Chapter 9
The stew bubbled, entrancing Alixa as she stared into the murky sea of mutton and carrots. Her mind blanked, giving her one blissful moment outside her own head—aware from the pain that’d become like a second skin.
The pop of the fire jerked her back to the task at hand and she stirred the dinner, thankful for the mindlessness of the motion.
Her heavy eyelids drooped but never closed. If she let them close, she’d see it all over again. Her father. Ella.
There’d been a time when she loved her father. When she wanted to make him proud. Children fail to see the greatest faults of their parents until the damage is already done, and it’s too late.
Edric sat nearby with his shoulders hunched forward. He’d barely looked at her since they left the high walls of Cullenspire behind tw
