the part of me that cared about what happened to you was weak. I’ve spent years trying to crush it. But I’m starting to think that maybe it’s worth hanging on to. If I went home again, the part of me that has appreciated your kindness and tried to keep you safe would die. I would become everything Severn was trying to make me. And I don’t want that.”

He looked up again and tried to smile, but it fell flat. “I think I’ve realized that I’d rather have a short life, even if it’s spent like this, than live hundreds of years the way I was before.

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