Page 47

His eyes were liquid gold. “I love you,” he said, and then, once he was certain she heard him—that shebelievedhim—he lowered his mouth to hers.

Of course, that was when Raquel awoke.

She had been so startled by those words and his confession that she had completely forgotten to hold on to the dream. It had slipped right through her fingers and moved on to finish in a plane Raquel would never see or experience.

And how she wanted to.

That truth startled her more than any other.

Raquel opened her eyes. It wasn’t quite morning, but the mist had lightened, and she glanced over to where she’d last seen Jake. He was gone, the blankets still rumpled where he had lain, and Raquel couldn’t stop the prick of disappointment she felt at his absence.

I love you.

The words echoed in her mind and heart.

Raquel rubbed her eyes and groaned. She was supposed to be contriving a plan to protect Harran from ever having to sacrifice a bride again, not having (highly inappropriate!) dreams about her captor. Maybe the mist was altering her mind, or perhaps there was still a bit of Depraved poison in her blood that Sienne had missed. Whatever the reason, something had to be wrong, because Raquel’s dreams never lied. They were always rooted in truth, though they might exaggerate, but Jake would never—not in a thousand, wasted years—sayI love you.

“Good, you’re awake.”

Raquel froze, then very slowly, she lowered her hands and opened her eyes.

Jake stood over her, illuminated from behind by what remained of a fire. She wasveryconcerned that she hadn’t heard him approach.

“Get up,” he said, his tone stiff. Not at all the way he’d spoken to her in her dream. “It’s time to go.”

He snapped his fingers, and her blanket vanished.

Raquel sat up with a start, but Jake was already walking away toward Vizzi.

“So much for manners,” Raquel murmured to herself as she stood and dusted her skirts.

“Scoundrel,” he said over his shoulder while pointing to himself, and Raquel grumbled as she started after him.

Most of the camp still slept, though a few were beginning to stir. Sienne sat beside the fire, drinking out of a water pouch, but when she lowered it, her gaze met Raquel’s, and she looked promptly back to the flames.

Meanwhile, Raquel was careful not to step on anyone sleeping, and when she reached Jake, she asked, “What about the others?”

Jake placed his neatly folded coat into one of Vizzi’s bags, and he didn’t look over. “We’ll join them later.”

“Where are we going?”

“To my mother’s.”

Something had changed since last night. Raquel did not know how, being that she’d been sleeping, and she couldn’t quite put a finger on it, but he was definitely acting different this morning. Irritable and withdrawn and…was he intentionally keeping physical distance from her?

Raquel took a few steps toward him, and heconvenientlytook a few steps away, though his attention remained on Vizzi.

“I thought you didn’t know where she was,” Raquel asked, deciding she didn’t much like this Jake. She missed the other one, infuriating though he was.

Jake pulled the flap over the bag’s opening and tied it shut. “I don’t. We’re going to her private residence.”

Raquel frowned. “She doesn’t live with your father?”

Jake chuckled and moved around to Vizzi’s other side. “No.”

“Why do you laugh?”

Jake ran his hand over Vizzi’s side and checked the saddle’s straps. “If you knew my father, you’d understand.”