Page 59

He lifted his head, and his chest rose sharply against mine. “Sera.”

The way he said my name had my pulse spiking. My eyes fluttered open. His were wide.

“What happened?” His gaze darted wildly over my face. My concern rose. “Fucking Fates, did I hurt you?”

“What?” I frowned. “Of course, not.”

The eather pulsed brightly. “Your lip is split, and your jaw…it’s swollen. It wasn’t like that before.”

A shiver tiptoed down my spine. I managed to wiggle an arm between us and touch my lip. I winced at the flare of pain.

Ash moved quickly, catching my wrist. He pulled my hand away. “Don’t poke at it.” He drew my fingers to his mouth, dropping devastatingly gentle kisses on their tips.

Confusion swirled as I lifted my gaze to his. “It hurts.”

His skin thinned until I saw the dark shadows of eather beneath his flesh. “I can see that it would.”

“But it stopped hurting the moment I started dreaming…” I trailed off.

“Are these injuries real?” Ash’s eyes had gone as flat as I’d seen Kolis’s turn before. He cursed. “Did he do this?” Frost dripped from his tone. “Has Kolis hurt you?”

“I don’t…” I slammed my eyes shut. “I don’t know why I would dream this.”

“This isn’t your…”

My brows pinched together. His skin had gotten even colder. The next breath I took carried that sweet-stale stench again as I opened my eyes.

“My fear,” he said, cursing.

“Your fear?”

“Yes.” Shadows stained the skin under his eyes where none had been before. Hollows had formed under his cheekbones. His lips were tinted blue. “Even in sleep, my fear for you consumes me.”

I stiffened at the sight of him. He was changing right before my eyes. His normally golden skin lost its color. Then the edges of Ash’s face blurred. My chest spasmed. His shoulders did the same.

“Liessa?” His head jerked at the sound of a…footstep?

My skin pimpled all over. A sudden pressure spread along the nape of my neck. My gaze flew to where my fingers were pressed tightly into the skin of his arms. “I can’t feel you.” My throat dried as I held on tighter. Or thought I did. I could barely feel his skin beneath mine anymore. “I can’t feel you any longer.”

“It’s okay,” Ash told me, his voice rough.

But it wasn’t okay. The tall, sweeping elms above us collapsed into smoke. The breeze vanished. Bone-deep desperation rose as I looked up at him.

“I don’t want to wake up,” I whispered, my heart cracking. I grabbed hold of him, but I couldn’t feel him. “Please, don’t let me wake up. I don’t want to leave you. Please.”

A noise came from Ash that sounded as if it had been dragged from the depths of his soul. “Sera—”

I jolted awake, my eyes flying open. I dragged in a ragged breath and tried to ease the pressure clamping down on my chest. My eyes burned with tears, causing the bars to blur just as Ash’s face had.

It had been a dream.

I knew that, but it had felt real. I could still feel Ash—his touch and kisses, the weight of him against my body. I could even feel that now, the fullness of him inside me and the dampness between my thighs. My hands still tingled with the feeling of his flesh against mine. It all felt so damn real. Still did.

But it couldn’t be.

Because there were no bright stars above me, only bars. And beneath me? The softness of the divan I’d fallen asleep on. There was no tranquil quiet—the distant, guttural howls of the dakkais could be heard.

I was once more caged.