Cinder Vale by Caroline Peckham

The wild is calling.
The war is raging. Our leaders are lying.
And I’m starting to play treason all too often in my dreams.

The land is rife with secrets which whisper to me on the wind and the destiny I had so long desired is souring now that I’ve claimed it.
I want to follow the path that has been laid out for me but with every step I take down it, my gut twists with doubts and my heart pounds to a traitorous beat.
There is a secret in the heart of our lands. I don’t know who’s keeping it and I don’t know what uncovering it will mean, but I find myself wanting to unveil it for all to see.
I’m torn between the life I’ve always claimed to want and the truth which is calling out for me to discover it. But if I allow myself to entertain these doubts which are rising in the corners of my mind then I may find myself a traitor to all I’ve ever been.
Not that my heart minds treachery. It races for a man I should hate, thunders at the promise of his touch, pounds at the thought of his kiss.
I shouldn’t ache for him the way I do. I shouldn’t want any of the things I yearn for in the dead of the night. But my eyes still find him in every room, my mind lingers on him when we are parted and my soul burns for him in every waking moment.
He can’t be mine. I won’t be his. But perhaps fate has different designs in mind for us…