it is that I want to hide from, I can’t quite recall in my foggy state, but I’m pretty sure it’s not something good.
“I think she’s waking up,” a soft voice whispers and the light dances a bit more, veering sharply to the side.
A heavy sigh expels from someone just above my head, and I feel a pair of strong arms tighten gently around me.
“Good,” a familiar man’s voice murmurs. It’s beautiful and rich and makes me want to snuggle right into whoever is holding me. “I was worried that the void was too much for her,” he continues.
The moment those words leave his mouth, I feel as if a vice closes around my throat. I strangle, a soft hiss of distress escaping me as the memory of that terrible, unending star-filled darkness fills my mind, and for a moment I’m convinced that I am still there. My eyes snap open, and I stare out ahead without seeing anything but an indistinct blur as I claw at my throat with one hand.
A large, warm hand cups mine and pulls it down to my chest where he flattens it against my racing heart.
“Easy, Ahandral. Feel your heart. You are well. Feel the air on your skin, you are no longer in that place. You can breathe, you can see, and you can hear and speak again. Nothing will harm you, I swear it,” he whispers.
“Eliph,” I croak as recognition fills me.
A choked cry ekes out, and I turn my face in against his chest as tremors rack my body. He holds me there against him just as he did after the faeries attacked, leaving me just as much of a mess as I feel now.
Fuck. I refuse to keep falling apart in front of him!
Dragging in a shaky breath, I push away and look up to meet his worried purple eyes. Biting my lip so that it won’t visibly tremble, I give him a strained smile.
“I guess it was too much to hope that these last couple of days were just a dream,” I joke pitifully.
The smile that touches his lips is brief and doesn’t reach his eyes, but he runs a hand over my curls as if he can’t stop touching me. I’m not sure how much of that is me projecting, but there’s a definite gentleness in the way he’s touching me that I’m in no hurry to stop. This is no attempt to get into my pants or get something from me. There’s nothing but honest appreciation and something dangerously close to what looks like affection as he caresses me.
“I wish I could take every memory of the void from you so that it is nothing more than a faint recollection of a dream,” he admits softly.
I draw back slightly, my eyebrows beetling. I’m not exactly eager to have anyone messing around in my head.
“Can you do that?” I ask.
For a moment, he appears as if he’s not going to reply but, at last, he yields and shakes his head solemnly.
“No. I can make you sleep—I can even take some memories away entirely if you wish it—but there is little influence I have over your mind,” he admits. “Such things have limits for most of my kind.”
“As if that’s not enough,” I retort and push myself up into a seated position.
…And notice that we still have company.
An extremely pale female with black eyes and pin-straight black hair stares at me curiously from where she sits a short distance away, across from Eliph. I connect the dots as to this person’s identity—she’s the one who was speaking when I woke up. This is confirmed by the lantern that she holds in her hands. It was no doubt the source of light that had been flickering on the other side of my eyelids when she leaned in close. I feel a bit like a bug under a microscope with the quiet way she regards me, but when she looks away to give Eliph an infatuated smile…
I grind my teeth at that adoring look. He’s supposed to be my mate! I mean, yeah, it is only temporary… but I sure as hell am not moving aside for a fae woman. She can just wait until this shit is done with, because it will be a cold day in hell before I allow another woman to move in on what’s currently mine.
I never took myself for the possessive type, but I’m willing to make allowances for the fact that shit changes. This