Page 43 of Straw and Gold
There was no body.
There would be no body.
I heard her light steps over our floor, bringing herself to me. “Dè…das…ur omh a dhèana?” she whispered, pulling my hands from my face.
What can I do?
I took my hands gently from hers, replying, “Amar.”
Her eyes narrowed for a moment as she thought. “Water? Wait, no…a bath!” She took my hand again excitedly, leading me to the door of our bathing chamber.
“Oh,” she said as she led me to the wood tub. “There’s water here already.” She dipped her hand in. “But it’s gone cold. Let me see if I can get?—”
“No.” I grabbed her arm. “The dreams come often. The cold water helps clear my head.”
I set the candle on the basin sink and let my cotton pants slide to the floor, not caring if she saw me naked. She watched in silence as I slid into the cold water, instantly relaxing and coming back to the space I knew.
In the dim light, I breathed deeply.
It was only a dream.
It was only a dream.
“Do you need anything?” she whispered somewhere behind me.
“No. Thank you. Please go back to bed, Morella.”
Her hand brushed across my head in a soothing gesture and she left, closing the door softly behind her.
I waited in the silence, searching for the calm reassurance of my steady heartbeat.
It did not come.
Morella was there, a doorway away, and as much as I wanted to relax, something prickled in my mind. She had agreed to stay in our room instead of spinning, and she’d done it with little argument, which wasn’t like what I knew of her at all.
With cold water splashing over the sides of the tub, I threw myself out, barely wrapping a towel around my waist before I tossed open the door connecting the rooms. “Morella!” I called, throwing back her sheets to find her bed empty.
“Killian?”
I darted to the other side of her dressing screen, finding her there holding a bundle of sheets in her arms. “What is it?” she asked, tossing the sheets on her trunk and gripping my shoulders.
I hung my head, taking more deep breaths. I wouldn’t be sleeping tonight, that I knew. “Nothing,” I said, pulling a hand through my hair. “It’s nothing. Please get some more rest. I won’t bother you again.”
I headed to my drawers for fresh clothes, searching for something lightweight to wear by the fire I’d build for the rest of the night. I couldn’t go to my study as I typically would. My fear wouldn't let me leave this room until daybreak and Morella rose in a few more hours—of that, I was sure.
She headed back towards her bed, calling, “It’s no bother, Killian, truly. I can’t imagine having recurring nightmares. I hardly remember my dreams at all.”
“You are Goddessblessed then, to sleep so peacefully.” I dressed in loose cotton pants and shirt and bent at the fireplace, adding the kindling. Checking on her again, I found her fluffing the pillows on my bed and rolling back the sheets, slapping at them until they lay flat and pristine. “What are you doing?”
“Changing your sheets, of course. They were rather damp and fresh bedding is one of the best comforts in all of Revelry, if you haven’t noticed.” She threw a softer woven throw up into the air, taking care to pull it up just so—swiping her hands across the soft threads.
“Thank you,” I said, lighting the fire. “But I won’t be sleeping the rest of the night. Please go back to bed. Dawn is only a few hours away.”
I sighed deeply, falling back into my chair and picking up one of the books on faekind Fedir had left me. Seconds later, I heard her own long sigh as she settled into the chair across from mine, hair tied back on top of her head and legs folded up into her seat.
I watched in rapt fascination of this creature who had flipped my life upside down in the past three weeks as she settled herself with the blue woven throw wrapped over her lap. Without so much as a glance in my direction, she opened volume two ofCéaduah, Language of the Changelingfae, and began to read in silence.
“Morella,” I called, in a trying tone.
