The Weight of a Soul by Elizabeth Tammi

Author:Elizabeth Tammi
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Fantasy / Historical / Family / Siblings / Legends, Myths, Fables / General
Publisher: North Star Editions
Published: 2019-10-21T15:33:56+00:00

Chapter

THIRTEEN

He’d run back to the doors of his home, which surprised Lena. She thought he might have run for the woods, or the river, or anywhere he didn’t have to keep his shoulders back and chin up and forget about his lost betrothed forever. But he’d sprinted straight for his mother, with tears gathered at the ends of his eyes.

“Amal,” Lena heaved, skidding to a stop behind him. He paced outside, his steps erratic.

“Now they definitely will not want me as chief,” he muttered.

“They will understand,” Lena murmured, her chest still heaving from the strain of running so far so fast. “They knew what she meant to you.”

Amal shrugged with one shoulder. He kept his face downturned, so Lena could not see. “Exactly. And now they all know about us . . . this marriage . . .”

He trailed off. Lena’s chest tightened, and she dared a step closer to him. “Not until my father returns. With this weather, and knowing him, it might be a decade.”

“He will still come,” Amal said, still staring down. His voice, usually full of the glowing richness of dripping honey, scraped like a blade across ice. “Or if he does not, they will bend the rules. In case you have not noticed, Lena, you are not getting younger.”

Lena blinked. Her eyes stung from the cold and from the grated edge in his words. “Do you want us to marry? I’m trying to help us, Amal!”

“I know.”

“I can fix this,” she insisted. “We just need to wait—”

“Wait for what?” Now, Amal looked up to her. The tears in his eyes had disappeared, replaced by an angry sort of caution. He looked upon her as if she were a stranger. She clamped her jaw shut, forcing herself to maintain eye contact.

“Lena.”

She shook her head.

“You worry me sometimes,” he whispered. At that moment, part of Lena wished he would grab her by the shoulders and demand he tell her everything. She imagined the weightlessness of it—the words and secrets tumbling from her lips. They would crash around her, but she would be featherlight, if only for a moment.

Lena shut her eyes, letting out a deep breath. She had instructions. A quest, of sorts. All she had to do was follow the steps, and this would all go away—the darkness, this marriage, everything. Lena could do it.

She had to do it.

“Go inside, Amal,” Lena said. “I am fine. The others will leave the meeting soon, and unless you want an uncomfortable reunion, I suggest you go inside to your mother.”

He stared at her for a long, aching moment, and she nearly buckled under his heavy gaze. It was awful to have such a secret from her best friend. She had made a stranger of herself to him, and the few yards between them stretched and rolled for miles.

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