AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Your other half?”
I nod. “Daughter of Ice. Son of Flame.”
“Fire and Ice,” he replies. “Fitting.”
“I don’t understand how he’s doing it, though. This is not nearly as real as the Elven Trials felt but far more real than a typical nightmare. I could smell the smoke, Fort. My eyes burned with it. My fingers—” Trailing off, I turn my palms up and stare down at the black soot covering them. “Look.” I turn them so he can see, and Fort brushes his fingers over my palms.
“What happened in your last nightmare? The one at William’s cottage.”
“I saw destruction,” I tell him. “The entire house had been turned to ash, and there was a giant in the distance. Or, at least, I think it was a giant. That’s what my gut told me. He—” I choke back the bile that rises as I replay that memory. “He ate someone.”
“What did this bastard say to you then?” he demands. “I want to know exactly what he said, Carleah, not your interpretation of it.”
I close my eyes and recall the words spoken so calmly in the midst of such chaos. “He started by saying, ‘Easy, Carleah’,” I recall. “Then when I asked who was there, he said, ‘Your other half.’ Then he spoke of me being more beautiful than he could have expected, and when I asked him to show himself, he said he would soon. I asked what he’d done to the realm, and he told me it was merely a nightmare—” I trail off, the two horrific dreamlike experiences blending together. “A premonition of what awaits should I refuse him. It wasn’t until he spoke those words that I realized who he was. When I told him as much, he seemed pleased that I did know who he was.” I take a deep breath. “I told him that I did not wish to know him, and he told me, ‘You will.’”
Fort’s eyes are narrowed, his mouth turned up in a snarl. “That’s all?”
“Yes. That’s everything.”
“And what about tonight? What exactly did he say to you?”
I recount the stranger’s words, not leaving any part of it, and watch as Fort turns from murderous to downright bloodthirsty. He paces in front of me, damn near wearing a trench into the ground at his feet.
“The connection he has with you is obsessive,” Fort finally says. “Which makes him even more dangerous than I would have otherwise thought because it makes him unpredictable.”
“He was unpredictable before,” I remind him. “Because we didn’t know who he was.”
“But we knew what his goals were,” Fort corrects. “We knew that the prophecy said he would use you for the power you possess.”
“And that I would seek shelter with him, which I am not doing.”
Fort turns away from me. “What if it is me?”
“Fort—”
He whirls on me. “Seriously, Carleah. What if, somehow, I am this person?”
“Then why wouldn’t you remember talking to me?”
“I don’t fucking know! How is he reaching you in the first place?”
“Fort.” I cross over and press my hand to his chest. “We know it’s not you. The Elven Trial of Truth—”
“Could only tell us things I knew the answer to. But what if I don’t know? What if somehow, subconsciously, I am causing all of this? Think about it, it didn’t start until we spent the night together at William’s. And then again tonight—”
“We spent two nights together before William’s.”
He shakes his head.
“Fort. We slept for two nights on the road—”
“I didn’t sleep either of those nights,” he confesses. “I stayed awake, all night, because I knew how upset you were about leaving Bowman and it was tearing me up knowing I was part of the reason you left him behind. William’s was the first night I slept, and then you woke up from a nightmare. Tonight was the same thing.”
“But it could be some other reason. Maybe he only comes to me when you’re sleeping because he doesn’t want you to wake me.”
“And how would he know I’m sleeping?”
“How is he able to reach me?” I repeat his earlier question. “However he’s doing it, it’s not natural. So wouldn’t it make sense that he can determine when you’re asleep versus awake?”
