Page 168 of What Lies Within Masks & Shadows

She’d only seen him like this once before, in the skies.

Peaceful.

Despite everything that had happened to him while he was gone.

He was utterly peaceful.

An aching neck begged her to move. Desiring a few more moments in peace, she stubbornly allowed it to throb. It was worth it—Garrik needed it—those moments. She did too.

For as soon as she would stir, their reality would flood back.

Basking in its rareness, the calm of the morning and soothing delight of her dream waved over her. Nothing in the world felt like this. Not for a long time, anyway.

Alora’s eyes shifted to his and glowing silver irises peered down at her sapphires. With a deep, long inhale, that High Prince mask returned. Not entirely, but enough to realize that they had been out there too long and should be heading back to camp.

She shifted in his embrace, her boots scuffed against the dirt when she bent her outstretched knees. The blanket dropped down her shoulder under his touch before she lightly rubbed the back of her aching neck and yawned.

“We were out here all night?” Slightly embarrassed, she looked to where her head had happily rested on him.

“Indeed.” He side-glanced at her. “Someone decided she wanted to sleep with a High Prince last night.” That wolfish grin climbed his face.

Alora scoffed before crossing her arms. “In?—”

“My dreams?” He grinned and pivoted his head against the bark to gaze at the evergreens. Silver eyes closed, and a breathy chuckle escaped his nose.

And there was that smile again. The one so rare, the one that made her question the monster inside that he was insistent dwelled there.

“I did not wish to wake you. You slept so soundly.” Garrik’s soft and gentle eyes looked over at her. “You smiled in your sleep. You were dreaming.”

Fabrics of white and silver stitching flashed in her mind as her mother’s voice called. Memories such as this one hadn’t visited her in quite some time. Though a pleasant memory, her parents were gone. The faeling she was, gone. That memory would only bring heartache if she sat with it any longer.

Instead, she asked him, “Did you sleep?”

Garrik clenched his ribs and pushed himself from the ground, using the tree for stability. He let out a sharp grunt when his right side bent against itself. “They will be wondering where we are. Come.” A palm reached out to her.

Of course he wouldn’t tell her. He said so last night.

His burdens.

His to bear.

As they made their way back to camp, Alora couldn’t shake the dream, couldn’t shake the thoughts of the annulus the night before.

He hadn’t answered her, leaving a burning, aching hole in her heart. Her problems were always her own, too. Anything that happened in the manor were hers to endure, alone. She’d rarely said much to Emeline. Rowlen knew some, mostly toward the end, but silence had always been her friend. Darkness alone heard her cries at night.

Shadows had licked the memories that fell down her cheeks for as long as she could remember. Understandably, the High Prince’s retreat with such questions made sense; it mirrored her own ways of coping. Unhealthy ways, she admitted. But if she expected others to respect her silence, how could she not respect his?

So, she didn’t press.

They reached their firesite, welcomed by an overwhelmingly loaded table in front of Garrik’s tent. Breakfast meats grilled to absolute perfection, fried potatoes dripping with butter, herbs, and garlic, a pallet of assorted cheeses, and the most mouth-watering display of fruits and sweet pastries covered it.

Thalon was loading his plate. A grin that resembled a small faeling on Winter Solstice morning awaiting the new treasures he’d play with peppered his face. “Aiden will go mad that he’s missed this.” A red berry popped in his mouth as he spoke to no one in particular, eying a sizzling piece of pig fat on a platter.

Alora eyed it, too. “What’s going on?”

The smell alone could’ve made her believe she was still in a dream. She brushed her hand along the wooden table, eyes glistening at the spread of food while her stomach growled something awful.

“Nothing.” Garrik offered a plate to her.

---