Page 143 of Somno Slave

The name feels fragile.

Nothing answers.

“Come back.” The words feel stupid as soon as they leave my mouth. I scold myself immediately for them, but my heart longs to repeat the plea.

I wait.

My pulse thrums in my ears.

The air remains still.

He doesn’t come. For the first time since I told him to stop, he does not greet me at the edge of sleep..

The disappointment hits harder than I expect.

It’s sharp and physical. A hollow drop in my chest like a missing step in the dark.

I curl onto my side, facing the wall. My body trembles softly and no matter how much I pull into the duvet, it doesn’t seem to still the cold shake.

Withdrawal.

The word slips uninvited into my mind.

Is that what this is?

My wrist throbs beneath the bracelet. I press my thumb into the ache until pain sparks up my arm.

I press my forehead into the pillow.

Sleep should come eventually.

It has to.

Chapter Forty-One

Rheda

Morning drags into existence, loud and taunting. Sunbeams turn my charcoal grey blinds into thin, watery white pieces of fabric. The light is painful. It feels like mid-day rather than seven in the morning.

I don’t remember sleeping.

I remember closing my eyes.

I remember waiting.

I remember whispering his name in the dark like a fool.

But sleep... it didn’t happen.

My alarm cuts through my skull like broken glass. I jerk, hand already moving to silence the shriek. I slam it down onto my clock. I miss. My palm connects with wood, sharp and sudden. Adrenaline slices through me, and for a brief moment, it cuts through my hazy vision.

The alarm screams louder like it’s laughing at me.

I slap blindly until my fingers connect with a button and the noise finally stops.

For a moment, I stay here staring at the ceiling. I try to remember what it feels like when he visits. The hot shift in temperature. That strange, cold awareness of another presence pressing against my body. His gravelly voice or consuming touch.

His eyes. The terrible darkness of them. The way they drag over me like a physical touch, claiming every inch as though it’s rightfully his.