Page 91 of Prisoner of Darkness and Dreams
This is my kingdom, not hers. I’m the one fighting to save it while she just throws it to the wolves.
And the fae, and Corrin and his friend Warren—did I send them to their deaths?
“No. Damia can’t be dead. Not like Eryx. I won’t accept it.”
I jerk my head up, staring at Leon, because the thought definitely wasn’t mine. Not that I don’t agree with him—I do, I absolutely do. But the phrasing, the intensity behind it…that was him. Not me. I turn to Leon to see if he spoke, but he’s not even looking at me. He’s sitting silently as he listens to Harman speak. But I know what I heard.
Just like in the temple in Starfall.
I’d thought he’d been there with me, but it turned out to only be in my head. Except…what if that didn’t mean I was imagining it? Hadn’t Diomi said that we were toointertwinedfor him to enter the temple with me? I’d thought he meant emotionally tangled up at the time…but maybe he was talking about Leon and me being magically linked.
I don’t hear much else of what Harman is saying, too busy thinking over the possibility. I’ve been noticing how well I’ve been reading him and how well he’s been sensingmyfeelings. I thought it was just intuition, us growing naturally closer. But that doesn’t explain hearing Leon, or Leon’s thoughts, in my mind.
And every time I’ve tried to bring it up, Leon’s changed the subject, or kissed me, or offered up some other sneaky distraction.
My suspicion builds, and I look down to see his hand reaching for mine.
“It’ll be okay,” he says, looking at me like he can feel the turmoil of emotions inside me.
I mumble about not letting Oclanna get away with this, but it must be obvious to everyone that I’m distracted, because Harman stands up.
“You must all be exhausted from your journey. Let’s talk about this more tomorrow. Maybe we’ll have some news from the others by then.” He gestures to the exit through the cellars. “Your usual rooms are waiting for you at the Crossed Keys.”
I try to breathe past the tension in my stomach that might alert Leon that something’s wrong. It helps that we have a lot of reasons to feel uneasy right now. When we get to our room at the inn, I wait a few minutes before I start rubbing my forehead and sighing.
“You know, I’m not feeling too great,” I say. “I might just go see if Heda’s got something that can perk me up.”
Leon looks at me with concern, and I clamp down on the flare of guilt I feel for lying to him.
“I can go speak to her,” he says. “You stay here and rest.”
“No, no,” I say, already making my way to the door. “It’ll be better if I can discuss my exact symptoms with her. I won’t be long.”
Instead of heading downstairs, I turn left, moving down the corridor toward Alastor’s room. I knock quietly on the door, hoping Leon’s too preoccupied to hear me as I call out.
“Alastor.”
“Come back later, please,” he responds, sounding distracted.
I can’t just go back to Leon and pretend everything is okay. Not without some answers. Frowning, I knock harder.
“Alastor. I need to speak to you. Now.”
“Morgana?”
There’s some noise behind the door, and it opens a crack. Alastor stands there in a shirt that appears to have been pulled on in a hurry. The neckline is completely askew, exposing half his shoulder.
“What?” he asks abruptly. “Are we being raided? Has the Trovian army found us? Is Caledon standing in your bedroom right this instant? Because otherwise I’ll kindly ask you togo away.”
“I’m sorry,” I say, and I really am. “But you have to tell my brother to get dressed, because you and I need to have a little chat.”
Alastor rolls his eyes and pushes the door open to reveal Harman standing there looking sheepish. Aside from a jacket lying crumpled on a nearby chair, he’s fully clothed, so at least there’s that. There are some things a sister doesnotneed to see.
“As if we had time to get to that,” Alastor huffs and leaves the door open for me to follow him inside.
“Sorry, Harman,” I say. “I wouldn’t interrupt if it wasn’t important.”
“You…er…weren’t interrupting anything,” Harman says.
