AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Eva paused, her hand on the handle. Was she different?”Maybe you would help me get dressed for the Harvest Celebration? I could help you with your hair.”
Sarah’s smile widened. “I’d like that very much. I’ll be there.”
Eva’s lips turned up as she moved out onto the bridge and made her way back to her room.
What was she doing?She was breaking all her rules. Never get too close...
But it was important Krieger fit in with the settlement. That’s why she had lunch with them all after the training session the other day. She shook her head. That was the only reason—wasn’t it?
Anticipation coursed through her veins as she hurried to her hut. She was eager to spend her evening with Krieger.
It had been three days since her argument with her father. He had gotten wind of the fight between Krieger and Derek and wanted to know why they weren’t getting along. Once her father had caught sight of her and Krieger being “a little too close,” he had even more questions.Questions she wasn’t prepared to answer, which made him even more angry.
Her father reminded her of what was at stake with the peace treaty and that her decision was needed soon. The council wanted to announce it the night of the Harvest Celebration. They thought the settlement could prepare for the brutal season better if they knew if there was a peace agreement or not.
“What are you going to do?” he had asked, wanting to know which way she was leaning.
She couldn’t answer him. If she said it out loud, it would make it real. And she just wasn’t ready for that.
If she agreed, her life would truly no longer be her own. She would not only be marrying her enemy but truly giving her life to the settlements, not just protecting them. Could she do this? For her people?
One thing had become crystal clear to her. She had a few precious days left before she had to give her answer, and she was going to spend them exactly how she wanted to. Wasn’t she allowed that much?If she was going to commit her life to a man she didn’t know—for a political agreement, no less—couldn’t she at least take tonight and make memories with the man of her choosing?Memories that filled her with joy, not dread. And Krieger, he made her feel happy.
After she entered her hut, she filled her dry sink with fresh water from the pitcher and peeled off her work clothes. She grabbed a cloth from her trunk and began to wash the dirt of the day away. As the cool cloth glided over her skin, she felt the words of her father echo in her ear.
“What are you going to do?”
How many times had he said that during a training session? Testing her, training her for every possible situation. This choice that she had to make—he hadn’t warned her, hadn’t prepared her for this. There was no training session on how to give over her life to an enemy she’d spent years fighting.
She dipped the cloth back into the chilled water, wrung out the excess, and set it aside. She took a deep breath, her hands gripping the edge of the small wooden table the dry sink sat atop as she recalled the first time she had bested her father. The first time she felt the impact of what being powerful meant.
Sweat trickled down her neck, and her muscles ached with the pull of exhaustion. She rested her weight on her right knee as her breath came hard and fast. The air was thick with the smell of wood and musk—she tasted the salt of her skin on her lips, but that wouldn’t distract her. Nothing would.
Her father leaned over her, his breath hot on her ear. “Eva, there will come a time when the unexpected will happen. You will be taken by surprise, outnumbered, and on your last leg, and your life, the life of your people, will hang in the balance, with no hope of survival.”
He stood, circling her—a predator cornering his prey.
“What are you going to do?” Silence stretched out between them as her heart hammered in her chest, the sound loud in her head. “What do you do?” His words were rough, clipped, unforgiving.
She curled her fingers around the smooth, hard wood of her dagger that lay on the ground at her feet. The threat was imminent, the tension hanging heavy in the air. She closed her eyes as she let her other senses take over. Time seemed to slow as she waited... and waited.
She could feel the heat of his body, indicating he was close, so close...
When the floorboard creaked under his shifting weight, her eyes flew open, and she moved with speed and whirled around. His arm was swinging, wood dagger in hand, but she ducked, sidestepping his advance.
He was ready for her counter, his large frame striding toward her. Using her smaller physique, she crouched down and tucked, somersaulting through his outstretched legs. With the grace of a ballerina, she twisted up behind him, her wooden blade wrapping around his throat.
His movements stilled as the faux weapon fell from his raised hand, and the corner of his lips turned up into a grin.
She pressed her head close to his. “Be the hope.”
Eva held that power, that hope for her people, in her hands. Wanting—no, scratch that— needing the feud to end and peace to reign. For her mother...
But tonight wasn’t about power, or feuds, or even the people of Everwood. Tonight was just about her and Krieger.She would let down her walls, let the joy and safety she felt with Krieger surround her. She would hold him close and make a memory she could recall for the rest of her life.
Then she would have to shut out these feelings that had crept beyond her crumbling walls, plaster that shit shut, and be the soldier her father had raised her to be. The warrior she chose to be.
She let out a deep breath, removed her outfit from her chest of drawers, and began to dress. She could be the hope of her people.
