Let the Storm Break

CHAPTER 2 AUDRA

I’m not running.

I’m chasing.

Racing the sun across the sky, carried by the whim of the wind.

I have no plan.

No path.

No guide along this journey.

Just the whispered songs floating on the breezes, promising that hope still lingers on the horizon.

The birds circle me as I fly, dipping and diving and begging me to join their game. But they’re lost to me now, like everything else. Everything except the one person I should be trying to erase.

I can feel him in the air.

In my heart.

In the empty ache from the space between us, mixed with the delicious sparks that still burn in my lips from our kiss.

Our bond.

I will not regret forging it.

But I’m not ready to face it either.

Not until I’ve sorted through the tatters of my life. Swept away the lies and mistakes and found someone who’s more than the guardian who broke her oath.

More than the traitor who stole the king.

More than the daughter of a murderer.

The last word turns my stomach, and I’m grateful I’ve gone back to denying myself food and drink.

I’ve paid for my mother’s sins every day for the last ten years.

I won’t pay for them anymore.

But is locking her away enough to erase her influence? Or does it sink deeper, like one of Raiden’s wicked winds, breaking me down piece by piece?

I always thought she and I were sunrise and sunset—two opposites that could never meet.

But I have her dark hair and deep blue eyes. Her connection to the birds and her stubborn temper.

I’m more like her than I ever wanted to be.

Maybe I am running.

But not from Vane.

From me.