Storm of Secrets and Sorrow (Legacy #2)

by Melissa K. Roehrich

“You truly don’t have any regard for your life and didn’t care if that dagger at your throat ended it.”

“I’m saying you need to decide you’re worth it. Even on the hard days. Even on the days you feel like giving up. Even on the days where it feels pointless. You need to decide you are worth it.”

Hating herself for being weak enough to need the comfort. She’d been just fine by herself for years. But she’d also had the ability to drown in vices.

But by the gods. He’d been underestimating her all this time. He’d known she was smart. He’d seen her marks on her lessons, but her cleverness had been revealed little by little, and he’d missed all the signs. He’d been too focused on trying to get her to submit to this bond. Too focused on his own means to an end. Too worried about having her completely bound to him before he let her in. It was the only way he knew how to protect all his carefully built plans and, more importantly, the people those plans were meant to protect.

The problem was he needed her to trust him, but any hope of that had been shattered alongside wine bottles and her spirit in the dark of a cellar.

This place was where they were the most real with each other. In the middle of the hate and the tension, the arguing and the passion. This was when they both spoke without trying to get the upper hand. It was all naked truth and bleeding desires.

“So quit acting like I’ve done something wrong. You don’t get to make me feel guilty about how I choose to survive any of this.”

And because she’d thanked him only a few days ago for always being honest with her, he said, “No.” Kat nodded, setting the spoon and book aside. “Do you need to talk about it?” “No.” “Do you need me to help with something?” “No.” “Do you want some peanut butter?” A laugh fell from his lips. “Why would I want peanut butter?”

“Or maybe those attempts are the very thing that make you different from what you believe yourself to be.”

But she didn’t know how. No one had taught her how to fight back. She’d only been taught to submit. To be less than she was. To shove all that she was down—all of her light into the dark—so that someone else could shine. She’d only been told she wasn’t enough. Too wild. Too impulsive. Too much of a hassle. Uncontrollable.

you do not wish to face those answers just yet, that is perfectly understandable. Truth is tricky business.” Her brow furrowed. “There should be nothing tricky about truth. It is facts.” “Ah, but facing truths? That is where the difficulty lies. And deciding what to do with those truths? That is the greatest burden of all, isn’t it?”

“That is what keeps so many from seeking truth. There are choices that come with learning it.”

For so long, Tessa had wished for death, and now, in this moment, she didn’t want it. She’d finally found something to fight for, and she would be robbed of that too.

Instead, she was stuck with her feelings, trying to shove their way out of the pit of her soul where she had them locked away. And that was where they’d stay because the only thing feeling did was give her hope. Foolish girl. She wouldn’t make that mistake again.

She let herself pretend she didn’t feel guilty and disgusted with herself for wanting to begin with.

Do not belittle what I desired into something you think you somehow dragged me into.”

Sometimes she did need someone to take care of her. Sometimes she needed to not think, to be out of her head and simply told what to do. No decisions to agonize over. But she also needed someone to simply trust she could do things on her own. Someone to believe she could make the right choices and figure things out. The thing was, she didn’t know what to do with herself when given that space and confidence.

“If you were my Match, I wouldn’t call you such a thing,” he said and her eyes darted to the side. Until he said, “I would call you my wife, my partner, my light. Anything but my Match.”

“What do you need, Theon? My power? You can’t have it. The bond? It’s still there. My cunt? You just had it. My loyalty? You never had it. My help? You never let me actually do so. My trust? You were close, but you lost it.”