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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Rebecca Ross
Read between
February 12 - February 26, 2024
He mulled over it. The current of the water gentled, and the hiss of the wind fell to a coaxing whisper. Even the moon hung lower, keen for him to share the legend.
“I assume she’s my half-sister?” he asked. Mirin was wringing her pale hands again. She glanced at the flames. “No. Frae is your full-blooded sister.”
WHAT
“This is my chore,” she said. As if she would fight him for it. “Do you know what, Frae?” She hesitated and then said, “What?” “This used to be my chore too, when I was your age. I will wash and you can dry. How does that sound?”
This is so cute-
was shocked when she reached for his hand, as if she had held it countless times before. “It’s this way, Jack. I know where all the best flowers grow.” She tugged on his arm, completely unaware that a piece of him had melted.
failing to please his lover.
Op, his lover? So we're just gonna throw that in there?
“Heiress, I did not put pimpleberries in there,” Frae frantically said. “Oh, sweet lass, I know you didn’t,” Adaira said, turning a smile upon the girl. “Your brother is teasing me. You see, when we were your age, there was a great dinner in the hall one night. And Jack brought me a piece of pie, to say he was sorry for something he had done earlier that day. He looked so contrite that I foolishly believed him and took a bite, only to realize something tasted very strange about it.” “What was it?” Frae asked, as if she could not imagine Jack doing something so awful. “He called it a
...more
Only then did Jack loosen his death grip on Adaira.
She didn’t tell him that she was lonely, that she was overwhelmed some days with all the responsibilities that were set before her. That she sometimes wanted to be held and listened to and touched, that she wanted to be with someone who challenged her, sharpened her, made her laugh. Someone she could trust.
She hadn’t been this vulnerable with someone in a long time. It was terrifying, and she could feel the heat in her skin, the flush creeping over her.
Ive never related to anything more
“I think it’s fair enough to say that I won’t be returning to the mainland, Adaira.”
“So we’ll play for the earth tomorrow,” he said, listing their tasks on his fingers. “The next day we’ll marry. And the day after that we’ll go to our deaths at the clan line for a trade?” “We’re not going to die,” Adaira said. “But yes, that’s the plan, if I’m not asking too much of you.”
“Now I must fly,” he whispered as he stood. “Before Mum catches me.” “You shouldn’t run from Mum, Jack,” Frae scolded. She watched, wide eyed, as her brother proceeded to climb on his desk. “Jack!” He held his finger over his lips and winked at her. One moment he was there, crouched on his desk. The next he was gone, vanishing out the window.
He told Adaira about the salve, also in his case. She found it and rubbed the tingling ointment over his hands, into his palms and knuckles. It put him into a trance, to feel her touch him like that. A groan slipped from his lips.
Jack sighed, leaning against her. He could feel the warmth of her, seeping into him, and he eased his head to her lap.
He nearly lost his train of thought beneath her caress.
He's so enraptured byh her-
“Where should we get married?” she asked, tugging on his hair. “I suppose we should settle this now, since it’s happening tomorrow.”
Jack felt how she trembled. It eased his own shaking, and he tightened his hold on her, hoping it would steady them both. If we must drown, let us do so entwined.
she was sitting in her chair watching Jack as if he were the only one in the hall.
Adaira realized she and Jack could have moments together in silence that were just as comfortable as the ones filled with conversation.
The dream
Adaira only laughed. It was surprise and joy, mingled into one. Jack discovered he loved the sound of it.
He is so obsessed with her <3
“I’m sorry, Torin,” she said reflexively. She was sorry for the anguished gleam in his eyes, for how his body was losing its strength, hour by hour. She was sorry to see how exhausted he was, and how he was grinding himself down to pieces.
Oh sidra...
Torin hated every time she said sorry. Sidra took responsibility for too many things, and he worried it would break her one day.
Whatever secret his mother had woven into this plaid was coming to light.
Who your father is dummy!
She was not one who conformed to his assumptions, but one who shattered them.
“I tell myself I should remain guarded against you, even as we are fastened together. And yet another side of me believes that you and I could make something of this arrangement. That you and I are complements, that we are made to clash and sharpen each other like iron. That you and I will stay bound together by that which is nameless and runs deeper than vows, until the very end, when the isle takes my bones into the ground and my name is nothing but memory carved into a headstone.”
Jack wanted to tell her that he had been withering away there, bit by bit. So infinitesimally that he hadn’t realized how faded he was until he returned to Cadence and found that he could set down roots in a place, roots deep and entwined.
“Yes, but I once thought home was simply a place. Four walls to hold you at night while you slept. But I was wrong. It’s people. It’s being with the ones that you love, and maybe even the ones that you hate.”
“I was,” she said, and her breath caught beneath his caress. “I was glad to feel something stir within me after years of being cold and empty. I just never imagined I would find it in you.”
If Innes Breccan continued to be agreeable and provided them with Orenna flowers, then they would be one step closer to finding Maisie and the other lasses. He could be days away from holding his daughter. Days away from carrying her home.
She knew if she passed beyond this threshold with him, that unknown change would ignite in the air. For a moment she feared it, because she sensed the path ahead would be hard. It would be forged through tears and heartache and patience and vulnerability. She couldn’t see the ending, but neither did she want to remain, stagnant and passive, in the place where she had begun.
Her hands took the pain for Torin; her voice rose for his lost one.
He sat with her a while longer, his mind whirling with images of Maisie and the thought of bringing his daughter home to war.
when the folk of fire reigned on the isle.”
The what now?
“Torin,” she breathed. Her black hair spilled across her shoulders as she moved. “Sidra,” he whispered. No sound had ever been sweeter to him.
Could years of denying himself, his lover, and his children drive him to madness and fury? Could years of being so close and yet so far from his family make him snap at last?
Moray Breccan was carrying Frae upstream.
WHAT?!?!?@?!??
Adaira should have known that on the day Torin regained his voice, all hell would break loose.
I’m going to ask you questions, and I expect you to answer everything with honesty.
Get the dirk. GET THE DIRK
“Go on,” she said. But he didn’t have to explain. Jack unsheathed the dirk at his belt.
YES
“Where are the three lasses being held?” “They’re in the Keeper of the Aithwood’s cottage.”
Noooo
He knew she was right. And he hated it. He hated that their lives were breaking apart, and he was powerless to stop it. He hated that she was stepping down. He hated that he now had to carry this weight. But he did as she asked. He followed her last order; he slipped the ring onto his finger.
No adi
“From your life came mine. I would not exist if you had been born in the east. I am but a verse inspired by your chorus, and I will follow you until the end, when the isle takes my bones and my name is nothing more than a remembrance on a headstone, next to yours.”
But there was one thing that Frae did know, and it settled over her like a warm plaid. Adaira would come. Adaira would save them.
Adaira could hear Frae crying in the corner, and Jack’s hushed whispers as he comforted her.
Oh Frae-
“They’re both strong and shrewd and have lived a number of years just fine without me,” he said, holding her gaze. “I’ll miss them while we’re away, but I’m not bound to them. I belong to you.”
“Innes just told me that music is forbidden in the west.”
HUH
