Broken by Marlena Frank

Author:Marlena Frank [Frank, Marlena]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Parliament House

"Immortality."

The very thought of it made Shaleigh grow cold. Or perhaps it was the desolate wasteland of the Masked King's realm. She and Teagan followed the shrouded woman, the one called Ms. Kasey. Her name also made Shaleigh uneasy. It was a normal name, one that might fit one of her father's colleagues or the name of a nurse at the dentist office. It didn't suit the wraith who walked ahead of them, her feet moving through the dirt but never making a sound. And she never looked back. Shaleigh couldn't even hear the woman breathing, unlike her and Teagan.

"I had no idea such an ability was even possible," Teagan whispered, keeping his voice low as though the reverent space they were in demanded it. He was gripping Shaleigh’s hand tighter than she would have liked, but she wasn't going to complain. Not in this place.

"You sound almost jealous," the words had come without her even meaning to say them aloud, and immediately she regretted them. She glanced over to see the shock fall across his features like melting ice. "I'm sorry," she said, adding quickly, "I didn't mean that. I don't know what I meant really."

He gave a deep sigh. She could still see the patches of wetness on his cheeks from where he had been crying earlier, giving his cheeks a pink flush that his hair only drew attention to. The shame she felt deepened.

"It's alright," he reassured, meeting her gaze. "You know just about all of my mistakes now, I suppose. All my follies that I've tried to keep secret for so long have been unearthed for you. You saw my jealousy before it had even consciously occurred to me."

She shook her head. "Yeah, but it's not fair to you. You may have been hungry for power once, but that shouldn't define you forever."

They went quiet as they followed Ms. Kasey around a lifeless blackened tree. The scent of burned wood was so strong it made Shaleigh sneeze.

"If you had asked me before if I wanted to live in that dreamland of his, wielding absolute power, I would have accepted it without hesitation."

Shaleigh arched an eyebrow at him. "Without hesitation, huh?"

He shrugged. "Alright, I would have had some qualms about it, but standing there in my old gazebo... I didn't realize how much I missed it."

"You can't go back to that life anymore."

He gave a small smile. "I know. I also realized in that moment how much I needed to repair what I had done."

For the first time since they landed in that mushroom ring in the woods, Shaleigh felt like they had finally become a team. It was a relief, especially considering that Teagan had been about to leave her with Queen Mab before, as though that would somehow be any safer than this.

A black shadow moved just out of her vision, letting Shaleigh know the Black Dog was coming. Still, seeing it slink up beside the shrouded woman made a shudder go down her spine.

This was a different Black Dog from the two earlier.

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.