Her eyes widen. “Rominy? Here?”
Cerian nods.
“No. You saw him here? In our heartlanding? Is that possible?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why would seeing Rominy make you panic like this? He’s the least frightening person I know.” Her voice holds no judgment, only confusion.
“It wasn’t his presence. It was the expression on his face.”
Arisanna’s own brows knit. “I don’t understand. What exactly did you see?”
Cerian breathes out slowly as his panic ebbs. He might as well tell her. “The train was stopped in Levina. At least...I believe it was Levina. And Rominy was on the platform.”
Cerian takes a moment to gather his thoughts before continuing, and she doesn’t rush him.
“He looked almost frantic. Like...like something was wrong. And he called out to me, but I couldn’t hear him, and—”
“Cerian. Cerian, it’s all right.” She trails the back of her hand down his cheek.
“I heard Elowyn’s voice. She was in pain. She called my name. Said to tell Tharios.”
“Take a deep breath,” Arisanna says softly.
He inhales slowly, trying to find that calm she exudes so well.
“Doyou think perhaps it was a dream?” she asks as she brushes his hair away from his face. Her touch is soothing, and he rests his forehead against hers.
“It didn’t feel like a dream. It felt as real as this does.”
She’ll probably argue. Tell him all the reasons it couldn’t have been more than a dream. Or a nightmare. A figment of his imagination.
He waits for it, but she doesn’t say any of those things.
“You should speak to Tharios tomorrow,” she says instead, and her calm acceptance makes him want to crush her to his chest.
But he doesn’t. Not with his magic simmering so near the surface.
And she’s probably right, though talking to Tharios isn’t high on his list of things he wants to do. But if there’s a chance Elowyn is in trouble...
Can he even communicate what he saw to anyone else? If it was the heartlanding, he won’t be able to talk about it with anyone but Arisanna.
“For now, though,” Arisanna continues, interrupting his thoughts, “how is your fire magic?”
“A little hot,” he admits as memories of last night flood him again. Her lips on his. Their bodies pressed together.
“So I shouldn’t touch your ears? It seemed to soothe you last night.”
His palms warm at the thought of her hands on him again. Her gentle caresses either fanned his fire or made him forget every care he had in the world, sending him to the most blissful sleep imaginable, depending on how she touched him.
He’s so tightly wound right now, though. His thoughts of Arisanna war with his worry about his sister and the lingering panic over what just happened.
Perhaps it was a dream, but it felt real. He can still hear Elowyn’s voice echoing in his head.
“Cerian?” Arisanna draws him back to the present. Her breath is warm against his face, and he buries his fingers in her hair.
“I’m sorry. What was the question?”
