The dream.
Vane.
The demise of so many Miseans in one fell swoop by thatmonster…
Turning away sharply, she ran, ignoring Cion’s shouts behind her. Her lungs burned and her legs felt limp from the training the day before, but she ignored the pain. She ignored everything, letting the rush of the air past her ears sweep away any thought that tried to overwhelm her.
She didn’t stop when she reached the edge of camp, skirting the dragon field and sprinting towards the creek where she had bathed several nights before. Sloshing into the water, she collapsed in the middle of it and hung her head. Her entire body convulsed as a sob tore its way up her throat. For the first time in over a decade, she wept. The necessary layer of ice around her heart broke apart under the pressure of it all, her howling cries an outlet for the pain ravaging everything that made her.
She did not stop weeping when she heard someone in the brush behind the creek, unable to bring herself to care what happened or who saw her. Only when she heard the splash of someone stepping into the creek did she finally raise her head.
Vane stood a few paces away from her. His hair was pulled back with a dagger, his jaw tense. She resisted the urge to leap at him and demand answers. Instead, she merely rasped, “Did you hear the news of ourvictory?”
He nodded once but said, “You care for them. Your people.”
She looked down at her hands, the pale of her palms red now in the icy cold water. “It doesn’t matter if I care or not. I’m betraying them.”
“You’re surviving, Soren.”
Shaking her head, she whispered, “Don’t say my name like you know me. We barely do, and I…” She took a sharp breath. “I know you hide things too.”
She waited, expecting him to become defensive or to threaten her. Instead, he sat down next to her in the water. The tips of his cheeks and nose were tinged pink from the cold, and she hated she found that endearing.
“No more secrets between us,” he said quietly. “What do you think you know?”
She inhaled sharply, looking straight ahead. “You would say I was crazy.”
“Are you?”
Her gaze flicked his way, finding the intensity of his gaze almost unbearable. “I don’t know anymore,” she admitted quietly.
“Tell me, even if it doesn’t make sense.”
She shook her head. “I…I have dreams. I have since I was a child.”
Vane looked tense, but he nodded. “What are they about, the dreams?”
“It sounds insane, but?—”
“Stop thinking so much,” he ordered, his breath clouding the air. “Leave sense behind for a moment and tell me what you see.”
There had always been a trace of pain in his eyes when he looked at her. But now, as the water ran past them and he stared at her, she wondered if his mask was finally slipping away. She had no idea why she was the one to shatter through his defenses.
“Fine,” she rasped. “I see… There is a girl. I see things through her eyes. Pieces of her life, from before Arcadia was closed off.”
“And?” he pushed.
Their fingertips under the water were inches away. She glanced down, and a shimmer of gold caught her eye. Normally,he wore gloves, but now that his hands were bare, she saw the thin gold band on the pointer finger of his left hand.
“You didn’t tell me you were married,” she said, eyes on the ring, her chest caving in with a surge of foolish disappointment.
She had suspected what the goddess in her dreams was to him, but seeing it now, in her waking hours, was a sharp punch to the gut.
Vane blew out a breath. “Yes.”
She swallowed, but her throat felt tight. Gods, her people were burning, and suddenly, she was not only crying for them, but for this stupidity with a man who had likely killed them too.
“What happened to her?” The words came out sharper than she had intended.
