Then I explain Lowery’s last words to his daughter.
Bram sighs. “Bloody hell, Goldcroft Manor—and thus Merlin’s texts—are probably ash. Mathias and the Anarki either burned them all when they attacked…or took them.”
Not what I want to hear. “When the sun rises, I’ll search the Lowery estate again. There must be clues we’re missing.”
And I can’t keep Tabitha alive if I can’t solve this mystery—fast.
Chapter
Four
Tabitha
* * *
Dark dreams of screaming, destruction, and death shatter my sleep. Trying to shake off the visions, I sit up in an unfamiliar bed, panting and disoriented, with pale dawn light streaming through the windows. Terror rising, I twist around, scanning the room to figure out where I am.
Beside me, Raiden stirs and wraps his arms around me. His hauntingly blue eyes search mine, intent, concerned. “Tabby?”
Suddenly, everything crashes in on me. My worst torment isn’t a terrible dream. My family truly is gone.
Guilt and grief craters in on me. I turn my face away, not wanting to show the wizard who broke my heart the tears I can’t seem to stop.
As I silently sob, he caresses my long, loose hair gently. “Cry if you need to. Let it out.”
I shove my tresses back self-consciously. My mother, raised in another time, always preached that wearing my hair down was a sign of wantonness. In the past, I let my hair down for Raiden, showing him every facet of my inner temptress. He didn’t want me for more than energy and pleasure, so I shouldn’t read too much into his current concern, beyond compassion or care for the vessel carrying his youngling.
“I’ll be fine.” I try to pull away.
Raiden holds firm. “I should have a healer check you and the youngling. You’ve been distraught, and such emotions aren’t good for an expectant mother.”
I drag in shuddering breaths and will myself to calm down. “Don’t bother. There’s nothing wrong.”
His thumb caresses my cheek before his fingers curl around my nape. His touch makes me shiver. Suddenly, I’m bombarded by thousands of intimate memories—and foolishly wanting a thousand more.
“Have you been feeling well? Is the pregnancy normal? Any problems?”
I’ve never heard Raiden’s voice so gentle, and I hate acknowledging how deeply it tugs at my heart. “No problems.”
That isn’t totally true, but he doesn’t need details.
“Tabby, until?—”
“Don’t call me that anymore.” He whispered that name when he held me, kissed me, made love to me. He called me Tabitha when he walked away from me. Once he did that, he lost the right to speak any sort of endearment to me.
He sidesteps my anger. “I heard that you experienced sickness early on. That you nearly miscarried.”
I gasp. How could he possibly know that?
“You never told me.” He actually looks hurt by that fact.
I toss off the covers and leap to my feet, horrified to discover that he’s stripped me down to my bra and knickers. Spearing him with an accusing stare, I grab the top blanket, wrap it around me, and shove my hair behind me again. “You no longer have the right to look at me this way, to touch me so familiarly, to pretend you care about the baby. You made yourself very clear when you said you wanted nothing to do with mating and fatherhood.”
“Because I’m no good for you.” He withdraws. “I’m not cut out for mating. My association with the Doomsday Brethren is too dangerous. And I’m not capable of the devotion you sought. I’d rather see you happily settled and safe.”
“And allowing my parents to pawn me off on Sean Blackbourne made your life much easier, didn’t it? In days, he and I were to exchange the words that allowed you to go, guilt free, back to your warring and whoring.”
Something cold hardens his face. “Exactly.”
