My brother’s gaze sharpened in quiet curiosity when I said, “Before we go…I need to do something first.”
6
Nelle
Ihad the sensation of floating, of being comforted by fluffy clouds, the crisp scent of a forest after a gentle soaking of rain washing down my lungs. Waking, I pried apart gritty eyes to peer at a soft glowing light glancing over glossy curves and twists of ebony wood and a high ceiling I didn’t recognize.
My hands skimmed silk and soft cotton.
This wasn’t my room.
It took a long-confused moment for muddled sleep to fall away and my mind to fully awaken.
The Crowthers…
Flashes of memory barreled through me. Wyrmfire and screaming, sinister threats delivered in candlelit rooms, my father’s voice roaring.
My hand went to my throat first. My fingers encountered the collar’s coarse fibers.
Oh my gods.
Violent terror swelled inside my chest, thick and suffocating, stealing my breath as hot tears threatened to spill.
Breathe…Breathe.
I swiped aside the last memory spinning through my mind. I refused to think about the man with dark, guilty eyes, his hands shaking so badly he couldn’t put the magical collar around my neck—so I had done it for him.
Stupid, stupid, stupid me!
I huffed quick, quiet breaths through my nose, shoving back the panic at finding myself trapped behind stone walls. There was no room for panic right now. I wouldn’t be able to find a way out of this prison if I were crippled by fright and heartache.
My gaze slid sideways.
A chrome lamp with a long neck curved high above a woman curled up on the couch, a book splayed open on her lap. It was the same woman who had come into the family room to announce that my father had arrived on the Crowther’s estate.
My tongue felt thick and heavy in a mouth that was parched.
Penn glanced over. Her fingers stilled, caught halfway in the motion of turning a page.
I sat up, my body aching and the movement lethargic. Cashmere blankets and silk sheets fell to my waist. Underneath it all, I sat on a nest of fluffy towels, utterly naked.
The other woman quickly averted her gaze, and a flush of color crept up her neck to stain her cheeks pink, but I was beyond feeling embarrassed about someone seeing me unclothed. I’d battled the Crowthers in nothing but a godsdamned fire-scorched t-shirt.
Squirming about, I re-adjusted myself to steal a towel and wrapped it around my body. I frowned, pushing a tangle of fuzzy hair off my forehead, trying to remember the last thing before sleep had claimed me.
I had been showering.
Someone, no doubt Graysen, had found me slumbering on the bathroom floor and had carried me to his bed to allow me to rest. But for how long?
There was no concept of time passing in his room with its windowless walls. Had it been only a few hours since I had fallen asleep in the shower? A few minutes? A full day?
“What time is it?” I rasped, wincing at the soreness in my throat. It felt as if I’d been screaming myself hoarse, or I was coming down with a rare cold.
Penn peeked, saw I was presentable, and placed the book on the couch beside her. Untucking her legs, she smoothed out the long skirt of her servant’s uniform that reached a little higher than her ankles. “It’s mid-morning.” Her voice was soft, pleasant even.
She had dark brown hair swept back in a tidy bun. A few loose tendrils framed a delicate face with fine-boned features. Her wrists, poking out beneath the white sleeve cuffs of her uniform, seemed fragile, too. Good. Because I was sizing her up. Seated, I wasn’t sure exactly how tall she was, but she looked like she might be only a few inches taller than myself. I was tiny at five-foot-nothing, but I’d make every inch count.
Raising a hand, I scrubbed the sleep from my eyes before glancing about the room.
