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My mouth popped open. “How do you know my name?”
“I know a great deal of things about you,” he replied as he pulled a drawer open and took out a cast-iron skillet, muscles contracting with each movement.
His admission was far from comforting.
“Why did you bring me here?” I demanded.
“You were about to announce to a few hundred soldiers that you were Cursed, just to save your brother. Considering your power is in its infancy and you were heavily outnumbered, it was not the time or place to do so,” he said nonchalantly as he tossed the vegetables into the pan.
“That wasn’t your call to make,” I said, frustrated that he had intervened. Because of him, I had lost my chance to save Kaleb, regardless of if it was a fool’s plight. Rage bubbled and my Curse yawned awake.
“And it was yours? You were not capable of making a rational decision at the time. I stepped in. And I saved your ungrateful,fine,little ass. A mere thank you will suffice.”
“Thank you?” I spat out the words as if they were poison. I locked my gaze on the back of his insufferable head, conjured from the well within, and hurtled a water spear, resembling ice in form but not temperature, at that damned tattooed back of his.
He jerked to the side, but his reaction was not fast enough. My water harpoon sliced the side of his arm before it obliterated the cupboard door, causing a firework of wood shards to rain down. He turned, looking to the wound in his arm, blood pooling at the torn flesh. He swept a finger over it, studying it—marveled at it, as if he had never seen blood before.
I fired another round at him, but not before I caught the look on his face.
I had once questioned if his eyes were brown or black, but now I knew. They were of night itself as they shifted to my throat and my supply of air was cut off.
My world went black and I returned to the land of nightmares.
As I came to, a scream clawed up my throat, shredding its way out.
A muffled voice broke through, large hands wrapping around my trembling, sagging shoulders.
“Kaleb,” I whispered in relief, my arms wrapping around him as I buried my face in his chest and wept. It had all felt so very real.
A moment passed before his warm hand began stroking my hair in rhythmic, comforting movements. I nestled in closer, but instead of citrus, notes of sandalwood and amber greeted me.
The illusion shattered.
I jerked away as I peered at the male with dark, endless eyes. He sat on the side of the bed, a cloth bandage wrapped around his bicep. As I looked at it, red started to soak through.
“Why have you not learned to control your dreams?” Von demanded, his tone clipped, as if he were angry with me. As if he had a right to be. I felt compelled to remind him that we were perfect strangers and therefore his anger was unwarranted.
I laughed. “That’s absurd. People can’t control their dreams.”
“Those with the Curse of Dreams can.”
“The Curse of Dreams?”
“You don’t know?Shedidn’t tell you?” he asked, a muscle feathering his freshly shaved jaw. His dark brows knitted, his handsome face stern-looking. Annoyed. He was overwhelming. From the expression he wore to the steely muscles that broadened his shoulders to his hair tied in a warrior’s topknot—battle ready. He looked wild.
Focus.
“Okay,abductor, you are making very little sense right now.”
I ignored that fatal attraction and reached down deep, stroking my slumbering Curse—waiting for it to wake. Biding my time once again.
“I did not abduct you. I saved you. And you are free to leave whenever you like.” He crossed his arms, taut muscles flexing beneath that tattooed skin.
I quit petting the water beast—I was free to leave?
He leaned in closer. “And you, Little Goddess—” His voice returned to that smooth, firm leather tone. “—bear the Curse of Dreams.”
“You are an idiot. I clearly have the Water Curse.” I pointed at his arm, the bandage nearly soaked through—how strange. It was a small cut, and yet it was still bleeding. “Besides, there is no such thing as a Dream Curse,” I responded, half tempted to fire up my quads and punt his beastly ass off the bed. Everything about him irked me.
