Page 24 of A Forgotten Heart
Unsure, she plodded over to his pallet and slowly lay down next to him. He folded the blankets around her, tucking her close to his side. Awareness of his body instantly heated her cheeks. This was so inappropriate. He would be furious with her when his senses returned.
She startled when his arm fell around her shoulders. She should push him away. She should sit up and put as much space between them as possible. But the warmth of his embrace chased away the chill with such force that a tear ran down her cheek.
Outside, sleet pinged against the walls.
“Sweet Lady, never since I first drew breath have I beheld a lily like yourself.”
The poem’s words wrapped around her chest and squeezed.
“I take your silence as you don’t know. I win.”
It took a moment for her voice to steady enough to speak. “I don’t want to play.”
A beat of silence. “Fine. I win.”
She could almost believe they sat at their tree, the starry sky stretched over them. “Geraint and Enid. Of course.”
“Now your turn.”
She heard the smile in his voice.
The past was gone. She could never go back. Except for maybe just a few minutes to chase away the chill trembling her bones. “The past will always win. A glory from its being far.”
“In Memoriam,” he whispered. His head tipped so that his bandaged temple rested against the top of her head. “I love thee, tho’ I know thee not. For fair thou art and pure.”
“Delleus and Ettarae,” she returned.
He didn’t love her. He didn’t. She had to keep telling herself. This wasn’t real.
“Your turn,” he urged.
Her heart quaked beneath her ribs. “I am half sick of shadows.”
There was a beat before he spoke this time. “Are you living in shadows, El?”
Sometimes she felt like a shadow of the woman she wanted to be. The only time she had ever felt free to be herself had been five years ago. When she’d been with Nick.
The months of correspondence with Arnold could never compare.
She was in a no-win situation.
However it ended, this was going to hurt.
Darkness surrounded him from every angle, until it dissolved into snow. Snow so thick he couldn’t see, pressing in from all sides.
He started to run, but the storm trapped him with no way to escape.
He spun in a circle, but his surroundings remained veiled within the white curtain.
The hair on his arms stood on end.
Something was wrong. What?
Silence deepened.
Then the crack of a rifle pierced the air.
Nick gasped and woke to a jolt of pain coursing down his shoulder. His head pulsed as he caught his breath.
