Into the Dim (Into the Dim, #1)(101)

“What are you doing here?”

I wondered briefly if I was dreaming. But the smells and sounds and feel of the moist fog against my skin were too real. Bran led his roan to nuzzle against Ethel and moved toward me, leaving a few feet of space between us.

“I had to see you,” he said simply.

When he reached out a hand, I stiffened, and he let it drop. He’d made his choice. And though I understood his reasons, even admired them, it didn’t change how much it hurt.

“My mother’s agreed to leave Tony in school for now.”

“That’s good.” I choked back the excruciating ache. “I mean, I’m glad he’s safe. But I don’t understand. Why would Celia agree to take you back, when she knows you betrayed her?”

I had to look away from the cocky half grin. That crooked incisor. “She didn’t have much choice, really,” he said. “Before I left, I hid all her Tesla research.” He winked. “A little insurance policy.”

Awkward seconds passed while we stared at each other. He was so close, I could see the condensation from the mist pearling on his cheeks. Yet he might as well have been on the moon. I looked away and began to move toward Ethel.

“Well,” I said, “good luck with that.”

Before I could take another step, Bran grabbed me, eyes like a starving man’s as they roamed my face. “When you rode into my village on the front of your grandfather’s horse,” he said, “you were the brightest, most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. Like a duchess, with your silks and your little doll.” His fingers tightened on my arms. “No matter what happens, don’t ever forget that.”

I ripped away, fighting back sobs that slashed at the inside of my chest like shards of broken glass. “Then leave her,” I cried. “Lucinda could protect your brother somehow. I know it. She’s got a lot of influence, and . . .”

Still gibbering like a maniac, I let him pull me to him. Beneath the snug T-shirt, I could feel the bandage wrapped around his slim waist.

I breathed in, wishing I never had to exhale, that I could keep Bran’s scent in my lungs forever. My fingers played up the ridge of his spine, memorizing the flex of each muscle, and how the fine hairs on the back of his neck stiffened when my lips grazed his earlobe.

If this was all I ever got of Bran Cameron, I would sear every nuance into my mind. I had a photographic memory, perfect recall for books and maps and arcane knowledge no one had ever cared about. But I was terrified I’d forget how he felt against me.

He murmured into my hair. “I can’t take that chance, Hope. But I will never let her hurt any of you again.” He pulled back to look down at me. “I’ll do everything I can to ensure my mother never gets her hands on the Nonius Stone.” His eyes shuttered. “I’ve agreed to feed information to the Viators. It’s all arranged.”

Lucinda. That’s how she knew he’d be here tonight.

“No.” My fists bunched in his shirt. “Bran, if your mom finds out you’re helping us, she’ll kill you. You know that.”

He planted a kiss on the end of my nose and stepped back. “Then I shall have to be very clever, won’t I?”

He gave that Bran Cameron smirk and walked over to withdraw something from his saddlebag.

Grinning, he returned with a bulky object wrapped in a scrap of aged fabric. He placed it in my open palm and backed up, worrying at the silver medallion at his neck. The only thing left from a life that was taken from him. Robbed, because of me.

“What’s this?”

“Just open it.”

The silky material fell open at my touch. All the air left my lungs as I reached out a trembling finger to touch her hair, the delicate silk of her faded gown.

You must take good care of your Elizabeth until I come for you, sweet girl, my grandfather had told me.

But I hadn’t. I’d lost the doll in the nightmare tree.

I looked up into Bran’s eyes. Sapphire and Emerald. The only points of color in a silver night. “You kept her? All this time?” My intake of breath was quick and shallow. “Why?”

He tucked a stray curl behind my ear. “Don’t you know?” he whispered. “Haven’t you always known?”

There comes a moment in every person’s life when fate wheels on the head of a pin and changes their destiny forever. For me, that instant came when a little boy, with blue and green eyes, handed me an apple.

I flew to him. When Bran Cameron pulled me close and began to murmur the words that would send my heart soaring and shatter it in one fell swoop, I shook my head and touched his lips with shaking fingers.

“Bran,” I said through pain and joy that mixed to scratch my voice. “Just . . . stop talk—”

His mouth came down over mine, stopping my words, crushing me to him in a kiss we both knew would have to last us for a long, long time.





TO BE CONTINUED





Acknowledgments


I DON’T KNOW HOW ANY AUTHOR CAN EVER BEGIN TO thank all the people who were involved in helping her write a book. But I’m going to do my best.

First and foremost, I want to thank my husband, Phil. My love, best friend, and sweetheart since that Halloween party when we were seniors in high school. (You know what I’m talking about, baby.) Day after day, he’s my biggest fan, my strongest cheerleader, and the one who’s talked me off the ledge more times than I can count. This book would not exist without him.