Thief (THE EXILED TRILOGY #1) by Amelia Mist EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
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- Authors: Amelia Mist
- Language: English
- Genre: fantasy romance
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 25.8 MB
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Withering Soul
ELEVEN YEARS LATER
LARINA TWENTY-SIX
Larina climbed on the creaky counter, reaching further into the dusty
cabinet.
What’s the point in having these cupboards when there’s nothing to have
in them? They may as well be firewood.
“Cael, wake up!” she called for the fifth time.
When one cupboard proved empty, she tried the next one.
“What are you doing?”
“Finding you something for lunch … ah-ha!” She presented an apple.
“Only a couple of spots on it, too.”
Cael helped her down. “You’re in a good mood this morning.”
Larina tossed the apple into the air. “And you’re about to ruin it, aren’t
you?”
Cael caught it. “It’s my job to. Rent’s due. Is Thoth paying you today?”
“Should be.”
Cael rubbed his sunken eyes. “If Ruta pays me enough, I’ll grab food on
the way home.”
Larina hoped so. The sharp edges of Cael’s face put a rock in her gut.
Like cracks in the walls of their one-bedroom house, fine stress lines
invaded his tan skin. She despised his job and what it did to him. The
endless shifts in the mines did little to pay rent, let alone purchase food. But
with high unemployment running rampant, it was a blessing.
He popped the kinks out of his neck and entered a never-ending fit of
yawns.
“Damn it, stop,” she said through a yawn. “I have to get ready for work.”
Cael snickered and snagged the cleanest linen kilt and tunic off the large
pillow seat. After he dressed, he grabbed his ragged, hooded coat and a
scarf he’d turned into a mask to protect himself from the loose sand and
dirt.
Every so often, a wave of realization struck her. Cael wasn’t the
pipsqueak of the family anymore. No longer the annoying teenager who
pestered her, he’d grown into a strong man, taking on the toughest of jobs to
keep them afloat. She missed them sitting along the river, joking and
throwing rocks at the trader boats. And the nights they whispered to each
other while Father drank in the other room. Nowadays, they were both
asleep before their heads hit their pillows.
She hated how he resembled their father more by the day. Despite his
youth, Cael mimicked his perpetual exhaustion to perfection.
Larina sighed at the pile of dirty laundry beside the table. “I’ll clean the
linens tomorrow.”
“Do yours first. Mine will be fine another day.” His gaze dropped to the
apple. “Do you want it?”
“No, it’s fine.” She forced a smile as he approached the door. “It’ll be a
good day.”
“It will. We’re getting timber in today and pushing further into the
mines.”
Cael had to step up after their mother’s health fell. He’d wanted to join
the bowyer shop, but they didn’t have an opening for someone like him.
Most of the businesses were family-owned; if you weren’t of their blood or
a close friend, they had no work for you. And so, life put him in the
dangerous depths beneath the earth. A backbreaking job with a less-thancompetent boss. It pained Larina to see him covered in grime every night.
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