Then, with a twist of his wrist, he released me.
I staggered, gasping, opening and shutting my jaw to ease the dull, lingering ache of his grip.
Malik began circling me again, moving in and out of focus, blurring, shifting, appearing, disappearing.
I pivoted, trying to track him and brace myself against his unnatural force.
I loathed his nearness.
I longed to be closer.
I hated how he made me feel.
He stopped, his presence looming behind me.
“My servants will draw a bath for you,” he said as if nothing had happened. “You will find fresh clothes in your armoire.” A pause. Then, “Afterward, you shall be escorted to the dining room, where a meal is prepared.”
I lifted my chin, pushing back against the heat of his presence. “And if I don’t care to dine with you?”
I knew I was playing with fire.
His voice curled around me, soft andabsolute.
“You’ll be there.”
Then, he was gone.
Vanished.
I staggered back against the door, my knees buckling.
I slid to the ground, breathless, shaken, burning with something I couldn’t name.
Because somehow, in a way that made no sense?—
I knew him.
There was something about him, a familiarity I couldn’t place or grasp, from where or when I didn’t know.
And I had to find out.
Before it was too late.
Before I wound up dead—by his hand… or by Balthazar’s.
Chapter 5
Roman
Idreaded what my dreams would reveal each time I closed my eyes. Night after night, I wandered through vivid landscapes steeped in turmoil, waking drenched in sweat, my sheets twisted around my limbs, my heart pounding against my ribs. I’d sit upright, wiping the dampness from my face, replaying the nightmare in my mind, sifting through its fragments for meaning.
But tonight was different.
Tonight, I dreamed of Malik—a stranger I had never met, yet somehow, I knew him. I saw how he had saved me from Balthazar, carrying me through time to Olivia’s era. How I had lain dying on the battlefield, a Kiowa warrior’s blade buried deep in my side, and he had lifted me as if I weighed nothing, transporting me here to be healed.
And then, the dream shifted.
We hunted together, our bodies pressed against the earth, bows drawn, arrows poised.
