And over the trees, she flew.
I screamed hopelessly into the moonless night, realising they were both going to die, and there was nothing I could do.The wind bent the trees like they were nothing.The shadows gathered around us, and the Darkness waited patiently to take me too.I watched helplessly as the stag’s black eyes became lifeless.My devoted wolf gave one last cry with its final breath.My stag and wolf cracked, decayed and turned to ash while I desperately tried to hold them together.My suffering was unheeded.The heartless wind carried them over the river and through the trees.Far away from me.
CHAPTER 27
Iwoke to Cillian’s soft snores.He was curled against my back with his arm lying across me.Torgrin watched us with one of his journals on his lap as his hand flowed over the page.He paused when he saw I was watching him back.What was going on behind those shadowy eyes?
I gently removed Cillian’s heavy arm and scooted up against the headboard next to Torgrin.Cillian gave an adorable little snuffle, and I snorted quietly, leaning over to kiss his forehead.He smiled in his sleep and rolled over.
‘Morning,’ I whispered to Torgrin.
I tugged at a blanket from the bottom of the bed, covering myself while he quietly watched me.
‘Can I look?’I gestured to the journal he was drawing in.
He handed the open book to me without hesitation, and the gesture made me smile up at him.Our fingers touched as I took the journal, and a spark made us jolt apart.I laughed in surprise and Torgrin frowned down at his hand.
He had been sketching us while we slept.My face became unbearably hot.On the crisp white page was the perfect outline of my body rendered in charcoal.He had spent some time getting allthe dips and curves right, the drape of Cillian’s arm along my hip, my hair draped over the pillow and my face soft in sleep.
It was unfinished, but his ability to capture this sweet moment in a few strokes astounded me.
‘Can I … ?’I asked, wanting to look at the rest.
Torgrin shrugged and leaned his head back against the headboard.I moved closer to him, resting my head on his bare shoulder.I turned the page to see he had drawn me in my dress and mask from last night.On another page was the stag in yesterday’s morning frost.The way he depicted the animal flawlessly showcased its majesty.I was reluctant to turn the page right away.
‘I think I dreamed about a stag last night.’
‘Perhaps you did,’ Torgrin said, resting his chin on top of my head.
To my mortification, I soon discovered a multitude of drawings depicting me.I smiled at the one he had drawn of me sitting by the fire, combing my hair.I turned my head to look up at him, forcing him to lift his chin from its resting place.He arched his dark eyebrow in question.
‘I knew you were drawing me that time.’I narrowed my eyes at him, pretending to be annoyed.He just snorted at me.
The last illustration brought me to a halt.It was me, but it wasn’t.I was standing in the clearing Torgrin’s father had taken me to.The trees surrounding me were bent and distorted, and shadows wrapped around my body, ash floating in the air.My arms were lifted and my hair swirled around my terrifying face.He had used his charcoal to give my eyes an eerie blackness, completely devoid of white, like peering into an abyss of the underworld.
‘Do my eyes look like this when I use my Curse?’
‘Yes, they turn black, like last night.’
‘Last night?’
He nodded to the walls.
Enormous scorch marks marred the white plastered walls.I don’t remember the dreams I had last night, just the echo of how they made me feel: desperate, afraid, hopeless.I seized the blankets bunched up at the end of the bed, only to see them marked by the burned outlines of my hands.
‘I could have hurt you!I could have hurt you both!’My loud cries of panic echoed around the room.I cringed as Cillian instantly sat up.
‘You didn’t, and you wouldn’t.You were just dreaming,’ Torgrin said, trying to calm me.
‘What’s going on?’Cillian asked groggily.
‘I lost control.What if I had hurt you both?’Was my Curse taking over more because I had been using it too much?Was it because of how I felt last night?My intense feelings for these men scared me almost as much as losing control of my Curse did.
‘Why did I feel drunk last night?’My fingertips rubbed the dull ache in my temples.‘I only had two glasses of wine.’
‘It was the hoofah they were burning last night.’
‘That explains it,’ Cillian said beside me, kissing my bare shoulder reassuringly.
