“I was until you touched me,” he says with his eyes still closed. “No way can I continue to sleep when your hands are on me.”
“Why are you sleeping?” I giggle. “It’s late afternoon.”
“You fell asleep. I wanted to sleep with you.”
I snuggle into him, putting my head on his chest. I fall into a doze again then I am suddenly jolted out of my rest by an image that flashes through my head: CK, Sebastian, and Vivienne. Here at Ponte. I jump out of bed, being led by something other than my own actions and he looks up startled from his desk in the corner. “Aefre?”
I ignore him and grab my robe. “Aefre?” He stands and asks, “What’s wrong?”
“You,” I say to him, “you were here with her.” I spit it out at him with such venom that he looks confused, then worried as I barge out of the room and he follows me. I march down the corridor from his bedroom, past my old room where I hesitate for a moment, though I am unsure why, and then carry on a bit further down.
“Aefre!” He grabs my arm as he catches up with me. “Where are you going?”
“Here,” I say, pointing to the door in front of me. “You were in here with her. And Sebastian. You brought her here, to fuck her, to the place you want to call our home!” I turn towards him with tears pouring down my face at the betrayal. He looks back at me fearful, sad, and almost lost before I collapse.
“Aefre,” he says to me quietly as I open my eyes. My head is banging, and I have three worried faces staring at me. I sit up, rubbing my forehead with my hand. What happened?
“Why am in the middle of the hallway?” I ask.
“You don’t remember?” CK says, almost relieved.
“No.”
“Liv,” Cade says. “It was that…thing again.”
“You felt it? Here?”
“Felt what?” CK says. “Aefre, what are you not telling me?”
“Nothing,” I say. “It’s nothing for you to worry about.”
“If it is affecting you, then I will worry about it. Cade?”
I glare at Cade to keep his trap shut but he sighs. “Sorry, Liv, my job is to protect you, not your secrets. You should tell him.”
I growl at him, but he just looks back at me blandly and asks, “You or me?”
I stay rebelliously silent, so he says, “Fine. I will tell. There is something manipulating Liv’s dreams. Distorting reality, making her think things are different.”
CK gulps. “What do you mean making her think things are different?” he asks. He sounds guilty, which is a bit odd.
“She is having these dreams of Lance. I am going to assume you know who he is?”
“Lance?” he blanches. “How do you know about Lance?”
“She told me. A bit.”
“I am sitting right here, you know. You don’t need to talk about me like I’m not here,” I say annoyed.
“Well, you aren’t saying anything so deal with it,” Cade says to me.
“Aefre, what dreams are you having about Lance?”
“Happy ones. We are at Castle Black and we are married and happy, and other things,” I say, resigned to my fate, better he hears it from me than Cade.
“Married? Happy? What other things?” he asks in dread.
“We are living our life, my love,” I might as well get it all out, so I add, “Our plans.”