A Tune to Make Them Follow (Severed Realms, #2)

by T.A. Lawrence

Was it helpful to offer a piece of one’s self in the hopes that the hurting person would feel a sense of solidarity? Or would they perceive it as selfish, steering the conversation back to my own troubles? I never knew.

More than anything, I wanted someone to talk to. Someone to collect my stories, my thoughts, my sorrows, my dreams. Someone who would gather them up and arrange them until they had a decently accurate collage of me, of Piper. Someone who would stick around, who wasn’t afraid to make promises like I was. Someone who knew. And then, once I was safe, then we could enjoy each other.

Piper. If I had been there, if I had known, this wouldn’t have happened. I don’t know who touched you, but he wouldn’t have had the chance if I’d seen him as much as reach for you.”

I couldn’t have her; I knew that. But there she was shivering, and here I was, lacking the self-control not to care.

“It’s not in the Fates for us,” I said, pleaded. “I wish... I wish we could go back and rewrite the past, but we can’t.” “I’m not going to lie to you, Piper. I’m not thinking about the past right this second.”

“I’ve been living in the past for a long while now. Fates help me if I spend one more second there when I should be doing this.”

“But most of all, Piper, my friend. I promise to be your family...” I lost it, my tears soaking my cheeks. He thumbed my chin and lifted it, leaning down to kiss the tears on my face. Then he whispered in my ear, “I promise to be your home.”