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But now her body thrashed, screams ripping from her throat every other breath.
“Sloane.” Reiner set his hand on her shoulder, gripping tight and shaking her. “Sloane.”
A scream choked off as she jerked upright, her eyes flying open.
She sat stupefied, blinking, her eyes going from the fire to Reiner as she tried to orientate herself to the world around her.
Reiner was afraid to release his grip on her shoulder for fear she would slip back into whatever dream had a death hold on her.
His hand still on her shoulder, he sank to balance on his heels, his eyes level with hers. “What was that? Your dream? You were screaming.”
“Dream? I was screaming? I…” She blinked hard, her eyes closing as she tried to conjure the memory. A shiver ran through her and she shook her head. “I…I don’t ken. I cannot see…but it was awful—the most brutal pain in my chest—as though my heart was being ripped out.”
Her eyes opened to him, a flush of pink filling her cheeks. “I—please excuse me.” She pushed up from the settee, her shoulder dipping so his hand fell off her, and she moved around him to gain her feet. The book fell from her lap and thudded to the ground.
She made motion to pick it up, but then gasped, falling backward and landing hard on the settee. She glanced at him, her blue eyes bewildered. “It seems to have taken my legs out from under me.”
Reiner nodded, standing straight. “It appears to have done a little more than take your legs out from you. It terrorized you, full and through.”
“It did?”
“The way your body was just thrashing about—yes.”
“I was thrashing?”
He nodded. “And screaming.”
“Oh.” Her gaze, still stupefied, went to the fire. The blush that tinged her cheeks deepened.
“Did you remember something?”
She shook her head. “No…I thought…no.”
Reiner went across the room to the mahogany sideboard and he picked up the thick-cut glass decanter of brandy. Into a tumbler went several healthy swallows of the amber liquid. He brought it back to Sloane and held it out to her. “Promise me something.”
“What?”
“When you do remember, you come to me first.”
Her gaze lifted to meet his and, her hand shaking, she took the glass from him. Her look dropped to the fire. One sip. Two. Three.
Half the brandy gone and she’d not even flinched at the strength of it.
But she hadn’t answered him.
Her gaze remained on the flames. “Vicky wants to sing for you, but she’s afraid to do so.”
He blinked hard at the odd shift in topic. “She is? Why? She has a lovely voice.”
“She thinks it makes you sad.” Sloane’s blue eyes lifted to him. “And she doesn’t want to make you sad.”
His bottom lip jutted up in a frown.
“So it does make you sad?”
Reiner shrugged. He should leave the room. Cease this conversation now.
In spite of the rational thoughts in his head, his blasted mouth opened. “I killed my sister just as surely as I had sent a blade into her heart.”
