Shield of Sparrows (Shield of Sparrows, #1)

by Devney Perry

Did anyone really claim me as theirs? Or was I like this boat, adrift between kingdoms?

Who would I become if I wasn’t at the mercy of men?

I was more capable than my family expected. I was more than I’d let myself believe. There was a girl inside me who’d once found the courage to jump off a cliffside. That girl had been stifled and smothered. Hidden except for those stolen moments of bravery. It was time to let her stretch her wings and fly.

This was freedom. And I was addicted.

I wanted to take it all back. I wanted to say it all over again. I wanted to swallow the words and forget them forever. I wanted to scream it from the top of my lungs.

“Odessa, wait.” It wasn’t his order that made me stop. It was my name. I was always Cross or Sparrow or my queen. But rarely Odessa. I’d never loved my name more.

It was like that first breath after jumping off a cliff, plunging into the ocean, and breaking free from the surface to fill my lungs. It was like being remade.

“Odessa.” It hadn’t taken him long to master my name. I left before he could wield it like that sword he carried.