Heart of the Hunted: A deliciously dark, romantic Snow White retelling by T.L. Thorne

Author:T.L. Thorne [Thorne, T.L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-07-21T16:00:00+00:00

Familiarity

I was awed.

This community was incredible—what a stunning place, and how clever to hide behind the mountain.

Esme was a spitfire of a woman and cousin to Argen, with auburn hair and brilliant green eyes.

I liked her instantly. Potted plants covered her quaint home, hand-picked flowers in various vases, and gemstones of every color. I spent a long time admiring each piece. It had been a while since I was able to enjoy such things.

“We mine some incredible things, aye?”

“Yes, everything is gorgeous. I’ve never seen…” I slid my finger down a particularly gorgeous orange stone with red and yellow marbleized veins throughout it. “Anything like this.”

“That’s Emberite.”

“It’s stunning. I’m…”

Esme cocked her head. “You seem so… familiar.”

My eyes held hers. Everything had felt familiar since standing on the cliff's edge overlooking these mountains, and with every step, I took closer shifted something inside me. But the vision had shaken me to my core, and I tried my best not to dwell on it.

“All of this feels... like a memory slowly resurfacing. It is strange.”

Esme bit her lip and glanced at her door as if she feared someone overhearing. “Dwarven blood can sometimes be… recognizable to each other. We can sense our kin.”

My eyes widened in shock. “You think… maybe… we are kin?”

She shrugged. “It’s possible. Our blood has meted out and expanded much over the last century. It's part of our recent heritage of which we aren’t proud but was a necessary development of survival.”

One of diluted blood would reseat the dwarves. That couldn't mean me, could it? No, that was absurd, and I couldn’t think about that now either. Instead, I paid attention to the female in front of me. “Your speech is better than the others.”

She chuckled. “Aye. I lived my first fifteen years of life in Feist with my parents. They were weaponsmiths for the kingdom. When Amira came into power and started to target the dwarves, my parents stuck it out for a while, but when it got much worse, we moved to the mountains and went into hiding.”

“My family… We are also weaponsmiths.”

It was her time to look at me with wide eyes. “Really?”

I grinned. “Yes.” I pointed to my short sword and bow. “I made these weapons, and the sword my…companion carries is my design and make.”

She returned my grin and picked up my sword. She looked it over with expert scrutiny. “This is lovely work.” Esme glanced at me again and squinted. “The wolf sword with the Naphire stone?”

I nodded, appreciating her keen eye on Sahlyn’s fine sword.

We swapped stories about weapons and stones and enjoyed each other's company. I generally detested the company of other women, but this dwarven woman I could handle. She was funny and strong and had the same interests and mannerisms as me, and enough of the opposite likes to challenge each other good-naturedly.

Esme put a few neat stitches in my wounds and redressed them. She then procured a blue dress for me. I was surprised she could find

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