House of Pounding Hearts (The Kingdom of Crows, #2)

by Olivia Wildenstein

Fornicating? You must have me confused with the male whose eye sockets I’m about to hollow.

You’ve scored yourself into my heart, Like a knife through the darkest of wood. But apparently, Fallon, you aren’t meant for me. However, you are meant to be free. Tonight, sit at my table and drink in my honor. I may be gone, but my affection and attention, they linger.

I hate how much I enjoy his laugh. A beautiful laugh does not a beautiful person make, I remind myself, before I can forget that the man standing before me has stripped me of one of my fundamental rights.

No, Behach Éan. I set you free because I understood that, although you were not a block of stone, you felt trapped, and there is no worse feeling in the world.

“We have rituals, but we do not trim each other’s bodies in gold.” “Do you roll around in mud?” I catch a flash of teeth. “We are crows, not hogs.

“Do you know what that makes me in regard to you?” I sigh. “My ball and chain?” His mouth tips. “That makes me your monster. The one who will fight off all the others in order to keep you safe.”