Page 203 of Bitten & Burned
Sweat dripped, and pain surged through my thigh. He slowly moved over me, pushing my shoulders down.
“No!” I shrieked. “No! No, No!”
“Rowena, you’ll have to give in. Give in or I’ll make it hurt again!”
“No, it’salreadyhurting.”
“If you want to be able to walk again, you’ll give in,” he said, voice sweet even though his words were not.
“No!” I screamed, clawing at him with my nails. “No!”
“Rowena…” My nails left scratches on his face as he smiled down at me. “Rowena… sweetheart…”
I blinked. Sweetheart?
“Rowena, you need to wake up now. He’s not here. You’re safe.”
Inhaling sharply, I sat straight up, my chest heaving.
Quil.
Hewas the one with scratches all over him.Hewas the one holding my shoulders.Hewas the one looking so, so worried because…
Because it had been a bad dream.A nightmare.
“Oh gods, I’m sorry,” I sobbed, pulling my knees up to my chest.
“There you are…” Quil quickly moved in beside me, putting his arm around me. “You okay? Bad dream? Wanna talk about it?”
“I’m okay. It was a nightmare. And… I dunno if I can…”
“That’s okay, I’m here. It’s just me and you. No one else.”
I leaned into him, letting my head rest on his chest. He dragged his fingers up and down my spine.
“You’re sweating.”
“Yeah… it was… I guess I was too warm?”
He leaned back, pushing to his feet. “If you’re warm, we can go stand at the cave entrance. Would you like that?”
I nodded, and he helped me up. I walked with Quil, his arm encircling me as I stumbled numbly to the opening and the cool air that whispered just outside.
The spray from the waterfall felt cool on my face, but it wasalmost impossible to hear anything over the thundering water. I gazed up at it, realizing just how far up the waterfall went.
The bond was fine now. Calm. Not thready and weird like it had been in the dream.
As I breathed, I looked over at Quil, standing beside me. We were both completely nude, since we’d just been wrapped up in furs right before this.
I felt the heat ease out of my skin the longer we stood, and, finally, when I wasn’t sweating any longer, we turned back into the cave. But first, I paused.
“You wanna talk about it now?” Quil asked.
I nodded, whispering. “It was Silas. He was lying on me. On top of me in that tower where he kept me prisoner. I couldn’t breathe. He was holding me down, telling me if I didn’t give in, that I’d never walk again…”
Quil shook his head. “Nope. Not anywhere near true, sweetheart. Sorry, it was me holding you down; you were clawing at me, and I was worried you’d hurt yourself.” He reached up to touch some of the marks on his face. “You got me good, though,” he chuckled.
“Sorry,” I said again. “Forgive me?”
