“No, no.” She pivoted back to him, appearing far too pale. “No time. I have to go.”
“Where?”
“Outside.”
“Leya.” He stepped in her path. “It’s a deluge out there and could turn into freezing rain. It’s dangerous—”
“Then you stay here.” She sidestepped him and sprinted around the circular gallery, her footsteps echoing in the quiet place.
“Dammit!” He went after her as she ran down the stairs and grasped her around the waist, stopping her. “What is it?”
“I don’t know. There’s this pull within me, just like when I had that dream at my apartment, to get moving. I don’t know what it means, but I have to follow it. God! I’m trying!” she groaned. “I don’t know where to start.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Not talking to you. To the voice in my head.” She jabbed a finger to her temple, then ran down the stairs.
Shit.He leaped for her, grasped her hand, and flashed them outside.
They stood on the terrace, the rain splattering down on the paving in a rustling cacophony. Leya shut her eyes.
He immediately cast a shield over her, protecting her from the rain. Her eyelids flickered open, and she started walking, her boots splashing through the rain puddles. Then she cut past the shrubs and sprinted through the shrubs and trees, away from the castle grounds…
“Leya, where are you going?”
“I don’t know…that way.” She pointed to the forested side of Cidéra.
He pulled her close and dematerialized them, reforming again past the forest. She hurried toward the dangerous bluff. He grasped her icy hand before she tripped over the edge to the crashing sea far below. He sent a flow of warmth through her, to ease her chill, and waited.
There was nothing here, just the endless sea in front of them.
She remained silent, staring at the turbulent waters as if detached from everything.
He let his gaze trace the gentle lines of her beautiful face, pale beneath her pretty golden-brown skin, her mouth almost as colorless, and tight. The stars knew he’d lay down his life for her, die for her. She had no idea what she meant to him, and now she’d given him that spark of hope, the first he’d had in the two long years since his parents went missing.
Weed?He wanted to smash his fists in the faces of those bastards who made her feel so insignificant.
Thiorr and Drav’n took form at his side.
“Take me there.” She flung a hand to the misty, undulating gray sea. “I need to feel…”
His enforcers frowned.
“She had a vision of my sire,” he told them, drawing her closer, her warm body pressing into his. He propelled them up into the sky—even without wings, he could move through air—and coasted over the swelling ocean.
She wrapped one arm around his neck, the other clenching the front of his tunic. “No, remove the rain shield from us. I need to feel.”
He dropped the protection, the deluge soaking them within seconds. He coasted further over the vast, misty, and choppy ocean. No sign of land anywhere.
“Something’s here.” She grabbed his shirt front with one hand, her gaze pinned on the turbulent waters.
Aerén quickly scanned the heaving swells around them but couldn’t determine whatever it was she sensed. He glided lower—
A blast knocked him forward. Pain shredded his back, followed by a stab in his thigh, and he faltered midair. Leya slipped from his arms.
“Leya!”
She toppled straight for the treacherous ocean, her scream swallowed by the raucous torrent.
