The words skitter through my thoughts, sinking like pebbles in the mud.
“We’ll be okay,” I mumble.
“This place isn’t safe for you,” Talen says. “This palace, this world.”
“I don’t care…”
“You’re distant,” he says. “In my dreams, you’re far away.”
“I’m here,” I tell him. “Right here. Not going anywhere. I’ll protect you.”
“Which is why,” I think I hear him say as I drift back to sleep, “it’s so hard to let you go.”