Heart of a Chalyn: Chapter 34

Duncan is not the most noble character in the bunch, granted. But nobility gets boring after a while. He’s more of a grey-hat sort.

With Seara for a mother and spending his formative years with the whole dysfunctional Gruder family living under one roof, he’s got some baggage, all right?

Duncan’s obsession with Ava, and his vulnerability where she is concerned, seems out of character. Is it love? Or something else?

I deleted this chapter and put it back several times. It wasn’t crucial to the overall storyline. But I like Duncan. I like flawed characters. The more scarred, the better.

He gave me the opportunity to explore what was going on with that obsession. If it wasn’t love, what was it? What if it was something he couldn’t even understand himself?

Something the Patterns had woven.

The idea of fate having a hand in determining which of the mindgifted would formed bonds seemed to fit. Why didn’t Duncan bond with Ava? Because he already had a bond with someone else.

Someone he had never met. And maybe never would.

Duncan sketches the face that haunts his dreams. It looks like Ava. It must be Ava. (It’s not Ava.)

Serena sketches the “man with a mischievous gleam in his dark eyes, and a corner of his mouth curled in a dimpled half-smile.”

Time will tell.