He seemed to speak about the events as if they had happened to somebody else. A sort of distance that she presumed something so horrific might as well have happened to her instead.
Despite herself, her gaze drifted downward.
She felt Kaden stiffen under her gaze, but he didn’t stop talking as she took in the tragedy that was his chest. She couldn’t fathom the pain that he must have endured. How could anyone have done this to another person?
“It was something of a pastime to them to see who could draw the most blood, who could keep me from passing out the quickest. I think that most of them found it fun. I’m nae sure exactly at what point a prisoner ceases to be human in the eyes of their captor, but that day had long since passed for the lot of them. So the loud noises… the…” Kaden trailed off again. He glanced down at the exposed skin she was touching. “It left something of a mess behind.”
Emily nodded mutely. She couldn’t help but think that perhaps the mess was both inside and out, seeing the way he was speaking about it. She reached up, her fingers curled so that she might brush her knuckles across his cheek. His face truly was the only part of him that seemed mostly unharmed.
“Why daenae ye stay with me tonight?”
Kaden’s eyes widened fractionally.
Emily smirked and shook her head. “I daenae mean it likethat. I only mean to sleep, nothing more. Just so ye can relax a wee bit. Ye arenae alone, ye ken?”
Suddenly, having her so close, where he could have better access to her and protect her, made sense. She held his hand, walking backward until the back of her knees hit the foot of the bed. She climbed onto it, never letting go of him for a moment. As if he might somehow drift away should she stop touching him. He looked like a sudden movement away from bolting.
For a moment, as he lifted a knee onto the bed, allowing himself to be dragged toward her, she almost regretted her choice of only sleeping. It was a strangely powerful feeling to have him so close. It would be too easy to pull him on top of her, to have him settle between her legs.
But he settled beside her instead like a consummate gentleman ought to.
She smirked to herself as she tucked herself into his side, his heavy arm a comfortable weight around her. The scent of him wrapped around her like the blankets he pulled over them. She was sorely tempted to trace the lines of his face with her fingers, but he had closed his eyes, so she did the same.
She never would have thought that she would be happy in a position like this. In her previous experiences, she had only wanted to push men away from her as far as she could.
Yet, it still felt natural to settle down into his arms and let the warmth of him fully envelop her, lulling her back into a peaceful sleep.
The room was pitch black when Emily stirred awake to the sound of growling from the foot of the bed.
“Shh, Maggie, shh,” she cooed, half drowsy.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, she assumed that Maggie was dreaming, or perhaps she was chasing down a magpie for her dinner in her sleep.
Either way, Emily fumbled for her in the dark. Her hand patted the mattress at random, searching for the small bundle of fur. She sleepily reached down a foot, seeking the puppy’s familiar warmth, but it seemed that Maggie had pushed herself very far, indeed.
Her growling grew louder, as if she was frightened of something. But there was no storm outside that Emily could hear, no rain hitting the windows. There was nothing that she should be afraid of, but the fact that Maggie was so worried had her on edge.
“What is it, girl? What do ye hear?” she whispered.
And then the body beside her thrashed.
The growling grew louder as Kaden’s massive frame thrashed violently. She knew in her bones that no part of him wanted to harm her. She tried to press herself into his side in the hope that it might offer him some modicum of comfort, but he flinched away from her touch so quickly that he almost threw himself off the bed.
“Kaden?” Emily murmured, “Kaden, ye are having a bad dream.”
It was almost impossible to resist the impulse to touch him.
He thrashed once more, and Maggie stopped growling now that she could see Emily was awake. She hopped off the bed and ran right under it.
Emily didn’t like the way Kaden nearly curled in on himself, either. He muttered something, the sound low and frightening.
“Kaden, ye have to wake up. Ye have to wake up right now,” she urged.
She pulled the pillow from under his head, but it didn’t help. He lurched, falling off the bed and taking most of the bedding with him. Even when he hit the floor, his arms came up defensively over his head.
Her heart broke at the sight.
How bad the torture must have been to linger in his subconscious all these years later. He almost looked likesomebody was hitting him, the way he grunted and rolled on the floor.
