Page 13 of A Rising Hope

“Who is she?” his quiet voice sounded a few moments later.

“Zora is my Commander.”

“But she is so tiny for a warrior,” he stated, taking the cup into his hands, letting the steam bring a hint of color to his face.

“You should definitely tell her that. She’d love to hear it.” I chuckled, scratching my chin. Exhaustion crept into my bones even as I fought it. “Zora is like a rabid badger—what she lacks in size, she makes up with ferocity and smarts.”

He took another sip, pondering, as his eyes stayed on the door.

“I think I am going to tell her who I am,” he said matter-of-factly.

I tilted my head, curious. Truthfulness was not a trait Truth Tellers carried. Divulging their most sacred truth, a secret most would easily kill for, or be killed because of, was against their very nature. It was against everything they stood for.

“Why?” I asked, not hiding my surprise at his decision.

Zora’s approaching shadow from underneath the creak of the door grew larger.

He paused before whispering the very first truth of his life.

“Because I think I found my reason to live.”

8

ZORA

Northen Manor.Present.

Orest was leaning against a tall arched entryway across the door to my room, in the exact same spot where I had left him fifteen minutes prior when I went to change for dinner. His primal gaze reached me to my bones as he scanned my body from head to toe. I could feel his craving. His desire turned my blood into simmering lava, my core turning molten at his lingering look.

“You’ve been following me all day now.” I folded my arms tightly, steadying my racing heart.

“Have I? I hadn’t noticed.” He gave me a stiff smile.

I rolled my eyes, shoving away the wicked thoughts that rushed into my mind as I brushed past him speeding down the hall. His alluring smell poisoned the ironclad reason I prided myself on having. My sick and twisted mind conjured images of how easily he could pin me down, how he could lift me up against the stone wall with no effort at all and take me for everyone to see until I was completely spent.

I was sick.

I needed to get as far away from him as possible. But he followed me a step behind.

I needed to put an end to this.

I abruptly stopped, turning to face him, only tocrashinto him.

Gods, curse them all.I swallowed hard.

I was too close.

My heart skipped a beat as he didn’t back away, letting my nose dig into his chest as he stood still, his hands forcefully clasped behind his back.

“This—” I took a step back, hoping the motion would hide the uneven breath I took full of his scent, hoping it’d rein in the most senseless, terrible yet most pleasing thoughts racing treacherously through my head. “This—” I swallowed hard, pointing with my chin to him now a few steps away. “Thisisfollowing me.” I pierced him with my glare, fighting for whatever anger and irritation I could summon to hide the sinful lust within.

“Perhaps.” He shrugged, completely unbothered, taking a step closer to me. His long stride quickly closed the little distance I had managed to put between us. “Though if I were indeed following you, I’d be doing a rather terrible job, being discovered so quickly,” he reasoned.

“I never said you were doing a good job at it. I just said you were following me,” I countered, ignoring the way my heart was ready to jump out of my chest at his presence.

“And even if I were, would it be so terrible?” he asked. His tone, lost somewhere between a whisper and a deep growl, as if a spell sending my body into a frenzy.

Focus, Zora, for fuck’s sake! I shouted at myself. My fists clenched, knuckles turning white. I was hoping my wrists would snap before my knees would buckle.

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