“What did you just call me?” Ashlyn asked as he climbed off the bed, unable to be near her right now as the reality of everything that he’d lost slammed into him.
“It means little flame,” Shayne found himself saying as he made his way to the other side of the room.
“I didn’t tell you the name.”
“What happened?” Shayne demanded, watching as Ashlyn’s expression turned confused.
“What are you talking about?” she asked, frowning as she watched him only to go still at his next words.
“What happened after I left ye with Bécc, lass?” he demanded as her expression went cold.
“How do you know his name?” Ashlyn asked, watching him as she grabbed hold of the comforter and pulled it over herself.
“I need ta know what happened after I left,” Shayne bit out as he struggled not to lose his fucking mind.
“He killed me,” Ashlyn said as all the air in his lungs rushed out and-
“Shayne?” Ashlyn asked, moving to climb off the bed and come to him when he was forced to reach out and slam his handagainst the wall when his legs threatened to give out on him, only to stay where she was when he shook his head.
“Tell me everything,” Shayne said hoarsely, needing to know how he’d lost everything.
“About the dream?” Ashlyn asked after a slight hesitation.
“Aye, about the dream,” Shayne said, swallowing hard as he told himself that this wasn’t fucking happening.
“After you left, he stabbed me twice before laying me on the bed and placed a rock in my hand, courtesy of the king,” Ashlyn said as he slowly nodded.
“Yer father,” Shayne said, knowing in that moment that his suspicions when the bastard came to him to demand that he kill her had been right. The asshole tried to send him to kill his fucking daughter, Shayne thought, laughing without humor as he pushed away from the wall and rubbed his hands roughly down his face.
“Do you mind telling me what the hell is going on?” Ashlyn demanded in that tone that he knew so fucking well.
It was the same one that Lasarín and Aileen used to use when he pissed them off, making him wonder how he’d missed just how alike Lasarín, Aileen, and Ashlyn really were. All three of them managed to wrap him around their little fingers, stole his food every chance they got, and all three of them drove him out of his fucking mind.
But then again, maybe he didn’t want to see it.
“How long have ye been having the dreams?” Shayne asked as he dropped his hands away so that he could watch as she thought that over only to answer his own question before she got the chance, “Since ye met me?”
After a slight hesitation, she nodded.
“If I had ta guess, ye’ve probably been dreaming about our life together when I was forced ta work for the king and then when I was Thomas and my family owned the tavern in Boston,”Shayne said, knowing that he was right when he saw her swallow hard.
“How did you know about the dreams?” Ashlyn asked, her gaze turning assessing as she watched him.
“Because they weren’t dreams, lass.”
“What the hell are you talking about? Of course, they were dreams,” Ashlyn said while he debated the best way to do this.
After a moment, he realized that there was only one way.
“Quinn?” Shayne said, never taking his eyes off her as his brother appeared in the room and-
“What the hell just happened?” Ashlyn asked as her terrified gaze shot from him to Quinn, who looked resigned to the bullshit ahead.
“Those weren’t dreams, lass. We’re cursed,” Shayne said, not bothering to wait around to see how she took the news. “Watch over her,” he told his brother as he made his way to the bathroom, closed the door behind him, and-
“Fuck!”
-lost his fucking mind.
