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This is much better.
Amy loved them so much, she’d been willing to kill a woman she just met to have them. How could they not notice her feelings, if they were so strong? Maybe love wasn’t the right word. Love implied wanting the other person to be happy, being willing to put their needs above your own. So, maybe it was an obsession?
Poor Sadie. She died in a horrible way. Charlie was obsessing about it. I bet Oliver was, too. Freddie would be quieter, and Truett wasn’t wonderful at expressing himself. My guess was they all felt her loss rather acutely, while also still worrying about me. I wouldn’t be here if she survived, though. I would’ve been sent somewhere else, to other Warriors.
That’s a lot to digest. Her death was why I was there. That poor woman. She might not have loved her husbands or the life thrust upon her, but she didn’t deserve to be poisoned to death slowly. Tears started, and I wept under the flowing water for the woman I would never meet, but who shared my life in some way.
The shower door opened and Truett stood there, staring at me. His gaze stayed on my face. “Sloane? What’s wrong?”
“I…I am just so sad because Sadie was poisoned.”
A rush of emotions crossed his face, but I couldn’t keep up with them. Oh, yes, still waters run deep in Truett. He only plays at being the unfeeling rich nobleman.
“It’s incredible that you feel that way, and it speaks beautifully of you.” He grabbed the shampoo I still hadn’t touched and stepped into the spray with me, still fully dressed. “Sadie wasn’t a kind person, though. She didn’t have your sense of things. Also she didn’t like me, not even a little bit. If I died, she likely would’ve had choice things to say about me, too.” He frowned and began to massage the shampoo into my long locks, his strong fingers paying extra attention to my sensitive scalp. After a moment, I moaned in pleasure before I caught myself.
I cleared my throat. “Thank you.”
“I realize you probably have choice things to say about me, too.” He winced. “But it was different then. Two decades worth of different. I was so…hopeful back then. I was so sure I could make things better.”
I wiped at my eyes. “She didn’t think you could do it?”
“Not me, no. She hated me. Miranda hated me, so Sadie did, too. It was all very dramatic. Please, don’t get me wrong. I mourned her death for Pascal. He lost his mother. I wouldn’t have wished that for him. She didn’t love being a mother, but maybe that would’ve changed. We’ll never know. The point is, it’s very sweet of you to mourn a woman you never knew, and I just think you’re…magical.”
He rinsed the shampoo out of my hair and started washing me with soap. When he would have gotten to my private parts, he handed me the soap. “I could do it, Sloane. I would love to do it, trust me. But I’ll wait for your permission to touch you sometime when you’re not about to faint in the shower.”
I took the soap and, even though I could feel my cheeks burning, I didn’t let my gaze drop as I washed and rinsed myself in the places he didn’t want to touch. “It feels terribly wrong that I should live when she died.” I whispered the words.
“Don’t say that. I did not wish her dead. I would have been true to her for my whole life, if she lived. But I am beyond grateful because you lived through the ordeal. That you have the knowledge to fix what was done to you. That you took the time out of your life when you were so young to learn these skills we should have and didn’t .” He sighed. “Come on. You’ve been upright too long. Let’s get you out of the shower and downstairs to eat.”
It sounded like a wonderful idea. I adored it and…the vision struck me hard and would have taken me to my knees if Truett hadn’t caught me. The water beat on my back as I fled the present to what would be.
Dancing in the air in a way that would be beautiful if it wasn’t so frightening, fireflies blinked in the darkness—but they were also somehow small women? Their wings fluttered in the air with a buzz, and they might be called beautiful, if they didn’t have such vicious fangs and heated anger in their eyes. They buzzed around and around a woman and her daughter, who shrieked in terror. I forced myself to look around. There was a town with orange roofs nearby.
I watched in horror as they pulled off the skin of the woman and the little girl. I couldn’t scream, couldn’t do anything—could only watch.
Back in my own body, I cried out in Truett’s grip as he saw the end of the vision seconds after me. His arms came around me. “They’re terribly vicious creatures. Don’t worry. We know where that is. You did so well.” He kissed my neck, my cheek. “You already had enough pain. You didn’t need this.” He wrapped me in a towel as I shook and carried me over to the bed. “I’ve got you.” He kissed me, over and over, until I couldn’t feel anything but his lips, the bite of his whiskers, and the way that he smelled so clean and fresh.
Eventually, the pain left my body. In fact, it fled. He slowed his kisses, and I opened my eyes to see the other three men were there, too. All of them had touched me somewhere. Freddie had his hand in my hair. Charlie rubbed my foot, and Oliver held my hand.
He smiled at me. “Hey, beautiful. Wonderful job with that vision. We’re going to take care of the situation. Don’t worry. You’re going to sleep through all of it, okay?”
I nodded and Freddie looked at Truett. “I think we should bring her food up here again. I’m not asking her to go sit downstairs just yet.”
“Yes.” Truett nodded. “Get some sleep. We’ll bring your food here.”
I woke sometime later to find Truett, now dry, still beside me. We ate—bread and some white cheese—before he nodded toward the window. “It’s a beautiful day. How about if I carry you outside and we sit and enjoy it for a while?”
My head was clearer than it had been. “Isn’t it dinner time?”
He got up and opened the shade. No, it was bright outside. It was daytime. I sat back on my elbows. “I…Aren’t you supposed to be going after those things? And what happened to dinner last night?”
He smiled. “I’ll answer the second question first. You ate it, but I suspected you wouldn’t remember it, because you were pretty much unconscious the whole time. It is the next day, my darling and you are going to get some fresh air and sunshine for just a little bit.”
That is insane. How had I missed so much time? I let him help me dress, and then he carried me outside. The house was quiet, but the few servants we saw stopped to wish me well. It was sweet of all of them, and Truett held me the whole time, letting me relay to them that I was grateful for their thoughts and concerns.
I smiled at him as he carried me a distance from the house, then set me down so he could lay out a blanket. He eventually sat down with me in his lap, leaning against him. The wind was light on us, and the sun streamed golden and warm on my skin. He was right; it was just what I needed.
“You never answered my first question.”
