63. Chapter 63
CHAPTER 63
Dynalya
D yna woke to warmth and a familiar scent. Her body seemed to sway, and she blinked up in confusion at the night sky speckled with stars. What happened? Then her heart jolted to find herself cradled in Cassiel’s arms.
The sounds of the camp and firelight grew further away behind him. He was taking her away somewhere.
“What are you doing?” she asked, alarmed. “Put me down!”
Cassiel sighed as he looked down at her, and she sensed his relief mingled with annoyance. “You fainted, Dyna.”
She fainted? It took her a moment to recall her vision tilting before falling over in front of everyone. That was rather embarrassing.
“I can walk.”
“You have met your limit. I’m putting you to bed.”
Dyna muttered another protest but attempting to wiggle out of his hold hit her with a dizzying wave. Her vision tilted again. Groaning, she buried her face against his shoulder, eyes squeezed shut as she fought a wave of nausea. He was right. She was done for the night.
Her body settled back into his hold, and Dyna listened to his heart. He was warm, skin damn from the rain, but she didn’t mind. It accentuated his ambrosial scent that inexplicability put her at ease. She had always liked how he smelled.
Like wind and divinity.
But it left her with awkward unease to accept his help after publicly spurning him. Now they watched him carry her away. It felt inappropriate. Too intimate. Even if that man was her husband.
Had been, she reminded herself.
Cassiel slipped in through the flaps of a tent and placed her on a bed. It was a very nice four-poster bed carved from a pale gray wood. The blue bedding felt soft and against her palms. Not something expected to find in the middle of the wilderness. And magic hovered the air, she sensed it.
The tent was enchanted.
“Whose tent is this?”
“Mine…” Cassiel went to the brazier, lighting it on fire. The blue flames turned to yellow and filled the space with warm light. “And yours for as long as you need.”
She took in the fine furniture; a desk with scrolls, a dining table, iron candle stands, the blue drapes adorning the canvas ceiling, and the dark rug embroider with gold. Behind her was a banner with the sigil of Hilos. A flaming sword with wings. His scent was strong here.
Cassiel poured her some water and had her drink it before moving on to the privacy screen and another flash of blue glowed against the walls. “Sowmya filled the bath earlier. I heated the water now so you may bathe.”
Dyna only blinked at him, taken back by all of this. “You enchanted the tent with stardust?”
“And pixie dust. I learned a thing or two from Lucenna.” Cassiel rubbed the back of his neck. “Don’t tell her a said that.”
Dyna didn’t know what else to say to him. She expected he would leave but her eyes went wide when he lowered to one knee in front of her. Dark lashes shadowed his eyes as he took her boot and carefully released the buckles. Each deft movement of his fingers had her entranced, and her heart thrumming so hard in her chest that she worried he’ll feel the pulse all the way down her leg.
“You don’t need to do this, Cassiel.”
“I want to.”
It reminded her of another night that mirrored this one.
I will always kneel for you.
Setting her foot down, Cassiel picked up the other boot to do the same thing, his hand supporting her calf gently. Heat blooms from every contact of his touch, and her skin tingled despite the layer of clothing between them.
Finished, Cassiel looked up, close enough to her that she could see every fleck in his silver eyes. His expression was neutral, but tense. The bond may be meaningless now, a ghost of what it once was, but she felt the fire burning behind his wall.
“You’re angry,” Dyna stated.
His brow pinched, slight surprise crossing Cassiel’s features before he rubbed his face and sighed. “Yes, well, that is a perpetual condition it seems. Yours, however, can be fatal.”
Ah, he was annoyed with her carelessness. Again.
Which only annoyed her in turn.
“Why do you continue to push yourself?” Cassiel scanned her face, as if he worried something about her had been damaged.
Her heart squeezed beneath the concern in his gaze, but she couldn’t take it because it made her feel things she didn’t want to feel. “My well-being is no longer your concern,” she said rather curtly.
A muscle shifted in his jaw. “Your well-being will always be my concern, Dyna.” He stood. “Now, where did you leave your satchel?”
“My satchel?”
“I assume that is where the herbs for Azeran’s tea are stored. I will brew a pot for you.”
She shook her head then winced when that made her dizzy. “I…don’t have any more herbs. I used everything I had in treating the wounded.” It had gotten to the point that Dyna even used the pink water had gathered from the Melodyam Falls. She fainted before learning if it worked. “Replenishing my reserves will wait until we reach Evos.”
Cassiel’s eyes flashed and she braced for his chiding, but he simply took a deep breath. “Will you be all right until then?”
“I’ll be fine ,” Dyna said tightly. He didn’t need to hover over her, especially when she smelled like murky bog water. “Please, I am too tired to argue. I want to bathe and lay down.”
He conceded with a nod. “Shall I have Sowmya assist you?”
“I can manage.” She did miss her handmaiden though and fleetingly thought of Noemi.
“Very well. Leave your clothes by the entrance and Sowmya will see them washed. Meanwhile, you may wear anything of mine.” He opened the chest of clothing set by the bed. Inside were neatly folded tunics, coats, and trousers. Every single piece of clothing was black. The visual reminder that Cassiel was in mourning made her irritation fade.
Dyna was so tired of being angry. She could deal with pain, but anger was poison, and it was making her sick. Things would never be the same between them, but maybe they could find some sort of common ground. At least while he was here.
“Thank you…” she sighed.
He paused, as if surprised by that. “The Valkyrie are positioned outside. No one and nothing will come near without your say. Are you sure you be all right until we reach Evos?”
