Page 108 of Break Her Heart
Adar called my name, jolting me out of my thoughts. He was waving me over to another stall, where a woman with silver-streaked hair offered woven shawls dyed in shades of crimson and cobalt. I pasted on a smile and walked toward him, heart aching with every step.
I stepped up to the booth and smiled at the young girl standing behind the table with her mother. “I love the shades of green you have.”
“They just came in from Joveryn,” the young girl said shyly.
“Yes, I am so glad our northern neighbor is having fairer weather now. We missed trading with them these last few months,” the mother said as she rested her hand on the girl’s shoulder.
“How much for this one?” I asked, my fingers brushing over the deep emerald green fabric, feeling the cool, smooth weave beneath my touch.
Her eyes flicked from the cloth to my face, appraising. “Two coins.”
“You should charge more,” I said, tilting my head as I held the fabric up to the light.
She smiled, the fine lines at the corners of her eyes deepening. “A discount for you. It matches your eyes so well it’s like it was meant for you.”
I let out a small laugh, tucking a stray curl behind my ear, and reached into the pouch at my hip to pay her. She pressed the fabric into my hands with a warm nod.
“Thank you,” I said, folding the fabric carefully and tucking it under my arm as we stepped away from the booth. The air shifted, hotter now that we were leaving the shade, and the market’s noise softened into the background hum of distant voices and clinking coins.
“You okay?” Adar asked as we reached the edge of the market, his gaze flicking sideways to study me. “You looked… somewhere else.”
I adjusted the basket on my hip and let my eyes wander over the sandy street ahead. “Just tired,” I murmured, forcing my tone light, though my fingers tightened around the fabric as if it could anchor me.
He didn’t believe me. I could see it in the way his brows pinched slightly. But he didn’t push. We kept walking.
A group of children ran past us, laughing. For a second, I almost smiled. Then I caught sight of a man watching me from the other side of the street—too still, too focused. My stomach dropped. But then he turned, revealing a weathered face and a toothy grin as he called out to someone in the distance.
Not a threat. Not this time.
Adar stepped closer, his shoulder brushing mine. “We’re safe here,” he said under his breath. “You can relax.”
I nodded, trying my best to give him a reassuring smile as I wrapped my new scarf around my head. “It doesn’t help that our eyes aren’t easily forgettable, though. If someone did want to come after us and mentioned twins with glowing green eyes, they would have people pointing in our direction.”
Adar tilted his head in thought.
The street opened up to a sun-bleached cliff edge with a low stone wall built along it. Beyond, the ocean shimmered under the relentless heat. Adar leaned back against the wall, arms braced on either side, his gaze flicking between me and the view.
He shot me a sidelong look, a faint crease forming between his brows. “I hope you’re not always going to be this jumpy,” he teased, though there was a flicker of worry beneath his words.
I set the basket on the ledge. “He compelled me to never stop running, Adar. My mind is constantly screamingrun, run, run. When I’m lying down at night, I feel like I’m going to be sickbecause I’m not doing what he told me to do. That compulsion doesn’t go away.” I arched a brow at him. “And unfortunately for you, he included your name in his command—so congrats, you’re stuck running for the rest of your life, too.”
Adar huffed a laugh under his breath. “Yeah, well, at least I make running look good,” he shot back, his tone dripping with smugness.
I rolled my eyes and turned my head away from him with a sharp exhale, choosing to stare out at the horizon instead. The silence that followed stretched between us, filled only by the distant crash of waves.
A warm breeze swept over us, carrying the smell of fresh-baked pastries—sweet, buttery, and so rich it nearly made my knees give out. The craving hit me so hard my mouth flooded instantly, and the rest of the world seemed to blur for a moment.
“Will you go find where that is coming from and get me some?” I asked, the words sharper than I meant, still prickling from our argument. I crossed my arms and glared at the horizon, then forced myself to soften my expression and tilt my head toward him with an exaggerated pair of puppy-dog eyes. “Please?”
He pushed off the wall with a nod, the corner of his mouth twitching like he found my sudden change in tactics amusing. “Sure.”
I looked out at the ocean, my stomach turning at the memory of it. The boat ride here had been a nightmare—every lurch and roll sent me clutching Adar’s arm like my life depended on it.
Because it had.
One hard wave would’ve tossed me overboard, and I knew I wouldn’t have lasted long in the water.
When I’d gone to Adar the day August compelled me to leave, it was as if he’d been waiting for me, prepared. Like he’d known this was how it would end. I didn’t tell Adar just how close Ihad gotten to August, but I felt like he knew. He never said as much, though. I think he could see I was already barely holding it together without him adding his opinion. We’d stopped by Jonah’s on the way out so Adar could hand over his title of “Father” and complete control of the coven to him. Another thing that felt a little too smooth, like they’d already talked it through.
