Song of the Forever Rains (Mousai, #1)

by E.J. Mellow

Larkyra cried for every time she could not. For all the moments, and there were many, when she had to remain silent, quiet, controlled, happy, when she otherwise felt sad. She cried for the nineteen years of attempting to be good. Or rather, better than she had been. Larkyra cried because it was safer than to scream.

All was fine. Or at least, it appeared to be fine, which of course meant it could very well be all wrong. Larkyra had learned the hard way that calm often camouflaged the most vicious of intent.

Every day of her life, she sought to prove why her life was worthy, of value, just as valued as she knew her mother’s had been.

Darius’s body seized at the abrupt contact, his skin leaping with his heart. He did not like to be touched unannounced.

For any child to come of age, to become truly independent in the world, is a scary moment in time, but I am proud of the woman she has become, and I know I will be proud of the woman she will keep aspiring to be.

Darius took a deep breath, pushing away his dark thoughts as he gazed across the open countryside, to the sloping hills covered in wildflowers and tall grass. Calm, he thought. All he’d ever wished for was calm, for the luxury of no longer fearing the nights or the following days.

“Well, if you believe it is, then it must be.” “I knew you were a smart man.”

I was not looking for your opinion on my life that, quite frankly, you don’t have enough knowledge to give.”

You were the first beautiful thing I saw this morning. I wish you to be the last I gaze upon each night.

Darius was a man who had seeped deep into her heart. He had become her heart.

She now realized why she had been so desperate to stay in the Now. Larkyra was terrified of what would happen Next.

Did she love him? By the lost gods, what an absurd question.