He pulls me against him, burying his face in my hair and inhaling. All I can think is I must smell of sweat and the kitchens, but he seems to like it. His warmth is incredible. One wing covering us is more than enough to lull me into an exhausted, happy sleep.
“NO! NO! NO!”
I jerk awake, and for a moment, I don’t know where I am, other than back in Lord Guyzance’s castle, and instantly I throw myself away from the sound.
The moon, whilst still not full, is bright outside, and as my eyes adjust, I see Linton, halfway up the wall, plastered in a corner, his eyes wide, staring, and unseeing.
“Don’t…” he breathes in the most terrible of frightened voices. “Don’t take…”
He is quite clearly in the grip of a night terror, and knowing how he claims not to sleep, I have to wonder if this is why.
“Linton,” I say quietly, well aware of the fact his claws are buried in the wall behind him, and the last thing I want is to be on the receiving end of them.
“I can’t…” he rasps.
“Linton.” I say his name a little louder.
His eyes do not blink. They stare into the abyss of whatever nightmare has him. His jaw is tight and his teeth bared. His entire body is taut.
“Bluecap,” I say finally, with some force behind it.
Linton blinks. He licks his lips and his head moves. It seems he’s back in the room.
“My Kaitlyn?” he says, voice hoarse.
“You were dreaming, Linton,” I say, holding out my hand to him.
“I was?” He stares around the room before finally looking down onto the bed and seeing he is above it. “I don’t sleep,” he adds with a yawn.
“Technically, I don’t think you were sleeping.” I kneel on the bed as he slides down the wall and slumps in a heap. “You were having a nightmare.”
Linton shudders, his handsome face taking on a pallor I don’t like very much.
“The Night Lands,” he says starkly. “The Shadow Keep.”
“I thought the Shadow Keep was run by Warden?”
“Warden has made it his mission to find those who were responsible for the atrocities in the Night Lands and bring them to justice,” Linton says, seemingly exhausted. “But before him, the Reivers ran the Shadow Keep, and they took us.”
“You were a prisoner?”
He nods. I wait. I want him to tell me, if he wants to. All of this is on Linton. As much as I want to help, I know more than anyone how important it is to make the admission when you want to, not when you’re forced to.
Linton sucks in a shuddering breath and reaches for my hand. I scramble over to him, placing it in his and letting him draw me closer to him, one arm around my body and the other on his raised knee. His wings shiver silently.
I put my arms around him and rest my head on his chest where his heart pounds. He might be awake, but what he saw in his dreams still haunts him.
“I was a prisoner, like so many sent to the Night Lands to fight and I was told others would die if I did not do as the Faerie ordered,” he says. “So I killed who I was told to kill until the day the Reivers managed to capture me.” He growls. “Then I was placed in the Shadow Keep and tortured as they tried to find out who had sent me and what the battle plans were.”
He shudders.
“I had nothing to tell. None of us did. We were sent where we were sent. But the Reivers wouldn’t accept it and…”
I snuggle harder into him, gazing up at his face.
“But you’re here, now…”
“Because of Warden. He freed me and the Barghest.” Linton’s voice becomes a rasping growl once more. “I should have escaped myself.”
