Free Time Dancer by Inez Kelley Page A

horse and landed on some rocks but I wasn’t. Kya, the second mark, the bear claw? I got it today. Somewhere. I don’t know where. And I don’t know why.”
    Something darted across her face. “When you’re hurting, your eyes change.”
    “Change?” He frowned. “What do you mean?”
    “They nearly glow. I thought it...well, I’ve seen you work spells before. They glow then too, so I never really thought...”
    The skin on her hands wasn’t lily-smooth. Kya was not a pampered lady. She worked for her coin, preferring to use her wits and her strength rather than earn it on her back as so many women would have. Warric had been her first lover and it was a gift he treasured more than all the jewels in the crown. That firm hand stroked up his bare spine.
    “Warric, please. Talk to the castle healer. Maybe this one will know more. I’m worried. Headaches are one thing but this... I’m frightened for you. Maybe your moth—”
    “No!” Volume he hadn’t intended echoed and she cringed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell. No. Mama can’t help with this. I’ll figure it out on my own. Trust me, please, Kya.”
    She cupped his cheek. The jabbing pain in his skull lessened under her touch and he pressed a kiss to her palm. He asked for her trust and she gave it when he hadn’t the first clue what might be wrong with him. The thought humbled him.
    Using his mind, he snuffed the candle and took her mouth, lowering her to the mattress. Her lips opened under his and he whispered into her kiss, “I just need you. You’re my healer, Kya. Heal me.”
    * * *
    “Wake. You are safe, my charge.” Darach’s voice echoed in the quiet room with the cadence of falling rain. This time he hadn’t touched her but stood at the foot of her bed. “What did you dream?”
    Gooseflesh erupted along her skin and she turned, hiding her face in the pillow. Giving words to the dreams had always made them worse. She’d stopped talking about them long ago, trying to rob them of the power they held over her. But Darach said her dreams held everything.
    Her trembling fingers pushed back the blanket. “Will you stoke the fire? I need the light to be able to talk about it.”
    In seconds it seemed, the fireplace cast bright light into the room. Firelight loved him. It caressed the contours of his face with flickering fingers. She fisted her hands and wrapped her arms around her waist to hide their shaking. She would give him no more cause to think she was weak.
    “There’s nothing there. Only blackness. Cold, empty black. But there are voices. Hundred and hundreds, talking, crying, screaming, laughing.” A shudder worked loose from her spine.
    “Darkness and voices frighten you? They are harmless.”
    “Yeah,” she muttered. Deeply instilled fear coiled up her spine. Her shoulders drew back with a cleansing breath. “It reminds me of the Abyss. Do you know what that is?”
    He shook his head.
    “The Abyss is... Only the most evil are banished there after death. It’s the other side of life but not the happy place where your family waits. It’s cold, black emptiness until the dead come for you, drag you into the pits of fire and spend eternity torturing your spirit. There’s no relief from the pain.”
    “And the voices you hear? That makes you think these dead souls are searching for you?”
    “They never stop screaming and I can’t run from them.”
    “You need to run toward them, my charge.”
    “Toward them? Into the Abyss?” She gaped. “No.”
    “What you hear is not the dead calling, not as you believe. It is not your Abyss. You must go to them if we are to undo this curse.”
    “What curse?”
    “A gift turned curse. One that weakened every generation until all that is left of a once-proud bloodline stands within these walls.”
    “The heartmate bonds?” She rubbed her forehead. “How does that threaten the crown? It can’t plot murder.”
    “No, it cannot, but the two are tied in some way,” Darach