She touched his wrist in thanks before they walked through camp, visiting with their people and sharing in the cold meal. It wouldn’t be long before nightfall when they could find their beds.
CHAPTER TWO
Nightmares chased Shea through her dreams. Great beasts she’d never seen before stalked her through a barren and twisted landscape, while a voice called out to her, by turns filling her head with screams or mad laughter.
She jerked awake with a start, the gossamer thin cobwebs of a dream about a shadow beast trying to eat her soul clinging to her.
Fallon was alert, his eyes on hers. She’d woken him.
“I’m fine,” she said. “Just a nightmare.”
He lifted himself on one arm. “You seem to be having a lot of those lately.”
He was right. Ever since they’d reached the Highlands, her sleep had been broken by dark dreams that were getting progressively worse. They left her with a sneaking sense of impending doom that grew closer every morning. It was no wonder she was tired and slow during practices, when she rarely slept a full night anymore.
“It’s nothing to worry about. Go back to bed,” she said, already sliding out of her blankets.
He didn’t listen, remaining on one arm as he watched her through shadowed eyes.
She gave a small huff of laughter and leaned forward, brushing his cheek with her thumb as she laid a quick kiss on his lips. “One of us should be alert tomorrow in case these pathfinders try to pull anything.”
The skin under her fingers crinkled, his lips drawing up in a smile. “If you get too tired, you can always ride with me.”
She gasped in mock outrage. “What would your people say?”
He bit her lip. “You know I don’t care about what others might think or say.”
She pressed hard on his chest, forcing him to lie down. “I do know. Seriously, though, I’m fine. I’m just going to watch the stars for a bit. No reason for you to miss out on good sleep.”
He sighed. The muscles under her hand relaxed, letting her know she’d won the argument.
Her lips tilted up as her smile widened in victory. “Dream some good things for me.”
She stood and stepped lightly, careful with where she placed her feet. She didn’t want to wake the entire camp. It was bad enough she’d woken Fallon.
The moon was up, half full, but still bright enough to make finding her way relatively easy. She didn’t go far, just to the boulder Trenton had leaned against that afternoon. Going any further from the safety of camp would be foolish and expose her to unnecessary risk. With man-eating beasts filling the Highlands to the brim, heading off alone just wasn’t sensible. Shea was nothing if not sensible. Well, for the most part. There were times she flirted with foolhardy and occasionally she descended to outright recklessness, but mostly she tried to keep her head on straight and not take stupid risks. She could just imagine what people would say if she wandered off and got lost or eaten by a beast.
She scrambled to the top of the boulder, feeling for handholds by touch rather than relying on sight. Reaching the top, she settled onto it, leaning back on her hands and looking up at the night sky, content with watching the millions of pinpricks of light high above her. Way out here, away from any light cast by a stray campfire, the view didn’t disappoint.
Down the middle of the sky, thousands of stars bunched, in places appearing almost purple and blue, a smattering of glittering dust. Among them were an infinite number of stars creating a streak of white light, one so dense that a fanciful mother had once told her a god had spilled milk up there and that was why there were so many.
The dead of night and its accompanying dark didn’t hold the same fear for her as it did for others. She saw the beauty all around her, from a blue-black sky with its blanket of glitter, to the way the world seemed brushed with shadows that enhanced its splendor.
There was a sense of movement below her. Shea tensed, reaching for the blade she’d had the foresight to stick in her boot. A shadowy head popped over the edge of the boulder.
“I thought I might find you up here,” her father said.
Shea released the knife. Her father was dangerous to her, but not in a way that a knife could protect her from. She thought about jumping off the rock and heading back to her fitful sleep, but such an action would betray her unease.
Fallon’s words from earlier came back to her. With a sigh, she relaxed and sat back as her father ascended the boulder to take a seat beside her. Settled, he dusted off his hands and joined her in watching the night sky. For several minutes neither one of them spoke.
“You know, your mother is the one who first got me to look up. Before that, I was too focused on the ground in front of me to bother with the wonders all around,” he said. “All that time spent fixated on my immediate problems, and I never stopped to enjoy the simple things.”
Shea grunted, not bothering to respond as she watched a cloud flit across the sky, veiling the light behind it.
“You get that from her, you know,” he continued in a conversational voice, her silence not bothering him in the slightest. “That woman could freeze a fire during summer when she was mad enough.”
“You assume I’m angry,” Shea said idly. She lowered herself until she was lying on her back, hands clasped over her stomach as she stared up at the night sky. “I understand why you took the stance you did.”
