Page 86 of Freedom Mine
“Make what harder?”
“Everything. Life here. Waking up. Going to sleep. Breathing.”
“I don’t understand.”
His fists clenched at his side, his eyebrows scrunched together and his face twisted into a scowl, and they were all directed at her.
“You think I have answers, but I don’t. You think I can protect you, but I can’t. You believe that I’m worthy of something, but it’s too much, Alli. I won’t kick you out, but I don’t want to see you. Is that clear?”
“You mean ever? Kayo, you’re not making any sense. What did I do to anger you?”
His face turned dark. “You’re a reminder of everything I left behind and never want to see again. I spent too many years in a cage and I can’t go back. Just get away from me!”
“I can’t leave you like this.”
“Go, Slave, before I decide to sell you to the highest bidder!” he yelled.
Alli stumbled back, through the tangle of roots and graves. Tears streamed down her face. She didn’t stop running until she burst through the back door of the house and reached her bedroom upstairs.
Her hands wouldn’t stop shaking as she bundled her belongings together in a bedsheet. She didn’t own much. Technically, she owned nothing as a slave, but she’d take the few pieces of clothing and some small soaps she hadn’t used, and then grab whatever dried meats and fruits she could find in the pantry.
By Kerak’s teeth, she hadn’t thought of herself as his property in some time. Not until his words in the cemetery. She should never have let her guard down, to believe him when he’d spoken of freedom and going home someday. How foolish she’d been to believe him!
As she swung the sack over her left shoulder, she knocked the vase off the dresser. The stone vase crashed to the floor. A portion of the vase sheared off and dried flowers lay at her feet. The flowers had dried up days ago, but she hadn’t been able to throw them out because Kayo had gifted them to her.
They hadn’t been the only gift either. Her eyes turned back to the dresser, where the rocks he’d given her remained neatly stacked. The pozite specs in the stones laid dormant until exposed to sunlight when their power, their beauty shone through the hard outer layer that protected them.
Kayo had given the stones and flowers to her, not because he had to, but because he wanted to. He’d always been honest, sweet, and genuine with her. This anger, this resentment toward her, it was like the pozite specs in those stones, hidden, powerful, and beyond her reach.
The truth finally struck her. He had intentionally said those words to drive her away because nothing else would make her run from him as surely as threatening to sell her. Kayo had no intention or desire to sell her. He was pushing her away, but why?
He was back, safe, out of that cage, and no longer in danger. His words had come from a place of pain. The man was drowning in some private hell and she had no clue how to help him.
One fact was clear, as he’d told her straight out She reminded him of those years he spent in a cage.Shewas part of the problem. There was only one way to help Kayo. She would have to leave.
