Chapter Twelve
WHEN CHLOE RELEASEDa blood-curdling scream, his heart about stopped. He and Cray raced for the tent, but he beat his cousin, only to find Chloe sitting up, wide-eyed and terrified.
Nobody was there. No evil Disinherited warrior monk to be found.
“’Twas just a nightmare, lass.” He sat, wrapped his arm around her shoulders, and shot Cray a look. All was well. His cousin should be about his business. Meanwhile, he stroked her hair, well aware it comforted her. “All is well, Chloe. You are safe. ‘Twas but a dream.”
“Something dark’s coming for you, Aidan.” Her trembling increased, and she held onto him. “Then me. In that order. I know it like I know the sun’s gonna rise tomorrow.”
“And we’ll be ready for it when it comes.” He held her tighter, fairly certain her magic flourished when she knew she was safe. Protected. Not abandoned. “You are not facing this alone, Chloe. I am right here with you. As is Cray and verra soon, Julie and Tiernan.”
The more firmly he held her and kept her secure, the more her trembling subsided, and her fear ebbed. Concerned but doing his best not to show it, he wondered if he should have pulled away last night after kissing her. If doing such left her vulnerable to whatever darkness swooped in.
He closed his eyes, trying not to think about what it had felt like closing his lips over hers.
He hadn’t meant to, but when he witnessed the dream and felt her pain, he couldn’t stop. He needed to draw her out of it. Away from the memory. His fury at the man made him want to reach back in time and run him through with a blade.
How could anyonehurther like that?Leaveher like that?
When she’d fallen to her knees, feeling the same grief he had felt when Maeve declared her love for Cray, he had to go to her. Pull her away from that awful place. That heartbreaking memory. Not jarringly but delicately.
So instead of shaking her awake, he kissed her.
Then he continued kissing her.
He’d meant it to be brief, just long enough to tear her from the memory, but when he felt her lips beneath his and how she responded, he lost himself. He wanted to sample more. Go deeper. Truly feel.
Hehad, too.
Right down to a part of his soul he thought dormant, mayhap even dead.
But it wasn’t.
When he kissed her to protect her, he made himself vulnerable. Open. Receptive. Her kiss dragged him from an abyss he hadn’t realized was so deep and dark. So incredibly lonely. After a time, he had pulled away, probably should have sooner, but now he wondered.
Hadhe left her vulnerable to whatever darkness haunted them? The Disinherited?
Eventually, her trembling subsided, and she settled against him, as unwilling to pull away as he was to let her go. He should, though. Straight away. He needed to stay true to Maeve.
Yet his inner voice whispered in denial. Argued. Countered.
Where was his beloved now? Did she seek him from the afterlife? Or did she seek Cray, waiting for him and only him in the great beyond? Who did she truly love and long for? Need most by her side?
“We should go, lass,” he finally said to Chloe. “Laird Bruce is readying to leave. His scouts report we will join up with Donald, Earl of Mar, later today.”
“That’s the new regent, right?”
“Aye, not officially yet, but he will be,” he replied. “Are you all right now?”
“Yeah,” she murmured. “I’m okay.”
He pulled back so he could see her eyes, her truth, only to discover silent tears had fallen. Touched that they were for his safety when it came to this unknown evil, he wiped them away and searched for the right words to bring her comfort. To give her a sense of strength and security. The only way to truly do that, though, was to assure her she would soon possess the power to fight this darkness.
Which meant he had to reveal what he’d witnessed.
“Seeing your ex and reliving that memory was part of your process, Chloe,” he said gently. “Part of your magic finding its way to where it needs to be so that you might embrace it.”
Her eyes widened when she realized what Aidan saying that meant. “You were there then.”