“Nothing sleep won’t mend.” She didn’t meet his gaze when she said it, because it would take more than a night’s rest to recover the amount of magic she had used.
Cassiel turned to go but paused by the entrance with his back to her. She stilled, a sudden burst of currents dancing on her skin.
“Whenever you need me to take care of you…” he said. “I will come.”
The low deep sound of his voice made her belly tighten in response. Heat sprouted in her cheeks because she knew exactly what he meant.
Herbs were not the only way to replenish Essence.
Cassiel strode out of the tent, leaving his words behind. It took a moment before she could sort her thoughts enough to wander to the bath. After stripping off her soiled clothing, she sank into the heated water and rested her head against the edge.
She shut her eyes, trying to put her mind off him. It would a lie to say the thought had not fleetingly, secretly , crossed her mind. But no, she couldn’t allow herself to ever be that close to him again. Yet the soft rumble of his offer repeated in the silence, thrumming on her skin, drawing out a desperate longing that left her too warm and too restless.
There would be no rest for her tonight.
Dyna fell into the endless dark, her cries echoing all around her. She hit the ground with a shriek. Her arms and legs were tangled in the sheets. The tunic she’d borrowed stuck to her damp skin like a net. Her heart pounded wildly in her ears as she fought to recognize where she was.
The trilling of rain and the Cassiel’s familiar scent cleared her confusion.
The tent flaps parted, and a winged figure stepped in.
Her racing heart inexpiably sank. “Sowmya…”
“My lady,” she crouched by her side. “What happened? Are you all right?”
“Yes…” Dyna sat up, embarrassed to realize she had fallen off the bed. “I’m fine.”
Sowmya helped up onto it again. “Another nightmare?”
Dyna laughed drily and laid an arm over her eyes. “Of course you know about those as well.”
“May I bring you anything?”
She shook her head. “I half expected Cassiel to burst in here himself.”
Sowmya gave her a look.
Glancing at the entrance, Dyna lowered her voice. “He’s outside, isn’t he?”
“Can you blame him, my lady? His only desire is to protect you, even from what cannot be seen.” Sowmya rose. “If you command it, I will not allow him to enter.”
“You would defy your king?”
Sowmya frowned. “It is not defiance. It is compliance. When he declared you his equal, it was not for flattery but to exalt your place. You are the High Queen, should you need me to remind you of that.”
Dyna said no more as her guard marched outside. She stared at the entrance, sensing Cassiel on the other side. He wouldn’t enter without her permission.
She was determined to stay awake with the candles for company. But sleep came swiftly, and she was awoken again by the same terrors. Tears sprang to her eyes with fear and frustration. Why wouldn’t the dreams stop? Dyna buried her face into the pillow and stifled her cries.
It was too much.
She was so tired and scared. All she wanted was to feel safe.
Dyna looked at the entrance. She barely whispered his name, so faint she hardly heard it herself.
Yet Cassiel instantly swept in as if he had been waited for her call. Her vision blurred from relief, in that moment, she didn’t care about their past.
She needed him.
Cassiel kneeled by the bed, his wings draping his back and the floor like a black cloak. “You had another nightmare.”
“They never stop.” Her voice broke. “I feel I am going mad.”
“Then may I stay?” he murmured, brushing the hair from her sweaty temples. It was the only part of her he touched, yet his warmth filled her cold limbs and eased the racing of her heart. “To keep the nightmares at bay so you may find rest. Only this once.”
The last of her tears rolled down her cheeks. “Do you swear to stay?” she whispered back.
“I will not move until the sun rises.”
Dyna scooted back to make room for him on the bed. He hesitated before lying on beside her, but careful to leave space between them. She lied flat on her back, and he did the same, both watching the candlelight shadows dance on the tent ceiling.
She had no idea what came after for them. Not only because he was here for Rawn and tonight for her. What was his plan after he conquered the Realms? Before all of this, at the beginning of their journey, his goal had been something else entirely.
“Cassiel?”
“Hmm?”
“Have you given up on Mount Ida?” Dyna asked quietly. The real question she couldn’t voice was had he given up on his mother.
Cassiel was silent a long minute and she sensed he was sad. “I don’t know.” After another breath he asked, “What are your nightmares about?”
“Falling…” she whispered. “They started after you left. It’s always the same. I chase you out of our room then I fall…”
Cassiel rolled over to face her. Worry swam in his gaze, but she wasn’t ready to say more, and he must have sensed that too. “Sleep, motek. I will be here.”
The tender word tickled her mind, and she wondered what it meant. Knowing him, another endearment that would only make her cry.
Dyna closed her eyes again, fighting back the tightness in her throat. After several breaths, she tentatively reached over and linked her pinky with his. She didn’t know why she did it. Maybe she simply missed touching him.
It rose above the fear of him hurting her again. Above her anger and fatigue. She simply wanted, for this one night, to feel close to him again.
In the morning, she would remind herself why they were no longer together.
But for now, she needed this.
Cassiel looked down at where she touched him. Then gently slid his hand under hers and linked their fingers together. Soft currents of energy scattered over her skin. The heat radiating from his palm transferred into her body and she slowly relaxed.
When her next nightmare came, she didn’t fall. She was caught and pulled from the darkness. Dyna woke wrapped in his wings with his arm over her waist and her head tucked beneath his chin. Cassiel’s even breaths were steady in her ear as he slept.
Somewhere in the night, they had curled up together.
Dyna didn’t fight it this time. He was the only thing that brought her rest. How ironic. He had caused of the lack of it before. Yet now she didn’t have it in her to move away.
Completely warm and at peace, she felt into a dreamless sleep.