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I didn’t spot her until darting my panicked gaze left, then right.
She sat atop a fallen log with her pack lying on the ground next to her knee. Saying nothing, she simply watched as I strained against my bindings.
I stopped suddenly, relief pouring through me. So glad
that she was safe and unharmed, it took another moment to occur to me that she was doing nothing whatsoever to help set me free.
And just like that, dread and understanding leached my face free of color.
She looked stricken.
“Nicolette?” I whispered.
“I…” Her lips formed more words, but they never came. Her eyes were rimmed with red as if she’d been crying, and her frame was stiff and hunched. Broken. She hugged her middle, but she didn’t seem to be experiencing any severe stomach pains.
More like severe heart pangs.
“Nic,” I said softly, getting her to snap her gaze to me. I shook my head slightly. “What’s going on? Are you okay? Can you stand?” I didn’t see anywhere that she was chained to the log she sat on, but maybe—
When she sliced her head back and forth in a jerky negative motion, her teeth gritting in anguish, I tugged against my restraints—just to get to her and hold her—but the chains held firm.
“Nicolette.” This had to be the worst torture. Not being able to even touch her, to help her.
She whipped up a sudden hand, as if commanding me to silence. I blinked, fell back against the tree and gaped. Her lips trembled with—what was that emotion in her eyes—fury? Fear? Sadness? Regret?
“No,” I whispered, shaking my head as I began to realize the worst.
She knew.
But how?
Her gaze rose to me. Wary. Suspicious. Hurt.
Panic flooded my system.
She couldn’t know. She could never find out the truth. If she knew, she’d leave. And I wouldn’t survive it if she left. I just knew I wouldn’t.
“Nicolette,” I started again, this time, my voice winded and desperate. My eyes pleading for mercy. “Please listen to me.”
She shook her head, winced as she swallowed, then dropped the hand she’d been holding up. “It’s come to my attention,” she started, her voice shaking slightly, “that I never quite explained everything I know about the mark to you, did I?”
Since I figured the question was rhetorical, I didn’t respond.
Nicolette blew out a slow, steadying breath. “No, I didn’t think I had. Like dream sharing, for instance.”
Dream sharing?
My lips parted. My breathing increased even more. I was probably on the verge of having an anxiety attack, because…
No.
We couldn’t share dreams. That would mean she’d seen—
“Were you aware that when one soul mate dies and the other brings that one back to life with true love’s kiss, they then share a deeper bond, for lack of a better term, and will thereafter share their dreams with each other?”
Limbs going cold, I rasped, “Oh God.” Everything I’d dreamed the night before wavered through my mind. There was so much, practically my entire life in fast-forward. I didn’t usually remember my dreams, but I remembered this one. Clearly. Everything had been real too, memories from my past, not just fanciful things that had never happened to me.
“No…” I mumbled, shaking my head. She couldn’t have seen that.
