Once Upon a Dark October

Chapter Thirty-Two

W hen I found my way back—only the stars knew how long I’d eased into unconsciousness—I was surrounded by plush warmth. The frost inside me had thawed, finally, and I luxuriated in the cozy embrace as I stirred. It was pleasant, with the quiet crackle of the hearth in the background.

I groaned at the harshness of the waking world, my fingers closed around Morrigan’s soft bed linens. Too bright, too much at once. The hands of time might as well have turned back to the night I’d awoken a fledgling vampire. My mind was still half-numb. Burying my face into the pillow, I breathed in the scent of her left behind. The ache from my stiff limbs settled in the longer I lay there, which eclipsed some of the pleasant warmth. I couldn’t remember how I’d gotten to Morrigan’s bed.

Whatever had come before that was veiled in harbor fog, left for me to piece back together. Perhaps it was best I didn’t, for now. The graze of poisoned dhampir fangs shredding my flesh shuddered through me like an apparition, the pain resonating on my skin as though the wounds hadn’t healed.