Wrexham gave me a look of utter exasperation.
In the corner, the clock tolled a long, mournful sound. Automatically, I glanced at the time...and winced.
“Miss Birch,” I said, “may I leave the safe disposal of that...thing...to your care?” I waved at the altar on the window, not bothering to hide my disgust.
“Oh, trust me,” she said grimly. “It will be apleasure. I’ll keep that ring safe, too, and locked up tight.”
“Wonderful. And do please see if you can ferret out any leftover kinships still linking it to anyone in this household.” A mere human spell could never reveal such subtle details, but fey magic was a powerful and sidelong force. It was the best I could hope for, at the moment. “Miss Banks”—I turned to my student—“I’ll see you in class tomorrow. And you need your sleep, so no more secret meetings beforehand, if you please! Wrexham...” I gestured toward the door.
“As you say,” said my husband, and walked silently by my side all the way back up to our bedroom.
To an outside observer, he might have looked calm and absorbed in distant thoughts, but I had known him for years, and I could feel his frustration like a dark, close fog in the air around us, no matter how hard he tried to disguise it. So I sighed as I closed the door behind us, and I braced myself for continued battle.
“I know you’d rather stay and deal with all of this yourself,” I said, “but you know as well as I do, if you want to keep your position—”
“One day, Harwood,” said Wrexham sharply, “you might considernotdeciding what’s best for me no matter what I say about the matter.” As I gaped at him, stunned into momentary silence, he added with an unconvincing attempt at lightness, “Iamsurprisingly capable of making those decisions for myself—as I have tried to explain to you, once or twice before across the last several years.”
Hurt battled with anger in my chest, making it difficult to speak. Finally, I managed, “Everyoneknows that you’re brilliant—there’s no question that you’re qualified to make your own decisions. But if you sacrifice your own goals for mine—”
“Then that will bemydecision,” he said through his teeth, “and I won’t blame you for it.”
“Oh, no?” I demanded. “So you’ve changed your mind, and you won’t reproach me if I sacrificemydreams and my school for you, now? Since you wouldn’t dream of tellingmewhat’s best for myself, either?”
There was a long, pulsating moment of silence.
Then Wrexham tipped his head forward with a sigh. “Oh, Harwood.” Shoulders relaxing, he gave me a rueful smile. “We truly are a pair, aren’t we?”
“Always.” I stepped forward and closed my arms tightly around his lean body, relief coursing through my veins. “I’m not trying to order you around,” I mumbled into his chest. “I just want to look after you, because you’re so stubborn, you’ll never do it for yourself.”
“...Said the pot to the kettle. Darling hypocrite.” He let out a puff of laughter in my ear. “In other words, we are a perfect match...and we’ll keep squabbling over each other’s welfare for another fifty years or more if we’re fortunate.”
“But not if you drive yourself into the ground first!” Pushing him back a reluctant inch, I used one forefinger to trace the deep lines under his eyes. “You need to sleep,” I said sadly, “and regain your energy before you start your work for the day. You know I want you desperately, but—”
“I’m staying,” he said, “until dawn.” I frowned, preparing to argue, but he shook his head at me. “It’s a compromise,” he said softly. “We will sleep, I promise. We’llonlysleep, because webothneed the rest—I saw you falling asleep on that stool earlier!—and then I’ll leave the very moment that dawn arrives. I’ll protect myself for your sake, as you’ll protect yourself for mine. No one will fault my attendanceormy work. But, my Harwood...”
His fingertips brushed against my face with unbearable tenderness, his dark gaze holding mine and pulling me closer into his thrall. “What I want,” he murmured, “more than anything else in the world, is to fall asleep with my arms around my wife. I just want us to give ourselves this single night of restingtogether. Do you think we could agree on that?”
“Ohhh.” I pressed my face into his chest to keep my unruly expression under control. “You haveno ideahow happy I am to agree to that!”
And I fell asleep only fifteen minutes later, despite all the hot, tingling temptation of his proximity. I wrapped myself in the comfort and strength of his deliciously bare arms and sank into pure blackness, smiling...
Until the dream, as always, began.
There was never any adequate way to prepare for it—and tonight, I was caught horribly off-guard, eased into complacency by Wrexham’s presence. So the nightmare sucked me into its maw before I could even try to escape...
And this time, I wasn’t alone in it.
7
“Aaah!” I launched myself upright, one hand clawing at my own throat as I reached frantically with my other hand for Wrexham.
My fingers landed on a cold, bare sheet instead of skin.
Wrexham’s side of the bed was empty. I stared at the rumpled space where he should have been, my heartbeat rattling, as dream and reality mingled terrifyingly together.
Thorns wrapping around him, piercing his skin as I screamed and fought to tear myself free from my own bindings. His dark eyes flaring wide with shock and pain, and then—
No!
