CHAPTER 10
“Do ye mean that?”
“Aye, I daenae feel safe alone. And now, I feel… I feel safe with ye, Evander. Will ye stay with me again?”
She feels safe with me. I make her feel secure.
The words bounced around in Evander’s head, pulsing in time with his heartbeat. She’d said it so casually, almost as an afterthought.
“I feel safe with ye, Evander. Will ye stay with me again?”
His chest tightened.
She is beginning to trust me.
His heart galloped. In an attempt to calm himself, he cleared his throat. She glanced up at him, wide-eyed, waiting for him to speak.
“I ken that ye daenae want to talk about the dream,” he said, “but it might do ye good.”
“How so?”
“When I was a boy,” he found himself saying, “and I had nightmares, me nurse would always have me tell it to her. I never understood why, but one day she told me that saying a thing aloud does something to it. It changes the word. For example, speaking a reality aloud makes it more true. If ye lose someone ye love, people sometimes avoid saying that they are dead because the word carries weight and anguish. When it comes to dreams, nightmares, and fears, saying them aloud strips them of their power.”
She tilted her head, eyeing him thoughtfully. “Did it work?”
“It did. I would tell her me nightmares, and when I spoke them aloud, they would somehow seem smaller. Sillier. More ridiculous. We’d often be laughing by the end of it.”
“And if ye werenae laughing?”
He shrugged. “Then she’d help me untangle the dream.”
Skye watched him for a moment, her eyes half-narrowed. At last, she let out a small sigh and inclined her head. “All right, I’ll tell ye.”
She began to speak, relaying the details of her dream. He listened carefully.
“… and that’s all I can remember of it,” she finished.
Evander was quiet for a moment after she’d finished speaking. He sat in a chair, stretching out his legs in front of him.
Skye paced the floor in front of him, her gaze fixed on nothing in particular. When he met her eyes, she didn’t seem to see him—or anything, really. He wondered where her mind was going. Dwelling on her dream, no doubt.
The events in her dream married up with his memory. Hunter walking her down the aisle, his face pinched as though he were anxious. He had been pleased about the match on a political level, but it was clear he had reservations. What brother would want his sister to marry a man she claimed not to love?
If Evander closed his eyes, he could still see the Great Hall at Keep Bryden, decorated for the wedding. He could see the musicians poised to play, and the crowd gathered around the dance floor, shuffling and whispering. He could see how people kept glancing surreptitiously at the door and could imagine what they were murmuring to each other.
Where’s the bride?
She’s been gone for a while.
Do ye reckon everything is all right with her?
Maybe she isnae coming down at all.
He could still feel the sting of humiliation, then anger, then the slow edging-in of fear when he had begun to understand that something had gone wrong.
Enough,he chastised himself.She’s back now.
Skye paused in her pacing, throwing an expectant look at him.
