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Her heart at once melted and squeezed with fear as she slipped free of his hold and sat up With an unintelligibleher hair back from her face with both hands, she turned inward and exa bond Daun to unkink It still lookedto trickle through steadily

Not good, not good, not good Yet what could she do about it? She’d known this would happen if he found out the truth--that she’d severed the ive her the rest And once he did, the poison would begin to flow freely

Pulling her knees up, she curled her ar of thebond Their only chance now, as far as she could see, was for the Ferals and their Mage allies to figure out who Hookeye was and locate him Maybe they really could Maybe it would work But she’d long, long ago quit believing inone

Despair filled the room as she dipped her head and rested her chin on her updrawn knees She hated being forced to let others take the lead in her battles; but, unable to turn to ated to the sidelines Then again, she was the one with her finger in the dike If she allowed the floodwaters, or in this case the poison, to flow, all would die Not the sidelines, perhaps, but the center, with all those around trying to help her hold on, trying to find a way to destroy the poison before she could no longer hold back the killing tide

Her life hadn’t been her own to control in a very, very long time Even now

She needed to call the hospital and let theood chance she wouldn’t be back at all If the Ferals’ attear died, there would no longer be a reason for her to re bond was truly, pero anywhere--except home to the Crystal Real and survival, searching for an answer that never cae at the heart of it all In the few short days since Kougar had charged back into her life, he’d turned every single aspect of her existence end over end until she didn’t knohat to think, what to feel

She wanted to be furious with hiinning to believe the Ferals genuinely meant to help her, even if only to save their own For the first time in forever, a flicker of hope had sparked, a rare, precious feeling that she was alain between one breath and the next

If the Ferals really did succeed in finding the Mage behind the attacks, if by soht tantalized The first thing she’d do was return home and take up the mantle of queen-in-residence once more It was all she’d wanted for a thousand years

She turned to Kougar, to his strong, beloved back, rising and falling in sleep No, being queen wasn’t all she wanted But she’d been a fool to think she could be both queen and wife Her oher only priority If they had been, they’d still be alive

That was a mistake she couldn’t make a second time, no matter how h, she turned away fro over his room He’d closed the drapes after she’d fallen asleep, and sunlight now fanned out fro curtains It was the kind of rooar, she realized Clean, neat, controlled If she ignored the splintered chair

The bed on which she sat was a large, any four-poster, beautifully carved, probably by hand The bedside laar had always enjoyed fine things Even a thousand years ago when there was so much less to choose from, he’d carried intricately carved knives and worn cloaks with silk linings

And he’d been incredibly generous to her--plying her with gifts of beauty that he’d knoould please her Ilina’s heart Jewelry froowns of the finest velvet And flowers Where he’d found them, she’d never been certain, but he’d rarely come to her without flowers of so of honeysuckle

She’d always loved flowers, especially in those days, when she’d spent so rew And he’d known it

On the walls of his rooh three of his walls were tan, the one before her was a vibrant blue The color of the suht Alar rowl as he rolled onto his back His body had turned rigid with tension, his arainst his hip

He was drea, and it wasn’t a happy drea to stroke his shoulder and soothe him, only to pull up What demons did he wrestle in his sleep? Perhaps she should find out A soft s since she’d joined him in one of his dreams

Ariana closed her eyes, calmed her mind, and stepped into his dream, an ability all Ilinas possessed She expected to find herself a spectator of some Feral battle Instead, she blinked with confusion as she realized she was standing inside her own cabin hundreds of years ago, the night three human trappers stuht to slake their physical urges on an unwilling woht off two of the men at once ell-aiht This was supposed to be Kougar’s dreaar both stood in the middle of one of her own memories Dressed in the dark sleep pants he wore in the bed beside her, he passed through the center of the action like a ghost trying to fight off her attackers They, of course, didn’t even knoas there

"Kougar"

His gaze jerked to her, then to her drea fro lit his eyes

"It’s a drearunts of the men and the snap of bone as her dream self broke one of her attacker’s kneecaps

Theinto the sole chair in the tiny cabin, splintering it Goddess, she’d been furious about losing that chair It had taken her weeks to aze took in the ss infilled with mud, the down pallet that had been her bed, now destroyed, the feathers floating in the glow from the fire The scent of sar crossed to her, pulling her tight against hih theaze ski in ht I’d take a look" Her brow furrowed "But this isn’t your dream"

"This isn’t real"

"No, but it happened It’s ether they watched her fight off her assailants with sweeping kicks and elbows to the throats and noses Sheas any human male, thanks to her immortal blood, with nearly seven centuries of hand-to-hand combat experience by that point

"When did this happen?"

"Late 1600s, in the woods about forty miles west of Feral House"

"You lived nearby even then?"