Daughter of the Red Dawn (The Lost Kingdom of Fallada) Read Online Free

eyebrow like that. She scowled.
    “I’ll be waiting outside,” h e said, his voice a warning as he backed away from the counter. “Right outside that door.”
    “What makes you think — ”
    “You know you want to, so just meet me outside when you’re done, okay?”
    Selena wrestled with curiosity and uncertainty. She had convinced herself earlier that she was being silly about Titus. Standing there now with a boyish grin on hi s face, he was like any other gu y in Twin Oaks.
    No, he was different. Titus was different in a wonderful way that made Selena want to know him. She didn’t know why, but she felt as if they were two sides of the same coin. While one part of her wanted to run, the other part of her needed to know why.
    She nodded yes , but kept the scowl on her face. He didn’t have to know that she was looking forward to the walk home.
    ~*~
     
     
    “So, your parents let you walk home alone every night?”
    Selena shrugged. “Not every night. I only work four days a week.”
    “That’s not what I meant and you know it.”
    “Look, it’s just me and my grandmother and we don’t have a car. Besides, this place is the size of a dime. Everything’s within walking distance and everybody knows everybody.”
    Titus laughed, shoving his hands in his pockets as they walked. They were back in the field where they’d met earlier that day. She wasn’t sure why, but ever since he’d shown up at Dairy Queen, her nerves had been standing on end. Once again, his presence was putting her intuition on high alert. As they walked through the tall grass, she glanced over at him and studied his profile.
    He was even more stunning in the moonlight, with the dim glow of the night on his pale face and dark hair. His eyes almost glowed. Selena lowered her eyes as he looked up at her just in time to catch her staring.
    “I take it you don’t like it too much.”
    “Seriously, I hate it here. I’m counting the days to graduation. I’m buying a car, putting all my stuff in the back of it , and getting the hell out of Ole Dirtpatch.”
    “Dirtpatch?”
    “That’s my nickname f or it. Don’t tell me you like Twin Oaks . I can tell by looking that you’re not from around here. You’ve got the look of a city boy about you.”
    He stopped, bringing her up short beside him. He turned to face her and a wistful expression crossed his features.
    “Not exactly,” he said. “My home is beautiful though. There’s nothing like it in the whole world.”
    “You miss it.”
    He nodded. “Yes.”
    “What happened? Why did you have to leave?”
    “It’s complicated.”
    “You don’t want to talk about it.”
    “Do you want to tell me what happened to your parents?”
    “Point taken.”
    He pressed his lips together in a firm line and turned to lead her on. Selena loped along beside him, her insides burning with curiosity. Despite the nervous tension he created in her, she couldn’t help but want to know more about him. What was that saying about curiosity killing the cat? Yeah, that was pretty much where she was headed.
    “My parents died in a car crash when I was a baby,” she blurted. “There is no other family so Gram took me.”
    “I had to leave my home because of a war,” he answered. “My parents are now prisoners of that war and it is unlikely that I will ever see them again.”
    She’d known he had an exotic look about him. A war that had imprisoned his parents meant he was from another country. But where?
    Selena gasped, her throat clenching with emotion as she looked back up at hi m. His face was etched in agony, the blue eyes lowered and filled with sadness, the corners of his mouth turned down and pinched. She reached out to grab his hand. His fingers were icy against her warm ones.
    “I’m so sorry.”
    He looked down at her, his face grown harsher in the moonlight, the glint in his eyes deadly. Selena’s heart skipped a beat and her breath caught in her lungs , but she didn’t flinch as she