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“Sorry, no can do. Whether you like it or not, we’re stuck in this mess together for now. You need to eat and drink. You lost a lot of blood.”
I reached under my shirt and felt the tender cut. “How did I survive?” The last thing I remembered was being stabbed. It had felt more like being punched in the gut. Honestly, I’d thought it would hurt more. Regardless, I didn’t remember anything after that except for a bright light.
Eric eased himself onto the bed, and to my surprise Tara jumped up and nudged me with her nose. I cuddled her against me like a security blanket, so happy to see her. “I thought she’d died. How did she get here?”
“She apparently has more than nine lives. I couldn’t leave her, and I knew you would want her.”
I supposed I should give him props for saving my cat, but I kept quiet. He didn’t deserve my thanks after what he’d done.
“Sorrel,” Eric whispered. “Where’s your book?”
“It was destroyed,” I whimpered.
“What do you remember?”
I shuddered while visions of knives, burning flesh, and unwanted touches flashed in my mind. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“I understand, but . . . we need to figure out what’s going on. And . . . there’s something different about you.”
With great effort I turned toward him, keeping ahold of Tara like a lifeline. “What do you mean?”
“For starters, you didn’t die. And you possess some gifts that haven’t been seen in many years. As far as I know, since . . .” He paused and pressed his lips together.
“What gifts?”
He ran a hand over his hair and blew out a heavy breath. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think you’re a daughter of the sun.”
If I could have, I would have spat out a laugh; however, that would have required stomach muscles, and mine were out of order. And Eric was out of his mind. “You’re as crazy as your family. The Aelius line died a long time ago. If not, we wouldn’t be here like this. I would still have my family,” I choked out. We wouldn’t be enemies.
Eric reached out to comfort me, then thought better of it when I scowled at him. Still, part of me longed for him to touch me and make it all better, as if he could. I wanted the feelings I had for him to die, but something inside of me kept flaming my desire for him. Almost a need. It seemed so sick and wrong.
Eric stared at my cheek. “I can prove it to you.”
“How?” I played along.
“Heal your cheek.”
“I can’t right now. I need some calendula and olive oil.”
“You don’t need those things.”
Suddenly, I remembered the dream I’d had of him while I lay unconscious from being poisoned by my own body’s water. He’d told me I could heal myself. The memory also reminded me of another reason to despise him. “Can you enter my dreams?”
His mouth fell open, but not a sound escaped. He rubbed the back of his neck. “I can,” he admitted.
“Have you?”
He nodded.
Every embarrassing moment I’d unwittingly shared with him came crashing into my mind. Everything from how I’d dreamed we were married and I was having his baby to all the steamy kisses we’d shared. Worse, all the lies he had told me—especially how he’d professed to be in love with me.
I recoiled from him and pulled Tara tighter against me. “You used me and lied to me. I thought you . . .” Well, it didn’t matter.
He clenched his fist and closed his eyes. “Sorrel, I know you won’t believe this, but I had no idea who you were when my book sent me to you.”
“Your book speaks to you?”
His eyes fluttered open. “Unfortunately, yes. It told me to take Raine Peters’s assignment.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t even suspect who you were until the night on the riverbank when you said you wanted to bind yourself to me.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “I don’t remember saying that.”
“You were pretty sleepy and I think a little buzzed from the wine.”
I rubbed my temples. My brain hurt. “You tricked me into telling you where my book was.”
He stood and began to pace. “I know. I hate myself for it, but I had to know. My father became suspicious of you after reading the article I wrote about you. He demanded that I find out. Then I began to wonder if you knew who I was . . . and if it was you who was playing me.”
“Why would you think that? What had I ever done to you to make you think I was capable of being as cruel as your family?”
Eric threw himself onto the fabric chair in the corner of the room and covered his face with his hands. “Sorrel, you have no idea what it was like to grow up in my family. My whole life I’ve been told stories about the evil, conniving Tellus family. Even so, I knew it wasn’t you. I was going to give your book back and . . .”
