Page 128 of Beneath the Mountain Sky
A flash—setting dishes on the table.
Connor and Liam reaching to fill their plates a second time with satisfied grins.
“Yes, I remember breakfast.”
But I didn’t eat.
I wasn’t hungry.
I was excited.
Nervous.
“Good. And what happened after you ate breakfast?”
“I…”
A wall of darkness.
Nothing but onyx.
“I can’t see it.” My hands tighten on the arms of the chair, and my breathing picks up, my heart galloping. “I can’t see anything.”
That soothing voice drops lower. “We’re going to return to our safe place. We’re going to breathe in and out calmly.”
Yes.
That’s what I should do.
Killian’s voice, directing me to do the same, rings in my ears.
I center myself in the cabin. In Killian’s arms. His scent invading my breaths. The long, slow ones he wants me to take.
In.
Out.
In.
Out.
“Good. You’re happy and safe. It’s the day after the festival. Do you remember your argument with Killian?”
I flinch.
But this time, it doesn’t take as long for the blackness to part so I see Killian’s face.
How terrified he was.
At the time, I didn’t realize what I was seeing was panic. Because Killian never panicked about anything in his entire life. It was an unknown feeling for him, something I couldn’t recognize because he didn’t recognize it himself.
I hear those words come out of his mouth.
The ones he told me he said.
This time, they ring in my ears like a resounding gong.
I feel the stab in my chest as if he’s driven his axe straight into it.
