Page 89 of The Blade in the Ashes
“I don’t deserve you,” I whispered, angrily brushing aside my tears.
“Oh hush. You are my friend, Camilla, and I will not be dissuaded from enjoying your company.”
A hum worked its way through me as I smiled softly at her words. I liked her company too. I liked it better than anyone else’s.
Even if the way she saidfriendsent a pang of confusing discomfort through me.
“Do you want to tell me about your dream?” She asked, the words more of an offer than a demand.
Her voice had a sort of power to it. Every word she spoke pulled me deeper into this waking reality and away from whatever madness had polluted my nightmares.
“It was about Thea.”
I felt her nod against my head. “I’m worried about her too.”
“It’s not that.” I pulled back, keeping her hand in mine as I shifted to meet her gaze. “I think… I think she might be in danger. Or at least she had been.”
Why could I not make sense of my own thoughts?
I frowned. “Or maybe she’s afraid she will be.”
Elaina’s brows pinched together as she shifted her weight, stroking her thumb across my knuckles. “I don’t understand.”
Biting down on my lower lip, I glanced out the window across from us, imagining that I could see all the way through that window and into the castle.
“It’s just a feeling I’ve had lately. A strange feeling. It goes beyond just being worried about her.”
Elaina considered my words for a moment before folding her feet under her on the bed and tucking a lock of my hair behind my ear.
“Do you think it’s a magical feeling?”
My blood turned icy. No. I hadn’t used my magic.
I wouldn’t.
“You know that I haven’t—”
She ran the pad of her thumb over my knuckles reassuringly, sending me her warmest, most forgiving smile. “You were asleep. Maybe you didn’t mean to.”
I shook my head forcefully. “That’s not how witchcraft works.”
She stared at me before sighing. “Then the dream has to be nothing more than a manifestation of your concern for her.”
She stood, floorboards creaking under her weight as she moved to close the curtains of the window. The room plunged into darkness as she crept back to my side and urged me to lay back down.
Elaina was right.
As real as it had felt, itmusthave been a nightmare. That was the only logical explanation.
It was ironic.
Once my hatred for Thea had plagued my nightmares, now my fear for her safety did. Pasnia must have been rolling over in her grave at the thought.
“You’re right.”
She laughed. “Of course I am, now try to go back to sleep.”
I felt the bed dip under her weight, and then she stretched out next to me, her head only inches from mine.
