Page 8 of The Heir
My chuckle grew to a hollow laugh. “Linea, you think you know people, but you’re just as blinded as the others.”
She pushed windblown hair from her face and fixed her clear silver-gray eyes on me. “What do you mean?”
“Everyone is so blinded by my parents. Their incredible love story, their strong bond, and the way they overcame their mutual resentment and now respect one another. What people miss is how many arguments there are between them, and how Freya and I got pulled back and forth. Making one of them proud means disappointing the other. We can never win.Ican never win.”
Linea placed her hand on my upper arm with an expression saying that she was willing to listen, but I wouldn’t share anything more with her. Jerking my arm away, I barked out:
“You shouldn’t have come. Why didn’t you pretend that you couldn’t find me and save yourself the trouble?”
“I didn’t come here for your sake. I came because all the people who love you are worried. If you had left a letter to explain yourself, you could have saved me the long journey. Why not just be honest and tell them that you need a break from it all?”
Picking up a stone of my own, I threw it in the water. “Who says it’s a break? Maybe I’ll never go back.”
“You would rather live in the Motherlands than the Northlands?”
“No. But if I have to live here to be left in peace then so be it.”
“Take some time, Thor. Maybe you’ll feel different when you wake up tomorrow.”
Her kindness was pressing at my armor, and I couldn’t afford for it to break. With harsh words, I fortified my façade. “I didn’t ask for your fucking advice.”
My hostility worked. Linea stepped back a little, her expression guarded. “Consider it a free service.”
When I didn’t respond, she continued, “You’re not that different from when you were fifteen.”
“Huh?”
She backed away from me, the dogs following her. “I hope you find yourself and that you pick up some Motlander kindness while you’re here.”
“Tsk.”
“And you know, Thor, if we’re lucky, we’ll never meet again.” As she said it, Linea turned, and kept on walking away from me. My dogs followed her until I whistled for them to come back.
“Just remember what I said,” I called after her. “Keep your mouth shut about where I am and don’t come back here. I wasn’t kidding. I’ll make your butt as red as your hair if you come to bother me again.”
CHAPTER 2
Khan’s Ultimatum
The Northlands – June 2467
Linea
From the time Thor humiliated me as a child, my long-time infatuation with him turned into a strong resentment that made me stay away from the Northlands. It wasn’t that I didn’t like most of the people here, but I associated the Northlands with Thor and refused to visit.
It had taken ten years and a tragedy to make me return. Six months ago, my friend Sparrow was kidnapped by a madman. Burned and bruised, she had needed my help to heal and that’s what had brought me back to my father’s birth country after all these years.
The mind can be deceptive. Mine managed to convince me that despite staying at the Gray Mansion where Thor lived, there was a good chance that I wouldn’t run into him during my stay.
It took less than ten minutes from the time we arrived until I was face to face with Thor Aurelius. With my heart racing way too fast, I had told myself it wasn’t a problem. After all, ten years had passed since he humiliated me, and I wasn’t the kind to carry a grudge.
My close companion, pride, had laughed at that notion because the moment Thor talked, I felt the old resentment flare up like a burning nettle rash that I felt compelled to scratch.
I wanted badly to be a bigger person and not be judgmental toward him, but unfortunately my ego was too strong. It was the same reason my dream to become a priestess like my mother had burst. Despite the daily meditations and breathing exercises that allowed me to practice energy work, my Northlander blood wouldn’t allow me to turn the other cheek.
Two days after I arrived to heal Sparrow, Thor and I had clashed in a loud argument when I helped vet candidates for the Explorer Academy that Sparrow was running with Aubri, another family friend.
It was my assessment of Bjorn, a candidate with a sadistic sexuality, that had infuriated Thor. Where I trusted Bjorn to play out his urges with consensual partners, Thor wanted Bjorn banned from being part of the Explorer program. That day, I had concluded that Thor was as unpleasant at twenty-five as he had been at fifteen.
