Page 44 of War Queen
He stood at the end of the path between the rows of trees.
Alexander. She smiled.
She hadn’t seen him since she’d left Mercia. No, that wasn’t right… The haze in her mind cleared.
Alexander.
Her breath seized in her chest. Alexander was dead.Dead. And she was in Mercia. But where? And where was the mortium? Where was his body? Was this his body, alive again somehow? She swept her eyes around her. The bed she’d risen from was gone. Only the tree-lined path remained, and Alexander stood at the end of it. Another dream?
It didn’t feel like a dream.
She started slowly toward him, not daring to take her eyes from him for fear that he would disappear again. This time, he waited for her. As she came close, he shifted uncomfortably, but he didn’t step away.
“Please,” she said softly. She feared her emotion might choke her. “Please don’t leave.”
He let her step closer. He looked… not like in the dream before, but more like himself now. He was dressed in his Mercian battle armor, everything but the head of the Northern bear, and his hair wasn’t clipped quite so short. The markings on his skin were gone.
She searched his face for the affection he’d held in life, but she found none. Tears threatened. “Am I a stranger to you now?” she whispered.
He watched her curiously but didn’t answer.
“Say something. How are you here?”
His silence crushed her.
“Say something,” she begged him.
But there was only emptiness. Norah stepped closer. He wasn’t really there, she told herself. She reached out. He leaned back but didn’t completely avoid her, letting her touch find him.
She sucked in a breath as her fingers met the hardness of his body. How was this possible? How could she feel him? She spread her hand wide against his chest. But his eyes still held no knowing, no recognition.
Alexander reached up and caught her wrist. His message was clear:Enough. He brought her hand down but didn’t release her as he pulled something from his pocket.
A vial of a red tonic.
No, not tonic.Blood.
He removed the top of the vial, then spread her hand wide and smeared a drop across her palm. His eyes burned a brilliant blue as he closed her hand in his. Her breath came faster, and he leaned closer, then closer still. He reached up and brushed his fingers over her eyes, bidding her to close them. And she did.
Her mind shuddered.
Norah woke with a start, and again found herself on her bed inside her chamber. Her breaths came fast, her lungs struggling for air. Had she been dreaming? She opened her hand and glanced at her palm, but there was no blood smear. No tree-lined path. No summer. No life in Alexander’s body.
But she’dfelthim. No, that was the madness coming through, the lack of sleep. She clutched her hands to her chest. Her grief was playing tricks on her. She took a deep inhale to focus herself.
She heard footfalls, and she sat up, but she didn’t need to look to know who it was. Mikael. She knew his sound and welcomed the comfort that came with it. He’d help calm her mind. She pushed herself to stand.
He stepped from around the hanging panels to the bed and met her before she could find the strength to move to him. The warmth of his arms came around her, pulling her close. She reached up and held on to him. Gods, she needed him.
“Salara,” he said softly. “You should eat something. Bathe. Rest.”
There would be no rest. “I can’t.”
“You have to take care of yourself.”
But there were so many other things she had to do first. “I have to figure out what I’m going to do with Alexander.”
“Caspian is looking after him. You have time.”
