“I don’t care about staying alive,” she says quickly, her voice sharp and eyes bright. “I could die a hundred times and it wouldn’t matter. I would do it again.” There is the distance between them and she considers crossing it, considers trying to show him how much he matters, but she stands apart. Lets the chasm between them grow, all the facts of their lives piling up between them.
“It would mean nothing if you aren’t there. Don’t you understand that?”
It would be soft words if Breach was truly capable of such softness, but there is too much wildness in her for it to be a sentimental moment. There is too much of her mother roaring up her throat for her to ever truly say such things gently, to ever be sweet and shy. Instead she tosses the words like a weapon.
It is only when he brings the conversation back to his father that she falters, that something else crosses over her youthful features. She lifts her chin a little, defiant, unsure, the fear for her mother clawing at her throat. “Someone tried to kill my mother,” she finally manages, although her words are shaky.
“They almost succeeded. I don’t know if she’ll ever wake again.”
She tries to say this as confidently as the last, but the words make her sound young again—Breach reduced to just another young girl longing for her mother again. A girl mourning. “With her gone, any hopes she had for a different kind of life, a pack, died with her.” She shakes her head. “I couldn’t let that happen. I won’t let it happen.” She finally brings her gaze back to him, defiant once more.
“I negotiated with Atrox to take Hyaline and your father promised me the eastern region.”
She won’t apologize, she thinks, for the deal she has made.
“I am to go north with you.”
I want to swim until we both begin to feel the weightlessness sink in
@[yadigar]