But because of the way he looked at her when she cried. The way he rose to meet her in every conversation. How he listened, even when he was angry.
Because when everything else had been stripped away – he chose her, over and over again. Like she would choose him back, always.
And she made certain he knew it.
Kara mumbled it sleepily into his chest as her eyelids became heavy. “I love you.”
She wasn’t sure if Sebastian had heard her, but then his whisper came in the dark:
“I love you too, Kara, so much.”
She fell asleep smiling.
But her nightmares didn’t respect the small sliver of peace they had carved out for themselves. Not long after she had drifted to sleep, Kara bolted upright, the scream tearing from her.
No! NO!
Smoke. There was smoke everywhere. Suffocating her. She couldn’t move her wrists. Her lungs were burning. Heat licked up her skin.
I’m burning–
“Please, please, put it out–”
A voice sounded in the darkness. “Kara, there’s no fire, you’re safe.”
“I don’t want to burn–”
“You’re not. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Her hand flew to her wrist. There was no nightshade, no ropes. The voice was right. There was no flame either. Reason returned. Slowly. Painfully slowly. There was hay. A broken barn. Moonslight spilling around her. Cool night air.
And Sebastian.
He was beside her, hands on her shoulders, voice low and firm. “Kara. I promise you’re safe. It was a dream–”
“No,” she choked out. “No, it wasn’t–” Her whole body shook. “I was there again. I could smell it – I felt the ropes – he–” She broke off, burying her face in her hands.
Sebastian’s arms came around her immediately, pulling her against him and stroking her hair. “It’s okay. I’m here now. I’ve got you. I’ve got you.”
She clung to him silently, her mind full of the memories she so desperately wanted to erase. Cade’s face, his hands, his–
No. Not again.
Her breath came too fast as she tried to ground herself against Sebastian’s chest – his warmth, his steady heartbeat. “I didn’t–” The words spilled out. “I didn’t tell you. What he did.”
Sebastian’s hand stilled on her hair.
She drew back just enough to look at him. “He took me there,” she said, voice hollow. “C–Cade. To the pyre. The night of my trial. They hadn’t passed sentence yet. No guards. Just him and a torch.”
Sebastian’s heart beat faster under her hand.
“He tied me to the stake. It was so tight that I couldn’t move at all. Couldn’t get free. He told me I was going to die. That no one would care. Then he–” She swallowed hard. “–he lit the fire. Let it burn until it choked me. Asked me to scream for him–” She broke off, her throat closing.
Sebastian’s whole body went rigid. Kara couldn’t say the rest. Cade had spat it at Sebastian with his final breath – that she’d screamed Sebastian’s name, begged for him – but she wouldn’t confirm the poison. Wouldn’t give Sebastian one more thing to blame himself for.
He’d never forgive himself.
“And then he threw water on it. Told me that it had just been for him. That I would make aprettyfire,” she said, staring at the floor. She couldn’t look at Sebastian’s face, couldn’t see his reaction. But she heard his sharp inhale. Felt his hands turn into fists. He was trembling.
