Page 49 of The Lost Nation

She laughed in my face. “You don’t know how to hold a broom properly, you can’t cook, and only a few hours of work has you bent over like an old woman.Clearlyyou are not a palace servant.”

My face went beet red, because she was absolutely right. How could I have been sostupid?

“Please—”

“Mum. You aren’t badgering Kay are you?”

His mothershot himthe look, and his towering frame cringed underneath her glare, just like generations of sons before him. “Kayand I were just having a little heart-to-heart.”

I gulped audibly, and looked to Erik for help. “I...I think I should go,” I whispered, brushing off my dress and setting down the bowl. His motherdidn't move. She just looked at me.

Erik gently touched my elbow, and guided me away. We made it through their section of the city and into the nobles’ village before I started crying.

“What’s wrong? What did she say to you?”Erik asked.

I rubbed my face, embarrassed to be reduced to such emotions. “It’s not her...she was fine. Lovely even. It’s just...you’re apartof something back there.” I threw my hand out wildly, gesturing towards the peasant quarters. “Back there is a community of people who care for one another. It’s never been like that among the nobles or inmyfamily.”

I angrily wiped another tear away, staring at it on my hand. I felt a spark of power leap through my palm, and the teardrop writhed and danced against my skin. Erik’s eyes watched, entranced and not at all afraid.

I sighed.“I suppose I just realized that I’ll never have something like that, and I was mourning its loss.”

Erik’s face crumpled, and he seized me in a hug. I let out a grunt of surprise, though I shouldn’t have been shocked considering how his mother had greeted me.

“I take it you’re all such...enthusiastichuggers?”I gasped.

He let me go, and I took an exaggerated breath. He frowned. “I’m starting to think you were never hugged as a child.”

I blinked. “Well...no. I wasn’t.”

His jaw dropped, and his eyes took on the saddest expression I'd ever seen. I was embarrassed and depressed all over again. I didn't want anyone's pity.

Ilooked away and ran from him, intending on making my own way towards the castle.

Erik blinked, surprised. “Hey! Wait!”

His arms came down around me again, and I hissed and fought him off. He grabbed my wrists and backed me up against a stone wall.

I twisted and writhed like a feral cat, crying for no real reason. Why didn't everything feel so desperate?

Erik growled.“Stop running from your problems! That’s what got you in trouble with your powers, you know. If you would just embracewhoyou are, and who youcouldbe, you could have everything you ever wanted!”

His voice dripped with passion, and a tinge of despair. My struggles ceased, because even though I didn't believe him, Iwantedto.

Erik let me go, and I stared at the floor.“Do you know how many peopledreamof having the ability to shape their own destiny the way you do?" He whispered. "If you want the community of the peasants, then shatter the nobles and build it from the ground up.Change the world.”

His eyes bore into mine, vivid and earnest. I just stared at him, wondering if it could really be that simple. Erik was the only person who’d ever given me his trulyhonestopinion—even Harrow had an invisible line he wouldn’t crosswith me.

“You truly think I could do all of that?” I asked, my voice nothing more than a hoarse whisper.

“I think you’re the queen of all ourdreams,” he breathed back. “Ofmydreams.”

Then his lips descended down onto mine.

Chapter 22

Thad

Iwasn’t an expert on drakens by any means, but Xana seemed content here, in the very same fortress where she'd been a prisoner. Not only was she content, she seemed even...happyat times.

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