Page 1

MAP

DEAD TROLLS hauntedEssie’s nightmares.

She struggled to drag herself from the images of dead bodies and blood and battle. A nightmare. Just another nightmare.

A hand shook her shoulder, gently, pulling her all the way awake. “Essie.”

She rolled onto her back, blinking up at him. “Did I wake you?”

“No.” Farrendel, her elf husband of three months, withdrew his hand, his silver-blond hair cascading over his shirt and still perfectly unfrizzy and detangled thanks to the magical elf conditioner. Or possibly magic elf hair. Essie hadn’t decided which it was yet.

He rolled into a cross-legged position on his side of the bed. And it was definitely his side of the bed, pressed underneath the window while she curled against the far side of the rounded, elven bed grown into the wall, leaving several feet of space between them. “Are you all right?”

“Just tired.” Essie swiped her hair from her face, staring up at the ceiling, visible in the pre-dawn gray. If she hadn’t woken him, then he’d already been awake dealing with the aftermath of his own nightmares. “And you?”