Page 130 of Ravenous

Chapter 50Meera

Can I die from this?No immortal outside a Valkyrie could perish from a broken heart, yet Meera wondered if she might be the lone exception.

Why couldn’t she have what she wanted most in the worlds? Why had fate slighted her and Lowell?

If only I was his mate.

The thought hit her again as she slunk home for the first time since moving to Strix Keep, and her already swollen eyes burned with fresh tears. Angry ones.

She hated being trapped in this pain with no obvious escape. She’d tried to get over him, only to sink deeper, unable to eat, unable to sleep. With no lifeline coming.

Her chaotic emotions fed her power, and it swept over the ’Wood. Witches fought. Hexshots cracked through the trees. Rage simmered like steam from the roots.

Terrifying to her, because her magic had once ended the person she’d loved best.

Swept up in one of Meera’s storms, infected by frenzy, her practical, battle-hardened mother had run headlong into a fight she could never win.

A senseless death.

Ditch had been right about maddened opponents; they were easy to vanquish.

Tears stung Meera’s eyes again. She’d repeatedly tried and failed to control the fury, as her mother had commanded. Meera’s best bet for help was Ditch. Which wasn’t a bet at all.

She meandered down the path to retrieve her thesis, but she dreaded stepping inside her house and facing the memories waiting to ambush her.

The coffee table where she and Lowell had first shared whiskey.

The couch where he’d made her come for the first time.

The bed where they’d discovered each other with greedy fingers and hungry mouths.

As she neared her cottage, she frowned. She hadn’t sensed any of Ditch’s magical traps. Strange. Yet she was too hollowed out to care. The sight of her dark, forlorn home made grief well even more.

She opened the door, disturbing a letter on the floor.

Lowell’s handwriting!

She dove for the lifeline.

With trembling hands, she tore open the seal of the Seneschal of Craigdúr.

Meera,

This is my last letter to you, my last plea, and I will never bother you again afterward.

But I needed to tell you what’s in my heart.

Her glowing palms dampened the paper. Tears blurred everything. She swiped them away, devouring each word.

I told you I thought I might be in love with you. These days apart have erased any doubt. I do love you.

So much.

You’ve stolen my heart forever, and I never want it back.

She gasped, hand flying to her mouth.

You said fighting fate is impossible. Isn’t fighting love even more futile? What I feel is real. True. Lasting. It’s yours, if you’ll accept it.