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His absence left her feeling cold, and oddly abandoned. And she was given no chance to seek him throughout the entire day. Emma, Elen, Arrow or Pal demanded her complete attention. Jon didn’t reappear, even at mealtimes.

As soon as possible, as the evening dragged on, she hurried from the common room, pleased to be away from the strained mood. She went back to her room and placed Pal in his sleeping space. She snuck into her warm bed and waited for sleep to come, but it defied her. Pal slept. Finn slept. Even Arrow slept, and still she lay there, remembering the touch of Jon’s lips from yesterday. The memory brought a fresh blush to her cheeks, and she pulled her hands from beneath the furs, because she felt feverish and too hot. When she didn’t cool down, she kicked the furs fully away. But still, she felt so hot. She couldn’t stop thinking about his touch, the feel of him pressed against her body, the way their lips merged as though one.

She wished she could seek him out, but, even as much as she wanted to, she couldn’t shake the feeling Emma was outside her chambers, waiting to pounce on her.

When the curtain was brushed aside, she peered into the dull gloom, and then sat up abruptly. Jon must have had the same thoughts as her, but had been braver. Now he stood there, silently motioning for her to follow him. She wordlessly shooed him from the room in order to dress and slithered into her clothes, holding her breath and cursing every slight noise she made. Luckily neither Pal, Arrow nor Finn woke, despite her clumsiness, and she slid through the curtain, straight into Jon’s waiting arms. They didn’t speak as he took her face between his hands, looking into her eyes as if for permission before kissing her long and deep, leaving her struggling for air, and tingling with their combined passion.

When they finally stepped apart, he placed his finger on her lips and took her hand. Together they walked to the warren, stealthy in their tread for fear someone might hear them. Even when they were inside the warren, they didn’t speak. Instead, their breath steamed in the cold chill of the half open cavern. They kissed again and again, arms wrapped around one another. While the planets and stars sparkled through the quickly rushing clouds above their heads, they kept each other warm by running their hands over one another’s bodies, and finally sheltering for warmth inside Jon’s deep fur cloak, pressed tightly together.

She hoped the night would never end, as she sighed in contentment.

Only as the sun burned the horizon in a stunning array of pinks and purples did he take her by the hand and lead her back to her room, where she kissed him goodbye, all without uttering a single word. She crept back into her bed, her body glowing, and fell promptly asleep.

Her dreams were strange, though. One moment she was with Jon, and the next with someone else. The other man didn’t look like Jon. His eyes flashed green, and he had not so much a ready smile as an openness about him, unlike Jon, who even in her dreams seemed guarded.

Jon’s face continuously merged with that of the man whose name she didn’t know. When she fought free of her dream, she felt off balance and unsure of herself. On waking, she lay for long moments in the deep warmth of her bed and tried to reorder the facts. Slowly, she became aware she was alone, and jumped from her bed wondering where Finn and Pal were. Still, she couldn’t shake the face of the man in her dream. It wasn’t Jon. Who had it been?

Once more, upon finding Pal, Arrow and Finn in the common room, Elen, Emma, Pal and Arrow absorbed her attention. She fed Pal. She fed Arrow. She followed Finn to where he’d been taking Arrow to relieve herself, surprised to find yet another half cavern in the cave system, and then, when she returned, Emma asked for her assistance with sorting out a pile of rags to be used as nappies for Pal. And then when all that was done, it was time to feed Pal again, and then Arrow, and then play with Pal, who was fractious after another nap. The whole time, Jon remained marked by his absence.

She noticed Emma poring over a curled and faded script, but quickly became caught up in looking after Pal. Emma soon rolled it up, with a sideways glance at her, but made no reference to what she was reading. Despite Jon’s absence, she spent the day remembering the night before. While no one approved of their growing bond, Jon was determined to ignore their disapproval, and so was she. Something that felt so natural couldn’t be wrong, could it?

As the day wore on, she even gave Finn permission to try and bathe Arrow. The wolf-dog wasn’t impressed.

