Free Torn: Bound Trilogy Book Two by Kate Sparkes Page B

glass, my small reminder of everything I wished to return safely to when my journey was over.
    The sun cast the horse’s shadow and mine long on the road as we headed west into Tyrea.

6
    Rowan
    D awn came with brightness that seemed cruel in its cheerfulness and beauty. I kept my eyes closed against the sunbeams that streamed through the window and wrapped my arms tighter around the feather pillow next to me. I wasn’t ready to face the day.
    “Rowan?” The end of my mattress sank as Celean settled there.
    I buried my face in the pillow and inhaled deeply. I’d taken it when I left Aren’s room, and it smelled like him. My memories stirred, bringing back sensations and images of the previous night, opening an aching crevasse in my chest. Being with him in real life was far better than any dream, but every moment had been marred by the invisible clock ticking in my mind, counting down the time until he was gone.
    Gone , my mind echoed, snapping me to full consciousness.
    Celean waited as I struggled to lift my heavy eyelids. My exhausted muscles refused to obey orders to sit up, and I settled for rolling over onto my back. Emptiness settled onto my chest like a contented cat.
    Celean poured me a glass of water.
    “Thanks,” I whispered.
    Celean was a quiet person, wise and practical beyond her years. She often made me think of my cousin Felicia. They looked nothing alike, and in their mannerisms and attitudes they couldn’t have been more different, but they were both the best friends I’d ever had and exactly the people I needed at different times in my life. I thought about Lecia a lot, and about my family. Not knowing what might be happening at home tore at my heart, but it wasn’t something I talked to Aren about. He had little enough reason to care about my family, and too many problems with his own for me to want to trouble him.
    A lump formed in my throat, and I took a sip of water to soothe the ache. Once again I wondered what was happening. Did everyone in town know my secret? Were my parents suffering for it? Endless questions, always circling, never answered.
    Celean had been teaching me to quiet my racing thoughts in those lonely times, to focus on nothing—or if I couldn’t manage that, at least to pray for my family’s well-being, then set it aside and focus on the present. It was good advice, but as of sunrise, the present offered just as many worries as my past.
    “You okay?” she asked, and rubbed my leg through the blankets. “You were out longer than I expected last night. How did you get back in?”
    “Kitchen door. Dora was up making bread, but I don’t think she’ll say anything to anyone. Thanks for letting me sleep.”
    “I told Emalda you weren’t feeling well this morning. I think she thinks you’re just sad about...you know.” Celean was three years younger than me, but in this it felt like the age gap between us was far larger, as though the weeks I'd spent searching for a cure for my binding had been a lifetime. She understood that I was sad, and she was sad for me because she was my friend, but she couldn’t truly understand what I’d lost.
    Just sad couldn’t describe the dark pit inside of me.
    “I’m going to stay in bed for a while, if no one minds.”
    Celean’s heavy brows pushed together over her dark eyes. “You can’t mope for too long. Sadness becomes a habit. I don’t want to see you give up on everything you’ve gained here because—” She pressed her lips together, cutting the thought off. “You care for him, I understand that, and you’re probably worried about him. But this is for the best, and life will go on as it’s meant to. You’ll see that someday.”
    “He’s going to come back.”
    “I’m sure he will.”
    Was that pity in her eyes, in her voice? I’d have been angry had I not understood that she didn’t know him like I did.
    For all they talked, no one at the school knew him. There would be more gossip now if I let anyone see