I don’t want to think about this. I don’t want to consider the fact that something inside me is screaming to run.
“You forgot—”
“I don’t care!” I throw the words over my shoulder, quick, breathless as I duck into the shadows of the forest. I just need space. A minute to clear my head, to breathe, to stop feeling like my world keeps falling out from under me.
I don’t know how long I walk before I realize I’vegone too far, that the sound of the river has faded and my surroundings look even less familiar.
I retrace my steps. Or at least, I try to. But the forest twists and folds in on itself, the shadows growing heavier. My breath quickens. I’m never finding my way back.
Then I hear it—the faint, distant rush of water. Relief floods me, and I pick up my pace, weaving through the trees toward the sound. The forest opens and sunshine greets me as the river and the path along its edge come back into view.
I stumble out of the trees and stop dead in my tracks.
Alder stands by a boulder, his back to me, tugging a pair of fitted breeches up over his hips. The leather fits his frame like it was made for him, though it’s far from the tailored slacks he was wearing earlier.
My pulse stutters. Wait…what?
I blink, my gaze tracking the rest of the outfit laid out on the rocks—a deep burgundy coat, intricate gold embroidery forming a five-pointed star enclosed in a circle. A matching vest, an elegant, high-collared white shirt, the kind you’d see in a museum exhibit, not on Alder Hawke.
This…this isn’t his.
A chill slides down my spine, but I push it away. There has to be an explanation.
“What are you doing?”
Alder turns at the sound of my voice, one brow arched, as if I’m the one acting strange. “There are no roads, no power lines, no sign of anything from the twenty-first century.” Alder’s voice is even, unshaken. Like nothing about this situation unnerves him. Like he isn’t even considering the possibility of being afraid.Because Alder doesn’t do fear. He does control.
“And the fisherman back on the dock?” he continues, pulling my focus back to him. “He looked like he walked straight out of the Dark Ages. These”—he gestures to the clothing draped over the boulder—“might help me blend in when we finally come across someone else.”
I can’t stop staring.
The pants look too perfect on him. Like they weren’t abandoned but made for him.
A nagging voice in the back of my mind whispers that something isn’t right—but I shove it down, bury it under the comfort of Alder’s confidence.
“What about the man they belong to?” The man who’s out here naked in the woods. But…that was Alder. It had to be. Any other explanation will prove that I’ve lost my mind and this whole situation is a hallucination, and that is something I cannot handle right now. “What happens when he comes back?”
“I haven’t seen anyone.” He holds my gaze as he slides his arms into the white shirt, the fabric settling over his shoulders, clinging to every sharp line of muscle like it was tailored for him. “Have you?”
A small knot tightens in my stomach, but I swallow it down and shake my head. He’s the only person I’ve seen out here…right?
“We’ll be long gone by the time whoever owns these clothes comes back.”
I open my mouth to argue, but then he picks up the coat and slides it on. The way the deep maroon fabric falls over his shoulders like he was born into royalty, the way the embroidered sigil gleams in the shifting light—he looks right.
Not just like he belongs in them. Like they belong to him.
His lips curve into a slow, knowing half-smile, his blue eyes sparking. “Like what you see?”
I narrow my eyes at him to hide the way my pulse spikes. “This isn’t a game, Alder.”
His smirk fades as he steps closer. “You think I’m not taking this seriously?”
I swallow hard, my throat tightening, but I don’t look away. “You’re certainly not acting like it.”
Alder leans in, so close I feel the warmth of his breath when he speaks. “Gemma, I am doing exactly what needs to be done to ensure you’re taken care of and that you’re where you belong—with me.”
The air between us crackles, and my heart pounds in my chest as I search his ocean-blue eyes. Before I can respond, heavy footsteps crash through the underbrush behind us. My heart leaps into my throat, and I spin around.
