"Your hatred is a constant reminder of every mistake I've ever made... but I can't bear it anymore. I can't stay afloat on a sea of hatred forever."
I wanted to demand someone take my grief and regret away. I didn't care that my pain proved my love was real, because it also reminded me that it was a lost cause.
Let my love be a burning fire, a flare of heat and energy that returned life to one who deserved to live, but then burned away everything I was so that I never had to feel anything ever again. Let that be my legacy. Let my life end with the defiance that had torn my Leof from Tiw's grasp. I didn't want my friends to make me wither in the aftermath, hopeless, and hollow, and never again strong enough to make a stand. Just let me sleep.
Only I couldn't sleep. My friends wouldn't let me. Not while BritVaC planned on seeing Conn executed, and humanity wanted us eradicated. Osgar had kicked the hornets' nest, stirring up mortal hatred until we were all at risk, but which feud must I face first? Osgar? Osier? The very mortals who'd see us all burned at the stake? Would BritVaC back me into a corner? Or would my next conflict be fought against the very man I'd sacrificed so much to save?
The feud Conn began the moment he banished me from Milbank House posed a greater threat to my wellbeing than any of my enemies, but the only way I could wrestle that power back from him would mean doing the one thing I'd refused to do during all my years as a slave. It would mean accepting that we were over. It would mean accepting that I was no longer my Leof's Little Warrior.