Her strong legs that could walk for days without tiring.
Her muscular arms that could wield a heavy sword like it was a feather and throw a spear as far as an arrow released from a bow. Every single trace of the woman, whom I’ve fought with side by side, whom I’ve grown to admire so much that it has triggered our mating fever despite our best efforts to prevent it…
Every trace of her is gone in days as I lie there, motionless, watching her being taken from this world—from me—wisp by wisp.
Suddenly, instead of the Valeni’s black braid, it’s a thick mane of dark-brown locks that spreads over my chest like a silky shroud. Instead of the brown eyes dissolving into shadows, it’s a pair of multi-colored hazel ones looking at me.
“I need to see you,” a feminine voice says.
It’s not the deep, powerful voice of Valeni, but the soft, higher voice of another woman.
Elaine.
She isn’t Valeni. She doesn’t wield weapons or march tirelessly across the desert for days. She doesn’t kill and probably wouldn’t be able to fight off even a cat. There is sweetness in her that’s worth more than the gold I’d paid to own her. She’s worth much more than this world would ever know.
When I think about Elaine, my pain recedes, replaced by worry. Fear shakes me. I ache to protect this woman, but I fear that I may not be strong enough.
I’m no longer a fae.
I’m no longer alive.
I’m a shadow, enclosed into bone.
I am a spirit, clinging to life only because death won’t have me.
There is no salvation for the likes of me.
“Timur!” The voice sliced across my mind.
I woke up instantly, relieved to be ripped out from the same recurring nightmare, then stilled. Afraid to move a muscle, I strained my body to keep it absolutely, perfectly motionless. Shifting my feet too sharply would plunge me into burning, mind-blinding agony.
“Elaine?” I ventured a single breath, releasing it with her name.
A tapping noise filtered through my awareness, then the sloshing of footsteps as she moved closer, the pale outline of her dress emerging from the semi-darkness.
“I’m here,” she said. “Water is coming in?—”
“Water?”
A Big Wave? Again?
Elaine couldn’t breathe under water. She’d drown. Alarm pierced through me like an arrow. In one movement, I grabbed her with my arm around her waist and hauled her onto my lap. I shoved the door open and steered my chair out of the hut.
She shoved against my chest. “Timur! What are you doing? What’s going on?”
Torrential rain crashed down on us the moment we left the safety of the roof, but the ocean remained where it was supposed to be. The pale lace of the surf edged the beach in a safe distance from the hut.
“It’s just rain,” I exhaled in relief.
“Exactly. Isn’t it a good thing? Free water.”
I ran a hand over my wet hair, then took my cloak from the armrest and pulled it on.
“What did you think it was? Why did you freak out?” Elaine asked.
“A Big Wave comes ashore in Ashgate every few decades,” I explained. “It sweeps away the shacks and even floods the lower rows of caves, I’ve heard.”
It didn’t happen very often. With any luck, hopefully, we’d be out of here before it happened again.
