Summer's Solstice

Chapter Four

Why did she always end up in this place? The clearing filled with smoke, Nathan's dying words etched upon his white lips as coldness and death overtook him. There was nothing she could do to change his fate, Liv knew. So why was her brain so hell-bent on making her experience that same waking nightmare every time she closed her eyes?

She choked on the freezing, black atmosphere surrounding her. Nathan's eyes were a light blue to match his pallid skin. He whispered, but this time the words were changed. Liv struggled to get closer, the smoke curling inward and forcing her back. A face formed from the darkness, and Nathan stumbled forward. Liv could feel fingers tightening their grip around her throat. She awoke with a scream, thrashing beneath her covers. Hands pinned her arms down as she floundered against the bed.

"Liv. Stop! Liv!"

The dulcet tones and low timbre growling at her failed to calm the beating of her heart. Her magic began to combat the onslaught of her mind. Wind whipped around her, the man still clutched her wrists. Liv sucked in a harsh breath. A cool sea breeze flowed across her cheeks.

She opened her eyes and saw Killian staring down at her. The gentle wind caressed her skin, her stomach was exposed where her shirt had ridden up. Heat rushed to Liv's face.

"Let me go. I'm fine," she murmured, yanking her arms away from Killian to snatch her shirt back down to cover herself. She eyed Killian from the periphery before brushing her hair from her face and sitting up. Liv took note of his hand rubbing soothing circles on her back and tried to force down the tears that threatened to spill from her burning eyes.

"It was just a nightmare. It happens. I'll get over it eventually," Liv whispered, pulling her knees up to her chest and resting her head against them.

Killian sighed, "I have a sleeping potion I take for my own... dreams. You nearly ripped the house apart with your magic. It's not safe." He had barely uttered the words before Liv stiffened and shook her head.

"No. I won't take anything like that. I'll figure out another way to deal with it. I won't take anything else that affects my mind like that." She shuddered, recalling all the pills that Dr. Johnson- that Anarawd had prescribed her that left her feeling as though she was moving through the same fog from her dreams. Killian continued to stroke her back.

"I understand. I know some tricks with meditation that may help you then. You have to figure something out, Liv. You have to remember that you are one of the most powerful fae to have been born in Aderlane's history, and right now you're living among weak mortals," Killian finished, getting up to return to his room.

Liv nodded and lay back against her pillow. She wasn't sure when the dreams began, only that she had to stop them. Killian was right about more than just that. Liv only wondered when exactly she had allowed him to slip past her defenses. When had she started to consider that, maybe, his words had value?