Page 85 of The Outcast
“She’s no peaceful Motlander,” he said with a grimace of irritation.
Linea stood calmly with her arms crossed. “I still need to interview Aristotle. Hopefully he is as wise as the man he was named after. I guess you can’t help that you were named after a war god. Emotional control never was your strong suit.”
“Says the woman who hasn’t seen me since I was a child,” Thor sputtered.
“You were fifteen and as arrogant as you are now.”
Aubri, Sparrow, and I exchanged glances and then Sparrow asked Linea. “Wait, is Thor the reason that you haven’t visited the Northlands for the past nine years?”
She scoffed. “Don’t be silly. Now, I would like to get back to work and see the last candidate.” Narrowing her eyes, she gave Thor a last verbal punch. “Unless, of course,youwant to dive deep into his personality and sense who he is at the core?”
“I could do that if I wanted to,” he postulated.
Linea sat down again and gave him a look of irritation. “Maybe you should start by finding out whoyou areat your core. Right now you have no fucking clue.”
When they all stared at her, she rolled her eyes. “You keep forgetting that I’m half Northlander. I might live in the Motherlands, but Finn is my father and he swears a lot.”
“Wow, Linea, you’ve changed,” Aubri said with an undertone of awe.
“No, it’s just your perception of me that’s starting to catch up. None of us are ever who others think we are. Rarely are we who we believe we are. To know yourself you have to look beyond your ego and in some cases…” Linea’s gaze clashed with Thor’s. “The ego is so large that it’s blocking everything in sight.”
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CHAPTER 29
Telling Aubri
Sparrow
I was packing my bags when Aubri entered my room.
“Are you leaving?”
“I’m feeling much better. There’s no need for me to stay here at the mansion. Banni and I talked about going back to my parents’ house after Thor’s birthday celebration tonight.”
“The party is canceled.” Walking toward me, Aubri picked up a shirt from the bed and asked. “You know that you’re more than welcome to stay here for as long as you like, right?”
“I know, but why is Thor’s party canceled?”
“Because he’s an ungrateful bastard sometimes. He got into another big fight with Khan this morning. It’s all they do lately.”
“What were they fighting about?”
Aubri plunked down on the bed on the other side of the bag that stood between us. “The usual. Every time he has to represent the family at an official or charitable event, he always looks like a cat who’s told it’s time for a bath. It drives Khan insane that Thor doesn’t try hard enough, and that he doesn’t respect the privilege he has.” Aubri’s eyes glazed over as she looked out the window with a thoughtful expression. “Sometimes I think that’s why he comes across so cross and arrogant at times. I think he secretly hates his life.”
“Who, Thor or Khan?”
“Thor.”
I reached for her hand. “Aubri, there’s something I need to tell you.”
“What is it?”
I swallowed hard and steadied myself. “There’s something I’ve wanted to tell you for a while, but I was afraid that you would cut me from being an instructor at the academy.”
Aubri was intelligent and guessed it before I could admit to anything. “Something is going on between you and Banni, is that what you want to tell me?”
“You knew?”
