Page 295 of Blade of the Nightking

So why did it suddenly feel as though the ground beneath me had begun to crumble? As though I were standing on the edge of something vast, watching it disappear beneath my feet?

"Elowen." His voice was quiet, almost pained. "Don't look at me like that."

The sting in my eyes was unbearable. "Like what?" I asked, blinking hard.

He rested his forehead against mine. "Like we don't have to do this."

He brushed the backs of his fingers down my cheek, so gently it made my chest ache.

"We'll both finally have what we've been fighting for," he murmured. "You'll be back in Aedric's arms." His voice shook. "And I'll finally find Dannis."

His words scattered like broken glass in my chest.

I hadn’t told him.

The truth I'd hidden. The truth I'd been too much of a coward to give him. How had I kept it from him for so long?

My chin quivered. I tried to speak, to finally tell him, but I fumbled with the words, unable to shape them properly. "Rìan..."

His finger came to rest against my lips.

"Just… let me give this one thing back to you..." His voice roughened, almost too quietly to hear. "... while you're still mine."

He lifted my hands from around his neck and pressed them against his chest. Beneath my palms, his heart beat hard and fast, the only crack in his carefully held composure.

He drew a quiet breath. "Look at me."

I did.

The silver in his eyes brightened. Then it spilled through his irises like moonlight flooding dark water.

I felt it before I saw it.

His magic spread between us, enormous and silent, shadows stretching across unseen ground as they reached for my mind. My Eidra surged forward at once, eager for the touch of his power.

I jerked backward, but his hands caught my wrists, holding them firmly against his chest.

"Rìan—what are you doing?"

“What I do best.”

“You can’t dreamwalk with me—my magic… it’s too risky—” It could swallow his whole.

"Relax." His gaze softened, something naked in his expression rooting me where I stood. "Try not to drain me dry, all right?" he smiled. "I might need some of it tomorrow."

My heartbeat fluttered wildly, a hummingbird trapped beneath my ribs. "Why are you doing this?"

"Close your eyes."

I couldn't.

Fear rooted me where I stood.

Not fear of him—but of what my Eidra might do to him if his magic entered me again.

"Let me in, Elowen."

Again, he spoke my name, and something in the way it fell from his lips made my heart beat faster.