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Liking the sound of that, I bit my lower lip and slowly nodded. “Okay. Is that a thing? I mean it is in storybooks back home, but those aren't real." I glanced around. "But no one would expect this to be real either."
Kellan shifted on the stool. “Apparently. Listen,” he leaned forward, “I’m sorry for my ... resistance, but you have to understand it’s not because of you, it’s because of me.”
This time that line worked. It hadn’t with the losers that said it to me in the past.
“I believe you.”
The trust in that sentence felt unreal. I trusted this man I’d just met, and maybe I was naïve, but I didn’t care anymore.
Kellan reached forward and grabbed my hand. Playing with my fingers, he said, “I’m-I’m trying. I will continue to try. We have things to figure out, but it may not be until we get back home that we can truly talk about us. Deidamia knows where we are, and I don’t know how to handle it. I only escaped last time because she let me.”
I didn’t know how to answer. The processing of that sentence was thick and lumpy. He was let go before. Besides him saving me at her castle, he’d never successfully escaped her.
Had anyone? I wouldn’t know since I wasn’t from this realm.
“Has anyone escaped her?” I asked.
Kellan’s gaze lifted to mine as he continued to run my finger between his. “I’m not sure. No one in my village survived.”
“No one?”
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “We need to keep our heads above water while we’re together. Not get too distracted with one another ... or exploring.”
Exploring sounded like exactly what I wanted to do.
“None?” I asked in a whisper.
Kellan kept his dark gaze on my fingers, but I felt his excitement roll through him. Kellan stood up, trapped me against the bed and let his body hover above mine.
His breath spanned across my bottom lip and formed a blanket of need I settled in. “Some,” he answered.
Leaving me a quivering mess, he stood up and groaned frustratingly. “I need to speak with Ernest.”
I leaned up onto my elbows. “Are you coming back?”
Kellan stepped over toward the doorway but turned back to look at me. “Yes. You need to sleep.”
His gaze shifted toward the window. He walked over, locked it and pulled the blinds. “I won’t be long. Rest. I’ll come back.”
Kellan left me sitting on the bed like a lone child. The full-size bed was the only bed in the room. I didn’t know what the sleeping arrangements were, but it excited me to find out.
I was getting ahead of myself. I knew that. Kellan was broken. He was healing, and it made me nervous. I wasn’t the best person to date a man healing from the death of a family.
My life had been pretty good until recently.
Almost too good.
Part of me wondered how my parents succeeded so easily, but I figured it was old money from my grandparents.
I’d never questioned their success before. It was farfetched to think either of my parents knew about this place and hadn’t let on. Or had stolen something from her.
I stood up, walked over to the covers and pulled them back. The softness of the featherdown mattress embraced me when I slid underneath the warmth.
The eager part of me felt like going to see what Ernest had to say about defeating Deidamia.
The other part felt like sleeping in the warmth of blissful ignorance. The distant sound of that stupid crow slithered down my spine.
Who had stolen from Deidamia? What had they stolen from her that was so important?
