The prince muttered something she couldn’t hear and she looked across at him. He was lying on his back with his face toward her. In the dim light of the embers, she could see his eyes were closed.
Muttering something else, he lifted his hands and started pushing air away from his face.
“Wake up!” Aizel instinctively shouted, but the words caught in her throat. “You’re dreaming!”
His hands continued to move, waving dangerously close to the burning hot coals.
Aizel jumped up, moving around the fire to shake him awake, but her bound hands stopped her. He hadn’t left her enough slack to reach him.
She watched him for another moment, yanking on the rope in the vain hope it might break. Nothing happened.
He groaned in his sleep. Whatever nightmare he was having sounded horrible. His arms waved more frantically, swinging directly over the glowing embers.
Pulling herself as far as she could, Aizel lifted her foot and swung it out toward him. Her heel landed hard against his shoulder.
He jolted awake.
The swinging motion had thrown her off balance and she felt her body tumbling toward the hot coals. She yanked on the rope, propelling her body toward the tree and over the dying fire. She landed painfully on her shoulder, but she was otherwise fine.
Her heart beating quickly, she sat back up and turned to face the prince.
He was sitting up fully now and was breathing heavily. His face appeared damp, reflecting the reddish light of the embers he had barely escaped.
“I was having the nightmare again.” It wasn’t a question.
She nodded.
His breathing was ragged, but he forced a smile on his face. “Sorry to wake you. It wasn’t really that bad.”
“Clearly it was or you wouldn’t have been screaming,” Aizel responded in her head. Lifting her hands, she opened her palms as much as she could in a questioning gesture. “What were you dreaming?”
He shook his head. “I hardly remember,” he answered as though he had easily understood what she’d tried to communicate. “Go back to sleep.” He lay back down, turning his back to her.
“You’re welcome for waking you out of it,” she whispered wordlessly at him as she pulled her blanket back around her.
“Thank you for waking me.” His words were so quiet, Aizel wasn’t sure she had even heard them.
But a small smile flickered across her face as she once again closed her eyes to sleep. For the first time in a month, she’d almost had a real conversation with someone.
Chapter 18
The following morning, Erich woke with the sun. He didn’t enjoy sleeping on the hard ground, but he had definitely grown used to it.
His first thought, of course, was the girl in his charge.
She was still asleep, curled into a ball with her knees tucked under her chin. She looked so innocent—vulnerable even.
Erich turned away, feeling ashamed. He felt like a monster for dragging a girl who could have been his younger sister through the open woods and tying her to a tree.
What would the Council do with her? He shook that thought from his mind and went to bathe his face in the crisp, fresh water of the stream. That wasn’t his problem. She deserved the justice she would get. She was not innocent. She was a Majis. A cruel, bloodthirsty magic-wielder and he would do well not to forget that fact.
The cold water washed the last bit of sleep from his eyes.
Returning to the campsite, he slipped his arms into the gray jacket of his uniform, ignoring the weight of it as the leather armor settled onto his shoulders.
He could not let his guard down and wearing the stiff gray outfit would help him remember he was always on duty.
Behind him, he could hear the Majis girl sit up. She kept the blanket wrapped around her shoulders as she yawned herself into wakefulness.
