Page 84 of A Light So Blinding
Her sister stood from the table, and they stared at each other for a while. There’d been a time when people used to think they were twins, even though Astrid was older. But time and experience had changed that.
Astrid’s hair was golden, her sister’s had faded to nearly white. Rose was so pale. Even the veins underneath her skin were visible, making her seem almost bruised as she walked around the table and stood before her sister.
Her heart couldn’t stop thudding against her ribs. She could feel it, starting and stopping as hope tried to take flight out of her body. This was hersister. Rose.
“I never stopped looking for you,” Astrid whispered. “Not a single day.”
Rose swallowed hard, and it seemed like the words she said next had to be ripped out of her mouth. “I know. I always knewyou wouldn’t stop looking for me. It’s just... I knew where you were. But I also knew you would never find me where he put me.”
The green troll she’d been sitting beside slumped back in his chair. “Oh, now she speaks.”
Without hesitation, Astrid glared at the man. Her look would have sliced through his body if it was a knife.
The green troll wilted in his chair before pointing at her sister with a black clawed finger. “She hasn’t talked in weeks.”
“Then she wasn’t ready to talk,” Astrid snapped.
His nostrils flared. She would have gotten into a fight with him if Rose hadn’t reached out for her arm. The troll’s eyes immediately went to the contact, widening in what she could only describe as shock.
Astrid tried not to think too much about that. Of course her sister would touch her. They were family. Family was different, no matter what happened to a person. Family was safe.
Making a point, she twisted her arm in Rose’s grip and laced their fingers together instead. She’d hoped her sister would understand the comfort she offered, and she was so relieved when Rose squeezed her hand back. They were always meant to be together, after all. That had been the plan ever since they’d lived on the streets.
“Come with me,” Rose said, and suddenly she was dragged out of the room.
Astrid had only a second to look back at Bjorn. He stood there, a pillar of strength among his people, and she mouthed the words “thank you” as the door closed behind her.
Her sister.
Finally.
After all this time.
Rose took her to what must have been a drawing room, sitting down on a small couch facing each other and all Astridcould do was drink her sister in. She looked at every feature that had changed, every new wrinkle on Rose’s face. A story that she did not know, but knew at some point she would.
Reaching forward, she gave Rose time to withdraw but then finally traced her sister’s jaw. “You look just like you did ten years ago.”
“Do I? I was afraid you wouldn’t recognize me if you ever saw me again.”
“I would recognize you in pitch black,” Astrid whispered. “I would know you if they took my eyes and ears. You are my sister, Rose. How could I ever forget a single detail about you?”
Her heart broke when tears filled Rose’s eyes. Even now, Astrid tried to drink in the details of her sister’s features. What she wore. How she curved in on herself without a single drop of confidence that she used to have.
Astrid withdrew her hand. “It’s been a long time since we have been together. I know this.”
“I am not the person you knew.” Rose looked down at her hands curled in her lap, and that was when Astrid noticed her sister’s fingers.
Dried blood crusted around her nails from picking at the skin there. And the nails were chewed raw, it looked like. She’d seen hands like that before, after horrible tragedies had occurred to a few of the priestesses. They were sent back to the sisterhood, and she didn’t ever see them act like themselves again. They were ragged edged pieces of the women they once were.
Some lords were cruel to those they were given. But then again, men were cruel to women.
Astrid risked a touch again, covering her sister’s hands with her own. She tried to ignore how her own hands were smooth and lily white, even after traveling for such a long time.
“We will leave this place,” she said. “I made a deal with the troll king. They said if I brought Bjorn back, then I could take you wherever you want to go. We don’t have to stay here, Rose.”
Her sister’s hands started to shake beneath hers. “I don’t want to go back.”
“Then we’ll go to another kingdom.”
