“Who is it?” he called softly
“Skye,” came the whispered reply.
Noah opened the door to find her standing in the dimly lit hallway, no longer in her elegant gown from earlier, but dressed in the practical leathers she’d worn when they first met. In contrast, her hair fell in soft waves past her shoulders as if she’d dressed hurriedly.
The torchlight cast half her face in shadow, the other half in flickering gold. Despite himself, his breath caught at the sight of her.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, immediately concerned.
“Nothing,” she replied, glancing down the empty corridor. “I wanted to share something with you. Something special to me.” She shrugged and gave him a soft smile. “Sort of an apology for earlier.”
There was an undercurrent to her voice. Excitement, perhaps? Or was this another of her rebellions?
“Now?”
She nodded. “Now is the only time. When the fortress sleeps.”
Curiosity outweighed caution. Noah quickly pulled on his boots and joined her in the passageway, closing the door silently behind him.
“Where’s your guard?” he whispered. “And for that matter, where’s mine?”
“Keir?” she smiled, a flash of mischief in her eyes. “Even he must sleep sometime. And I’ve an ally who likes to indulge in games of chance when no one is aware and was only too happy to lure your guard away to join him.”
They moved through shadow-filled passages, avoiding the main corridors. Skye occasionally pressed a finger to her lips when voices drifted near, guiding him with the confidence of someone who had mapped every inch of the fortress.
Suddenly, as they turned a corner, she pulled him into an alcove and pressed her body tight against his in the darkness as three guards passed. He could feel her warm breath on his neck and smell the sweet scent of something flowery in her hair. He barely breathed, fighting to keep his hands at his sides and his mouth from finding hers in the dark.
“It’s safe now,” she finally murmured, pulling him back into the corridor. Another curve, another corridor, and she finally stopped before a heavy tapestry. Ducking behind it, she tugged Noah with her, pulled out a key and slid it into the lock of a small door.
“What’s this?” Noah asked.
“A discovery from my childhood,” Skye murmured as the lock turned with barely a sound. “As far as I know, this place has long been forgotten. I found it when I was twelve. It’s been my secret sanctuary ever since. No one knows of it that I’m aware of or bothers to come here if they do. Not even my father.”
The pride in her voice, the simple joy of having something that was hers alone, pierced Noah’s heart. How lonely must she have been to treasure a hidden staircase? Was she still? Or did Austin now fill that void?
Beyond the door, a narrow spiral of steps wound upward into darkness. Skye took his hand, her fingers cool and certain against his, and led him up the time-worn stones. The only sound beyond their labored breaths was the soft scuff of their footsteps on the stairs.
“I come here when I need to think,” she said softly as they climbed. “When I need to remember there’s a world beyond these walls. When I need to breathe,” she added softly.
The staircase seemed endless, winding ever upward before abruptly opening onto a bartizan. Hands still clasped, they walked together to the farthest edge of the overhanging turret.
Beneath them, the fortress sprawled like a sleeping beast, torches marking its boundaries in pinpricks of golden light that wavered and danced in the darkness. Beyond, mountains rose in jagged silhouette, vast and ancient and seemingly indifferent to human concerns, their peaks outlined by the light of a crescent moon.
“It’s beautiful,” he whispered, afraid that speaking too loudly might shatter the perfect stillness of the moment. His breath emerged as fog in the cold air, curling away on the breeze.
“Yes.” Skye turned her face to the stars and sighed, resting her hands on the stone parapet worn smooth by centuries of wind and rain. “This is where I feel most free. I used to stand at this outermost edge and pretend to be suspended in the night sky, part of that vast, glittering universe,” she confided. “A child’s fantasy, but it somehow helps me feel closer to whatever is out there.”
She turned to him, a look of desperate yearning on her face. “Whatisout there, Noah?”
“Worlds. Lifetimes,” he stated. “Through time, there are more than we can comprehend. And of course, all the people who occupy those lifetimes.”
He gazed at her lovely face, regretting the need to destroy this moment of closeness. He wished, just for a moment, he wasn’t a brother or a protector on a desperate mission and could simply be a man standing beneath the stars with a beautiful woman who stirred something inside him.
But hewasa brother. And Emily’s protector. And that had to come before his own desires. He took a breath and plunged forward. “Which is why I’m desperate to get Emily to one of those worlds, where there are people with the ability to save her.”
Skye shook her head, closed her eyes in obvious disappointment, and turned away.
“Tell me you wouldn’t do all you could to save your sibling if our roles were reversed. If there was a chance,” he pressed.
