She was no longer alone in the room. For where she had awakened alone, another now lay in the bed.
Norah’s first instinct was to run. But after carefully drawing closer, she realized that it was Phillip who lay there. Relief allowed her to breathe more easily until she noticed just how still he was. In fact, he wasn’t moving at all.
Norah hurried to his side. His eyes were open, so she shook his shoulder.
“Phillip, what is going on? Where are we?”
She didn’t, of course, expect him to answer. Not audibly, at least. But when she paused to wait for his usual kind of reply, he gave her…
Nothing.
Not a shudder or a gaze or a wink. He barely moved his eyes to glance at her. And after doing it once, he returned to staringup at the canopy that covered the bed. Then he didn’t look at her again.
A cold, paralyzing fear began to creep through Norah’s veins as she looked again at the rest of him. His hands lay at his sides, where not even a single finger moved. His familiar eyes, always so warm in their familiarity, remained on the canopy, hard and empty in their stare.
“Phillip?” Norah asked again, shaking him slightly. “Phillip, this isn’t funny! Phillip, look at me!” Her voice shook, and her eyes filled with tears, but not once did his eyes flicker toward hers. And Lady Freya’s words came back to her yet again.
My greatest fear is that one day we’ll wake up and find him trapped inside himself, with no way to understand or be understood.
It had happened. Lady Freya’s worst fear had come true. And now, Norah was watching their hopes and dreams go up in smoke. Hopes and dreams that she hadn’t realized had also become hers…
Until now.
He would never talk in circles about obscure topics the way Sir Oliver said he had so liked to do. His powerful arms would never cradle a child. He wouldn’t give his captains or his general instructions, nor would he address his people as their king.
She would never hear him say, “I love you.”
Silence thundering in her ears, Norah bolted upright, her nightdress drenched in sweat. Her breath came in and out too fast as she looked around her, but she nearly started crying again, this time with relief, when she recognized the green walls of her borrowed room.
It had been a dream.
Just a dream.
But,a voice inside her whispered,a dream that could easily come true.
Still breathing too hard, Norah looked out the nearestwindow to see what time it was. The stars were still out, but the sky was showing just the slightest hint of gray.
Unable to remain where she was, Norah climbed out of bed, nearly stumbling twice when her knees gave out. But she eventually made it to the wardrobe, where she grabbed the simplest dress inside and threw it on, not caring how her hair looked or that she was barefoot. Then she threw open her door and hurried out into the hall.
Phillip awoke early as a habit, and he nearly always started his day with exercises in the garden. And though she’d never joined him this early, she sprinted toward the garden now, praying the whole way that he would be there.
She had to see him and touch him. She needed to know that his warm brown eyes could still rest on her once more.
Phillip was indeed out in the garden, and he had turned to greet her when she threw herself against him, trembling as she clung to his waist.
He pulled back to look at her, worry in his eyes as he studied her.
“I had a dream,” she sobbed, pressing herself against him again. “I lost you, Phillip. You were gone!” Even now, as she clung to him, she could barely believe that he was still here, and that her awful nightmare hadn’t been real.
So it nearly broke her heart when he peeled her off of him once more. Not that he shouldn’t. She was acting like a madwoman with little propriety and even less sense. But her anguish ceased and wonder took its place when he cupped her face in his hand and then slowly, carefully leaned down to press his lips against hers.
Warm and strong, Phillip’s kiss said everything Norah had always wished to hear. And as if hearing her thoughts, he pulled her closer still, one hand on the small of her back as the other gently held her face.
Norah continued to tremble, but the longer he held her there, the more her trembling moved from fear to wonder.
“Phillip! Norah!”
Frustration welled up within Norah as Phillip sighed and let go of her, and they turned to face his sister. Was Lady Freya angry? Had they broken some sort of rule? If she ever wanted them to fall in love–
