Page 15 of Claimed By Stone
The light from the sconces warmed her marble skin. She looked softer than she should. Her face was tilted just slightly down, as if caught in a moment between breath and song.
I sat down next to her.
“Who are you?” I asked softly.
The air didn’t shift. She remained still. Even in that stillness, she had a beauty that was hard to turn away from.
I returned to my table, questioning my own sanity, as I sat and returned to my work. I traced a line down my notes, trying to return to the facts—to the ink, the symbols, the known. But the facts no longer made sense.
I caught myself watching her again.
Waiting.
Still, nothing.
With a quiet sigh, I turned back to the scrolls and forced my attention to return to the world I could still explain.
Chapter 9
Unknown
Waking was like floating upward through warmth and shadow, as if the mountain itself was reluctant to let me go. I surfaced slowly, piece by piece, until my eyes blinked fully open in this room I was coming to know.
Only this time, there was no sleeping orc at the table, just one with a furrowed brow and ink-stained fingers, bent over ledgers and maps.
Without even thinking, I reached out and touched his shoulder. It was solid and warm. I could feel the ripple of muscle beneath my fingertips, the quiet strength that lived just beneath the surface.
His shoulder tensed.
Slowly, he turned toward me. First came the awe shining in those deep brown eyes. Then it softened into something else entirely:relief.
“You’ve returned,” he said, placing his much larger hand over mine. His palm was warm, his touch steady.
“Well, I had to make sure you weren’t sleeping on the job again,” I said, grinning.
I wondered what a genuine smile would look like stretched across his solemn face. I hadn’t seen one yet, not really. But I was willing to put in the work.
Instead of smiling, though, his brow furrowed again.
I didn’t like that one bit.
“What is it?” I asked, suddenly more awake.
“Nothing,” he said with a slight shake of his head. “I’m just… so glad you’re here. There are moments in the day when I question my sanity. I mean, this whole thing is… uncommon, to say the least.” He took a deep breath, and I finally saw the corner of his mouth turn up in the hint of a smile. “But when you return, none of that seems to matter.”
I shifted closer, surprised by how grounded I felt, more solid than before. The cool weight that usually tugged at me like an undertow was still there, but distant. Dull. Like a dream I wasn’t quite ready to fall back into.
I flexed my fingers in his grip. “I feel... different tonight.”
His gaze sharpened. “Different how?”
“I don’t know. Just—more.” I touched my arm, smoothed my hand down to my waist, pressing gently, as if I were trying to prove I was really here. “Less like a ghost. More like myself.”
He looked like he wanted to say something, but instead he studied me with that intense, unreadable stare that made my breath catch.
“I think,” I said, tilting my head and giving him a half-smile, “I’m becoming your problem.”
His brows lifted. “Problem?”
