I lifted my face from the mattress and looked at her balefully. “I don’t think my longings should be trusted.”
Her hand clasped mine, dry and smooth. “You are a giver. You bring life; your heart is full of love. Don’t let others’ clever words make you doubt your own heart.”
“I’m glad you are here. I’d be so alone without you.”
She smiled, squeezing my fingers tighter. “Get some rest, Mae, you are going to need it if you are going to find your way back.”
My head whooshed with exhaustion. “Find my way back where?” I mumbled.
“To where you are supposed to be.”
I let myself slip into another restless sleep. My dreams were more and more muddled. My dreams of Mae and Tristram were blurring, but I couldn’t yet see what other images were there. I was blocked by this damn place and the four walls that stood between me and the nature I craved outside.
“Wake up!” A sharp poke jabbed at my shoulder and I blinked into the silver gaze of the Mage. “You are wanted by His Eminence.”
“He can kiss my arse.” I raised my arm above my face so she couldn’t see me. “Where is Heather?”
“Who is Heather? You’ve been alone during your punishment.”
I shifted my arm so I could look at her. I hadn’t been alone at all. Without wanting to make my movements obvious, I glanced about my chamber. There was no sign of the kneel woman, but that didn’t mean very much. She came and went in a puff of smoke. Well, a theoretical puff of smoke.
“Come. We cannot delay.”
I sat, slowly, enjoying the looked of sheer frustration on her face. My enjoyment didn’t last. “You can either do this in a timely manner or I can get the guards to drag you back to your lord.”
I bristled at the title she’d given Claudius. He was not my lord, and never would he be. There was only one man who had that title and he was dead.
“I’d like to get dressed into a better garment.” I stalled for time.
“That’s not a bad choice.” She nodded at my sleep rumpled linen dress. “Make it quick.”
I slipped off the bed and went to the wide alcove in the wall where dresses hung, all looking like my size. My eyes were drawn to a dark one, a shimmering silk of jet. I slipped it off the branch that had been bent and smoothed into a hanger, my fingers curving around the long dead wood. It was dead, no energy remained, but I could still sense its valour and pride. I took care to make sure I brushed my fingers over its surface, so it knew even in its death that it was valued.
Leaning into the polished glass, I checked over my appearance. My red hair was wound into a braid around my head. My skin was pale though, lacking in lustre. My eyes were flat, like a shallow puddle. My lack of energy from my surrounding nature screamed back at me in the looking glass.
I reached for my necklace, my pulse spiking when I realised the purple gem wasn’t under my shift. Spinning, I searched for it, finding it hanging from a notch on the bed. A shaft of sunlight slid through the slender window, the only source of light in the room, reflecting off its roughly faceted surface. I paced across the room and snatched it into my hand. It was warm, and a gentle tingle pushed against my palm. I know. I miss him, too.
I was grateful to the sun for warming the gem. It reminded me of warm smiles, raced pulses, and a connection that could never be replicated.
For a moment, I stared at the window, willing the sun to come and find me, but of course it couldn’t, not really. The gap was too narrow, maybe the sun was too low. I had no idea what the time was.
“Ready?”
I nodded, unwilling to verbalise my consent. I was at the mercy of the Emperor of Rome, and who in the hell knew what he wanted me to do.
Heal the scars his wars had made? Or give him the power he wanted.
Either way. I’d submitted to his will to save the girls. It was my bed and now I would have to lie in it.
Chapter Fifteen
The Mage didn’t seem at all concerned as we walked through hallways that opened into wide arches overlooking the gardens and grounds.
Maybe she thought I’d been suitably punished.
Maybe she thought I’d given in.
The wind swept through my hair, and I breathed in the delicious scent of blooms and petals on the air. I tasted them with the tip of my tongue. With every breath I felt the calm power of the things I loved fill me up.
Air, water, trees, flowers. I could sense them reaching for me as though they’d missed me, too.
Her guard was down, she swept along, her long black cloak brushing the marbled hallways.
The pendant at my throat still warmed against my skin. Lifting my fingers, I clutched it tight, sensing a gentle pulse, and then another.
I raised to my lips as though passing a prayer within a kiss. So distracted by the ache in my heart at the warmth of the gem, I nearly lost my balance when a hand shot out from behind a curved pillar.
My feet lifted from the floor, breath rushed against my cheek. I gasped in a shocked breath.
The pendant scorched, telling me whose hands held my arms, whose chest I was crushed against before my eyes could even blink and make sense of what I was seeing.
Jet orbs shone down at me. The skin surrounding them was tanned, more so than I remembered. The faint freckles I’d always known had deepened; the skin around his eyes crinkled, slightly weather worn.
The pendant vibrated hard and fast.
“Now is the time to
