“Xena was left behind.”
Dread washes over me like a wave. “Oh Gods,” I whisper. I cup his face, gazing into his eyes, which are filled with sadness. “We will get her back, Silas. I promise.”
In an instant, his eyes darken, filled with a desperate rage. “Oh, I’m sure of that.”
I lean forward on the edge of the cot, sleep still heavy on my mind. “What happened?”
He brushes my hair away from my eyes, and his lips form a thin line. “You’ve been asleep for six days.”
Reality and my nightmares blur in my memories, and as hard as I push in my own mind, I can’t make sense of either.
“You don’t remember, do you?”
“You almost lost your arm.” I glance down at his sling. “I remember getting you on the ship.”
He nods, and sadness settles behind his eyes. “You saved me, but in return, I almost lost you.”
I lower my head, and at this moment, the world around us is calm and quiet. There are no storms, no danger, just us. Together. My heart aches, knowing these moments are limited. I stare at my hands, noting that the veins are still dark and haven’t faded as I had hoped. I glance up through my lashes to find him staring at me, a burning intensity in his bright eyes.
“Kalix,” I whisper. “It was all her.”
He nods, glancing at the black marks tattooed on my hands and up my wrists, the tips of my fingers nearly black.
The memories become clearer as they flood my mind, hitting me like blows to the face.
The ash.
The ruin.
“My nightmare… I waited for you. I couldn’t wake up.” A quiet sob leaves my throat. “It felt like weeks passed, and I never heard you call to me.”
I rub my throbbing head, the memories almost too much to bear.
“Silas, she was after me. Sheisafter me. She’s going to take over. I can feel her creeping closer each day.” Panic swirls, and bile rises in my throat. I start to squirm, as if I’m still coated in the gray ash that constantly falls from the sky in that realm.
Silas takes my hand. “Once Maines healed me, I came to—I ran to you. You wouldn’t wake up, but I could somehow feel you. I could hear your thoughts, as if your prayers were meant only for me.” He squeezes my hands, trying to stabilize me for what he’s about to say next. “I stayed here with you, desperately trying to wake you, calling to you.” He lowers his head. “I couldn’t eat or sleep for days, until my body could no longer handle it.” Silas’s hands tremble slightly against mine, squeezing harder. “I drifted somewhere when I slept, closer to you. It was similar to the dreams I had before I met you. I let myself go, and that’s when I found you.”
Bits and pieces come back to me.
Silas’s panicked face as he ran in my direction. The ruin—the darkness—but it’s blurred, like my memories of the nightmare fade with every second I’m awake. I glance up at his face. His dark hair falls in all directions, and his piercing green eyes stand out against the purple under them. Even in this moment, his ineffable beauty is hard to ignore.
“It doesn’t make sense,” I say, squeezing his hands just as tightly as he’s squeezing mine. “I don’t think it was a dream, Silas.”
I shuffle my legs under the warm blankets, and a zap of pain jolts through me.
“Ouch,” I hiss.
Silas jerks his attention to my legs, slowly pulling away the thick fabric that covers them. Nearly healed scratches run down both of my legs, coating them with blood—now dark brown instead of red—as if days have passed.
“I don’t think it was a dream either, Briar.”
I notice his chest heaving as he covers me once more, his concerned eyes gazing into mine. He dives into his own thoughts, and I can only imagine what is swirling through his mind at this moment. He’s trying to process everything, just as I am, but I wish he would talk to me.
He whispers, “You need to rest.”
I jerk my gaze to meet his. “Rest? No, you need to tell me what’s going on.”
He sighs. “I don’t remember much, either. It’s like it happened years ago, and the time that passed is messing with my memory.”
