8. Nicolette

My true love had come!

I still couldn’t entirely believe it. While a part of me had always hoped and not given up on wishing it might happen, I think a bigger portion had despaired, certain I would not see him again.

He didn’t have the mark, so there’d been no valid reason for him to form any kind of attachment or special regard for me within the few minutes we’d known each other, other than the fact that I’d saved his life from certain peril, but still…

Not even that seemed to warrant him trekking across the Vast Desert for weeks on end and endangering himself enough to step onto enemy territory just to be reunited with me.

But he had. He’d had faith in my mark when I’d told him it had chosen him.

And my mind was still spinning from the shock.

Under me, the horse I rode snuffled in the night. That and the soft swish of its hooves plodding through the sand had been the most sound I’d heard in nearly an hour.

Because Farrow certainly hadn’t spoken.

It seemed I had an uncommonly