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

by T.A. Lawrence

I shuddered at the way Marcus spoke of ending a man’s life without a glimmer of fear, a hint of regret in his eyes. “Why’d you kill him?” Though I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.

Marcus turned his face away from me and stared into the woods. “Because of what he said he’d do to you after he bought you.”

“Piper.” Something cold and lonely dulled his tear-stained eyes. “Please give me a reason to forgive you.”

“There’s not one,” I said, my voice breaking. “Please.” “Why?” “Because, if I can’t find a reason to forgive you, how I can I ever forgive myself?”

All the while I stared at our hands, intertwined. At the tears that fell and speckled our skin, more tears than could have fallen from my eyes alone.

“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.”

But when he spoke, his voice was tender and kind and not at all afraid. “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.”

“I don’t know how to be anything other than alone.”