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Heat licks my hands, and I bite back a shriek as my eyes fly open. A fire blazes on the twigs in front of me. Not just a tiny fire, one that’s fully caught the twigs on fire.
Holy shit.I study the rocks and then the fire.How did that happen?
I drop the rocks and add more fuel to my fire to build it up a little, but it’s crackling proudly. Big enough to be chewing on the twigs, way bigger than a couple sparks should have caused. It doesn’t make sense.
“Ouch!” My wrists suddenly start to burn where the cuffs are touching my skin. I rub at them in confusion, and a minute later, the pain stops.
That was weird.
Glancing at the branches of the trees around me, a shiver rolls down my spine. I swear dead birds, just bones with flesh hanging from them, are watching me. Their eyeless faces turned to me.
But there’s no way. It’s impossible.
I don't know what's going on, and I don't have time to figure anything out right now. I use the tiny fire to find a good sized branch. I wrap the top of the branch the best I can using part of my skirt, also filling the fabric with leaves and small twigs for good measure. I push the branch into the fire and watch as it finally lights and begins to burn steadily. Then, I move my branch out of harm’s way, put out the fire, and hide all evidence of it.
Standing, I move the branch around toward the trees, but there are no birds. Just empty branches. Which, I guess is good… or bad, because it means I’m losing my mind. I’m not sure which, but I don’t have the strength to focus on my descent into madness. Not right now. Not when I’m hungry and exhausted.
Taking a deep breath, I make certain I’m still headed away from the Death House and start walking. I can figure out what to do with my vision and my strange dreams when I’m safe. For now, I just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other. That’s all I can do.
SIX
Zane
Having Cassia in my arms in the Winter Court had felt so real. And so right. All I’d wanted was to hold her longer, to breathe in her sweet scent, and enjoy the way she fit perfectly against me.
Then there was the kiss we shared. I touch my lips, thinking about it, and realize my body’s still hard and ready for her. I’ve never considered myself to be a primal-type of man, but every primal instinct was roaring to life with Cassia. I desperately want to slide into her tight body and fill her with my cum. Make her smell like me. Taste like me. And maybe even plant a child in her belly.
For some reason, in my dream, it was important to me that she acknowledge my claim on her first. A strange notion, but perhaps it was my deepest mind’s way of claiming a woman who hasn’t shown me she wants me. A woman who is my mate but seems to be fighting it with every inch of her being.
Regardless, I’d asked her to be mine, and she wasaboutto answer me. She was about to tell me yes. At least, I hope she was.
I loosen my grip on my sheets. Not that it mattered, anyway. It was a dream. The real Cassia is gone, possibly having run away from us. She isn’t worried about my kiss, my claim on her, or even her books and libraries.
Though if she actually likes books, I’ll have to give her as many as she wants.The urge to laugh comes and goes. I can’t imagine that something so simple would win her heart when I’d be willing to move the earth and skies for her.
Perhaps Sulien knows what she likes. Maybe I can ask him.Ifwe ever find her again.
I sit up in my bed, resting with my back against the headboard, thinking about every detail of my dream. Had her grandmother really been kicked out of the castle when she went blind? Maybe I’d heard that somewhere, and that’s why it was in the dream. But if that’s true, I can understand even more why she might not like the fae.
Summer Court’s rules and ways are foreign to me. Especially the way they treat humans. Yes, the humans in my court typically do the grunt work, simply because they don’t have magic… so they’re not capable of being things like healers or creators, but the humans are provided for. We don’t just allow them to freeze to death in the streets like animals. But there’s no evidence to suggest that the Summer Court treats their humans with the same kind of care.
What has Cassia’s life been like here?
I get out of bed, my mind racing. I don’t know a damn thing about Cassia, my future wife–my future queen. If my dream had any truth to it, I know that she likes to read.What else, though? I know she doesn’t want to marry us, but why?
I wonder what dreams she has for herself and what she wants out of life. Does she not want to be a wife, or just notourwife? Does she want to be a mother? Where’s her mother and why haven’t we met her? Will Cassia allow us to get to know her father and grandmother better? I’ve met them, but not in her presence. Not with her guidance. And what does she want in a man? And do any of us hold any of those qualities?
She’s a blank slate to me, and yet she’s also a whole person with a life. A life I know nothing about. What’s worse, I have so few ways to even piece together who she is right now.
Not that that’s my main priority.
I’m pacing my room now. My heart aches knowing she’s out there but not safely with me. All of us agree that it’s unlikely that she ran away, even though I’m trying desperately not to think about it, because that only means something bad has happened.
Can she think or fight her way out if she’s in a bad situation?If she can’t… I don’t want to imagine what’s happening to her now. I force my eyes to stay open because if I close them, I’ll see her laying somewhere, hurt and alone.
I stop pacing and stare out my window. The sun is rising over the Summer Court. The land is vast, and she’s out there. Somewhere. No one’s sent a ransom note, and there haven’t been any demands. If one arrives, I’ll give them what they want two times over.
So, what the fuck do they want?
