Harthon.
My feet hit the freezing stone floor and I was spun in a dizzying rush. A big hand shifted to my back, locking me against his tense body.
“Answer me, Etarla. What were youthinking?” he demanded, his free hand tangling in my hair and pulling my head back. His hair hung loose around his face, and his eyes—they werewild, tracking across my face in panicked sweeps as if making sure I was here before him.
“I-I don’t know,” I stammered, overwhelmed by him and the dream and the fact that I’d almost shoved myself off that sill.
His brows knitted together as his fingers tightened, firming their grip in my hair but not hurting. “You almost flung yourself off that ledge. That’s a ten story drop, Etarla. You would have been dead on impact.”
Realization settled like rocks in my stomach. “I was dreaming. I was following the light. I didn’t know what…what I was doing.”
I became aware of my hands resting on the muscled planes of his chest—his verybare,solid chest, dusted with dark hair and speckled with scars—as some of the panic sharpening his features began to fade.
“What light?”
“It was a ball of light, and it was moving. I had to follow it. I didn’t know I was actually…moving.” Moving to the tower, the same one I’d come to again and again.
Harthon released my strands, his palm sliding down to encircle mynape. I twisted my neck to stare at the window I’d almost launched myself from.
It was the south-facing window.
Harthon followed my gaze. “Ana tells me you’ve been coming to this tower every day. Is that the same window as always?”
I turned back to him, my limbs beginning to tremble. I’d almostdied.
Remembering his question, I gave him a stuttered nod.
“Have you ever been compelled to continue out of it?”
“No. The feeling always stops when I take in the view. But I didn’t even know I was at the window.” I gulped, my knees becoming unsteady. “I can’t believe I almost walked myself out of the tower.”
With all the violent fights I’d participated in, dying in this way would have been a twisted kind of irony.
My hands began to shake, and Harthon pulled me flush against him. I melted into the grounding embrace, letting my head rest on his chest. Were it any other time, I would have been timid about lying against him, never mind his bare skin. It was something I’d never done before. But Harthon’s arms were the comfort I needed, his familiar scent and strength signaling safety, and just for a moment, I needed it on a basic level.
“When I saw you there, ready to push off, I thought…fuck, Etarla, never do that again.”
“I’ll try not to. It wasn’t intentional,” I breathed, slowly coming to earth as his hand swept across my back.
“Tomorrow, we’re taking horses and traveling in that direction to see if anything happens. Something is clearly telling you to go that way,” he decided, and I nodded against him.
As deeply disturbing as it was that I’d nearly flung myself to my death, I couldn’t help but feel somewhat grateful for the dream. It was the first time in the past week that I’d felt something beyond theurge to simply stare at the hills and valley in the distance.
It was progress.
Mildly terrifying progress.
“What time is it?”
“An hour or two past midnight.” His response was a vibration against my cheek.
“How did you know I was walking here?” It wasn’t as if my room was guarded.
“You’re the noisiest sleepwalker I’ve ever heard,” he said, and I pulled back to give him a half-hearted glare. He flashed a grin before turning serious. “I woke up when you left your room and tracked you up here. By the time I got to the top of the stairs, you were at the edge of the window.”
So that was why he was without a tunic. I shuddered, unable to stop myself from imagining what would have happened had Harthon been a second later. “Thank you for pulling me back. It’s time I start saving your life, because I’m in a rather dreadful amount of debt to you.”
His hands slid to my waist, and the roiling in my belly was replaced with the same flutter I’d felt when he’d woken me from my nightmare in the woods. When he’d kissed me. “You saved my face from the wolf. You’re already working your way out of that debt.”
