Cimmerian Sunrise

Chapter 19 - *** REVISED ***

A/N: This was supposed to be posted way earlier - sorry for the tardiness! Unfortunately, this story is only partially edited. Thank you so much for reading, voting and commenting!! I really appreciate it! Hope you guys enjoy!

"I know you can hear me! Release me! Open this door at once!" Breanne yelled out again, banging her small, curled fists on the door.

The truth was, she didn't know if anyone could hear her. But how could they not? She was upstairs....not in some deep, dark dungeon beneath a castle. After returning to the settlement the night before, Reese assisted her to their room and without so much as a word, lecture, or even a glance, grabbed clothes out of a nearby chest, and left her.

Breanne had stared at the doorway he'd exited in a state of discomfiture. Knowing Reese as she did, his eerie silence was more unsettling than she'd have felt if he'd railed at her, and her conscience heavily beat upon her so that she felt a measure of guilt at having deceived him when leaving the settlement with Alla. Yet, she couldn't imagine why she felt such an emotion, given her more recent suspicions regarding his true nature and what damage he might have caused to his brother – and by extension, her.

She'd wondered then if his silence was, in effect, Reese expressing fierce disappointment that she was currently alive and in good health despite efforts to the contrary. In any case, he'd left her alone, and she'd spent the night contemplating her situation, replaying each flirtation with death she'd experienced since making his acquaintance.

The more she dwelt on her circumstances, the more disturbing her thoughts became, and she was quite certain wild delusions had entered the fray. Surely it was... it had to be a figment of her imagination – she hadn't heard someone enter her room in the middle of the night—hadn't felt anyone standing over her as she feigned sleep, breathing heavily....watching her. No, no...if she had opened her eyes, she would have seen clearly that no one was there.

But she hadn't opened them. And before she knew it, the heavy breathing she'd thought she heard, no doubt conjured up from her own morbid imaginings, had dissipated, and she'd fallen asleep.

When she'd awoken the next morning, she had felt well-rested and renewed, despite the condition of her ankle – she'd felt as if, regardless of the disturbing information discovered yesterday, she could face anything, overcome anything...until Brandon paid her a visit.

After lashing out at her for putting both herself and Alla in danger, he voiced his assumption while enlightening her regarding his own sentiment on the matter – that though she was "clearly regretting" her actions, he was "furious" with her, and "certainly would be for some time."

Baffled, her brows had drawn together. "Whatever would make you believe that I am regretting my actions?" she'd asked shaking her head, spine straightening even as she struggled to hobble about the room toward the breakfast that had been delivered to her bedchamber. Her back had been to him at the time. Recalling the incident, she winced, her memory flashing back to the little giggle that had escaped her lips while enlightening him of her true feelings. "No, no. If I could do it all over again, I certainly would. I do not regret a—"

The sound of the door slamming, and of a latch sliding into place, had cut her laughter short and made her swing around to face him – but he was no longer in the room. And with a clattering of the doorknob, and a thumping of her shoulder against the wood, she'd discovered that he'd well and truly locked her in.

Breanne had expected that Alla would check on her that morning, but she hadn't, which puzzled Breanne to no end – and now that it was late afternoon, she had nearly given up hope that anyone would come. Did no one notice she was absent? There was only so much she could do, only so much effort she could expend in efforts to escape the confines of the room without injuring herself further. She was close to succumbing to her own fatigue, taking another reprieve – even a nap!