‘Come on, Arrow. You’ll smell lovely after this,’ Finn cajoled, his words echoing back to them in the common room. When Arrow ran back mere moments later, dripping water everywhere, with an exasperated Finn behind her, Sereh joined in the laughter ringing through the cavernous room. Luckily everyone, even Elen, who had a mop in hand ready to wipe away the water marks Arrow left, joined in, all aside from Finn, who scowled.

‘Arrow, why did you run?’ he demanded, trying to catch her, even while she evaded him under the table.

‘Come on, Finn,’ Sereh offered, laughing once more at Arrow’s outraged expression. ‘I’ll show you how to do it,’ and she grabbed Arrow’s spare fur on her neck, and forced Arrow to follow her, despite the scrabble of her claws on the stone floor, which did spark a memory of something. She shook her head, concentrating on Arrow, who was in need of a good groom, now her fur was shedding in the heat of the caverns.

Still, she longed for the day to end. If Jon was only going to seek her at night, she wanted it to always be night. No matter what the others thought, she was falling in love. If it took deception to keep seeing Jon, then so be it.

10

SEREH

She fell asleep the moment her head touched the pillow. Her dreams instantly dragged her down to a place of gloom and near darkness. In the murkiness, she heard the harsh rasp of someone calling her name in such a broken way her sleeping eyes teared at the noise. Such grief and bitterness. She’d never experienced anything like it.

She stepped forward towards the noise. Whoever was calling her name was doing so loudly and didn’t hear her approach in the dull gloom, which caused her to open her eyes wide to be able to see. The person was huddled, one knee drawn up to their body, their head resting on that knee. Even in the murk, she could clearly see the other leg was held at an awkward angle. She knelt, unsure who it was, and hesitantly reached out to touch the dirty blond hair covering the bowed form. Her hand passed right through, making no impact on it. She gasped, unsure if the person heard her exclamation or somehow felt her touch, because their head snapped up. She looked into the distressed face of the most attractive man she’d ever seen. The green eyes pierced hers. She was engulfed by the horror in them. He reached out and tried to touch her, but like her touch before, it passed right through her.

‘Great, now I see things too!’ she heard him whisper in a hoarse voice.

She chuckled because if he was, then so was she.

‘Go on, laugh at me. I suppose it is funny.’ She inhaled in surprise. He could hear her!

‘Sereh, Sereh, please help me. I don’t know where I am. Or how I got here. Everything looks the same. I’ve walked for days and days trying to find an escape, trying to find you. I love you. I miss you. I should never have touched that stupid marker on the glacier. Arrow knew better. I should have heeded the wolf-dog when she growled.’ His voice was filled with anguish and despair.

‘Erann!’

She woke suddenly, sheeted in cold sweat and shivering. Her only thought was to find Skaldi. Flinging her clothes on in haste, she ran out of the room.

She made so many wrong turns on her way to Skaldi’s ledge she was as hoarse as Erann had been by the time she arrived, gasping for air from dashing up and down the wrong passageways. Gemini shone brightly in the night sky, and for a moment she was blinded by the glow. Then she turned in despair. Where should she go? She had no idea where Skaldi was, or how to contact him. She dropped to the icy ledge, the fight leaving her, as her frantic actions on waking drained away. The ground numbed her, the cold working its way into the back of her legs and up into her belly. She didn’t care. She sat, without seeing, as Gemini slowly set and the sun rose in an angry mauve fissure along the cobalt sky.

Confused voices woke her. The feel of a wet wolf-dog tongue on her face and the gentle nudges of an angry dragon. Dazed she looked first into the vibrant green eyes of Skaldi, and then into the jaundiced glow of Arrow’s. And she felt the pair weren’t alone, either.

Anger infused her. She leapt to her feet, staggering from the chill enveloping her. She clutched Skaldi for support. She was aware of someone’s gasp of horror at her familiarity with him. She ignored it.

‘I see him, Skaldi. I see him in my dreams.’ Her voice remained hoarse, but she shouted as much as she could, even though Skaldi couldn’t understand her.