Book 2: We Are Mates

Rafe

Everyone is staring at me. I can feel their eyes on the back of my head.. Everyone’s but Ainslee.

Ainslee has her head pressed to the prayer rail at the feet of an enormous statue of the Moon Goddess. She’s crying, her chest heaving with sobs. I can tell by the rasp in her breathing that she’s been crying this way for some time.

It seems strange to see her cry. This isn’t the same woman who screamed at me over bread in the roadway. She has changed.

We have all changed.

I go to her, ignoring everyone, barely hearing the hiss of the priestesses behind me. From the corner of my eye, I can see all the priestesses surrounding the High Priestess. They’re arguing with her. I feel for her, I do, but she also strikes me as the kind of woman who doesn’t need defending, even from a mob of protesting priestesses. Kind of like my Ainslee.

At the feet of the Goddess, I stand over Ainslee. My shadow falls over her in the flickering candleli