Page 79 of War of Her Heart

He pulled me back into him and began rubbing his hand up and down my back.

The small sliver of hope that Astrid was safe somewhere with her new faeling gave me enough peace to fall asleep.

I don’t think I moved a muscle during the time I slept that night. With Sebastian’s coolness and overall comfort of knowing he was with me, it may have been the best sleep I’d had in a long time.

When I woke up, Sebastian was in the same spot with his arm wrapped around me. I looked up to see he was staring off, deep in thought. His eyes weren’t the usual dusty-blue, but they also weren’t the black I saw the night before. They were a deep blue and his eyebrows were scrunched so I knew whatever he was thinking about wasn’t good.

I reached my hand up and placed it on his cheek. He immediately relaxed and smiled as he looked down at me.

We had become so close over the last few weeks. I knew it was wrong. I loved Calum. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t stay away from Sebastian. He consumed every thought I had, and now, he was starting to consume my time physically, too.

“How are you feeling this morning?” he asked.

“I don’t know how to feel . . . not until you find out about Astrid,” I said.

“I’ve already talked to Adar, and he is sending a few spies to look for her.”

I nodded. Now it was just a waiting game. A time of limbo until I knew how deep my wounds really were.

“So before you became Sovereign, it was always dark outside?” I asked as an attempt to change the subject. I wanted to see those dusty-blue eyes again.

Sebastian raised an eyebrow. “Yes.”

“And now your emotions control the Night Realm so when you’re angry or upset, the darkness comes out?”

He left out a small laugh. “It didn’t take long for you to figure that out.”

I rolled my eyes. “I like to consider myself smart.”

“You are very smart,” he said as he looked down at me and smiled.

“How did that happen, though? I don’t understand how that gift developed.”

He shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t understand it either.”

“The things I heard last night, the ones that live in the darkness, what do they do the rest of the time? Like when you’re not angry?”

“They go into a slumber and when they are awoken, they don’t realize they have lost time.”

“But the paramic?” I asked, “Were you upset about something that night?”

“A paramic is not one of the creatures I’m talking about. The creatures in the darkness you heard last night make a paramic look like an angel.”

Chills went down my spine. “So when you’re angry, all hell breaks loose, and no one is safe?”

“Yes, but what you saw last night . . . I haven’t allowed myself to bring forth that darkness for over a century.”

“Then why did you do it last night?”

He paused for a moment, clenching his jaw.“Because someone hurt you.”

I stared at him for a moment, my head still resting on his chest. Too close, I was getting too close again.

I got up and went to the bathroom to freshen up, but I had another pressing matter that I needed to ask him about.

“Sebastian?” I asked from the bathroom.

“Yes, love?”

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