Page 9

“Och, aye. Every inch of ye was movin’.”

“Really?” I laughed. “I thought I was completely still.”

“Ye canna be when ye are naked. Ye are writhin’, corrachag-cagail, mo reul-iuil.”

I curled up beside him, my head on his chest, his arm around. “Remind me what that means?”

“A flickering ember flame.” He yawned.

“Oh.” I kissed his chest. “I like that.”

He pressed his lips to my forehead and said, “Aye. I need tae get up and check in with the guard.” He sat up with a groan and then gave me a satisfied pat on my hip. “Stay here in bed I might...”

Exactly like Donnan patting me on the hip when he was finished with me before rising to dress. A memory flashed in my head — his shoulder butting against my mouth, his back bucking against me as he died.

I shoved his hand away — whose hand? “No no no no.”

“Kaitlyn?”

I scrambled up, shaking my head, no no no no —

Kaitlyn?

I pushed my body toward the headboard and clung to it — nonononono — my bare legs a moment from being dragged down the bed. I pulled them under — nonononono

“Kaitlyn? Are ye okay?”

My hands clamped over my face. I curled in a —

“Kaitlyn? Look at me.”

“I can’t. I can’t it’s too...” I shook my head. “He did that. He patted me like that. He — oh god.” I sank onto our pillows and tried to hide from him. If I hid he wouldn’t be able to find me... I pulled a pillow around my face.

Magnus’s voice, “Kaitlyn,” sounded from very far away. “Tis me, Magnus.”

He said it again and it took a moment more before I managed to say, “Magnus?”

“I am right here, mo reul-iuil, ye daena need tae be afeared.” He lowered down beside me on his stomach, facing me. “Daena be afeared, mo ghradh, is ann leatsa abhios mo chridhe gubrath.” Fingertips softly brushed my hair from my cheek and tucked it behind my ear. “Ye daena have tae be scared.”

I grasped his hand.

“Ye are safe, mo ghradh.”

I pulled my head up to see his eyes. Magnus. His eyes full of worry. I tucked his hand to my lips. “I’m sorry.”

His brows drew down. His eyes squinted in concentration. His I’m-trying-to-understand look. “Ye daena need tae be sorry.”

He sat there for a long moment quietly watching me.

He sighed long and rolled with a wince to his back and lay there naked, sprawled. Staring up at the ceiling he asked, “I ken it, Kaitlyn, but ye need tae say it tae me — he forced himself on ye? He was able tae before ye killed him?”

I clutched his hand to my face and didn’t answer.

“I needs ken the whole truth of it. It needs be out in the open.”

I concentrated on his fingernail. “He did. The first time was when I was coming out of the pain of time-jumping and I don’t know how long I was there — or what happened before. I don’t remember when he cut my face. So I don’t know... The last time was when I killed him.”

I watched the side of Magnus’s face as he stared at the ceiling. His eyes darted back and forth, working out something, thinking it through.