Page 17

EXCLUSIVE SCENE ~ THE HEART DOESN’T CARE

~Poppy~

Drowning in panic and helplessness, I jolted awake with a leashed scream burning my throat.

Heart thundering, my eyes snapped open. My wild gaze darted around the unfamiliar, moonlit chamber. It took me a moment to recognize my surroundings. I started to sit up, but the weight of a warm arm resting against my bare waist stopped me.

Resisting the urge to reach beneath the blanket and touch him, I willed my heartbeat to slow.

It was just a nightmare.

Casteel was beside me, alive and well, and we were at an inn tucked away in the small town of Tadous, halfway to the capital. We weren’t in that dark, cold place, trapped and—

Just a nightmare.

The soft bed shifted. A heartbeat later, the scent of pine and rich spice enveloped me, crowding out the faint smell of woodsmoke.

“Poppy?” Casteel’s voice, roughened by sleep, reached me a second before his arm tightened around my waist.

Hearing his gruff voice calmed the pounding in my chest. I turned my head, making out the chiseled line of his jaw and the curve of his lush mouth. “I’m sorry,” I whispered, clearing my throat. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

His chin, slightly roughened by stubble, grazed my shoulder, sending a shiver through me. “It’s okay.”

No, it wasn’t. I couldn’t even begin to keep track of the number of times I’d woken him in the middle of the night. “It’s official. I have to be the worst person to sleep next to.”

“I have to disagree with that. You are officially the best person to go to sleep next to.” The short hairs on his leg tickled mine as he drew himself up. “To sleep beside.” He kissed my shoulder. “And to wake up with.”

The corners of my lips turned up. “You have to say that.”

“I only speak the truth.” His arm loosened as his hand moved, skimming over the curve of my waist. “Was it another nightmare?” His palm drifted over my hip. “The Dark One?”

I opened my mouth, then closed it. I almost wished it was that nightmare. Those were a product of the past. This one felt like…like a harbinger. I swallowed.

My gaze shifted to the exposed beams of the ceiling awash in streaks of moonlight. A chill entered my skin. “It wasn’t that kind of nightmare.”

Casteel traced small, idle circles on the top of my thigh. “Tell me about it.”

“It’s not a big deal,” I told him. “Morning will be here soon, and we still have a ways to go, right? We should be asleep—”

“Poppy.” The hand on my thigh returned to my hip and then firmed, tilting me so my body was on its side, facing him.

I pressed my hands to his chest. “I don’t even remember it.” In reality, I wasn’t sure how I could forget it: the sight of him, cold and gray, bloodless and immobile.

My heart sped up again. Why would I dream something like that? Now? I pressed my lips together, suddenly hearing Kieran’s voice in my mind.

The heart doesn’t care how long you have with someone.

Gods, I suddenly understood what had spawned such a nightmare, such feelings of panic and helplessness.

In the moonlight, Cas’s gaze found mine. “Tell me about it.”

My eyes narrowed. “You’re being incredibly bossy.”

“And you’re being incredibly evasive,” he replied. “That worries me.”

“It shouldn’t.”

“And it makes me more curious,” he continued, his hand squeezing my hip. “Makes me wonder if you were dreaming of another, and that is why you’re being so vague.”