Raven constantly possessed a somber mood while at the camp.
She wasn’t playful or talkative.
I used to be the one who craved silence in the cabin, to work on my laptop without hearing the sound of her voice, but now that situation had been reversed. She was the one who craved the quiet.
She was also exhausted at bedtime because she worked in the scorching heat all day. Summer brought constant sunshine to the camp along with humidity, and the tarp over the clearing wasn’t enough to combat the temperature of the sun.
Time seemed to pause.
We weren’t living like we were in Paris…just existing.
The small bed didn’t bother me anymore because we were practically one person during the night. The cabin had AC, so we weren’t hot when we were close together, but we did sleep in the nude.
My eyes were on the window up above, looking at the moonlight as it poked through the curtain. It’d been a long day, but I couldn’t sleep. She was in my arms, her hand on my chest and her cheek on my shoulder.
She started to shift in her sleep, moving like she couldn’t get comfortable. Then her breathing escalated, a couple of suppressed whimpers coming from her mouth.
I watched her, wondering if she was suffering through a nightmare.
Then she jolted upright quickly, her eyes wide open and on the door, panting like she’d just sprinted a mile. When she realized the door was closed and there was no one in the cabin, she leaned against the wall and let her breathing return to normal.
I sat up and watched her.
Her hand moved over her chest like she had a stitch in the muscle. Her fingers slid through her hair next, taking a long time to bring herself back to a state of calm.
I didn’t know how to comfort her. She was against the wall like she wanted to get as far away from me as possible. Her eyes didn’t turn my way, like my existence didn’t make her feel better either. After a final deep breath, she started to breathe normally, to drop her gaze from the door when the danger was really over.
Without having to ask, I knew exactly what her nightmare was about.
Alix had stormed in here and stripped all her clothes away before parading her outside, taking away all her dignity as if he had the right to claim it for himself. My power wasn’t enough to keep her safe—not in that instance. If Fender hadn’t randomly entered the camp and shown his loyalty to me, her fate would have been unspeakable.
A tear formed in the corner of her eye and streaked down her cheek, illuminated like a liquid diamond. She was calm now, so the tear must have formed previously but didn’t have the weight to fall.
It was hard to look at her, hard to see the strongest woman I knew break down from her fears. “That will never happen again, Raven. You’re safe.”
She turned her body so her back was completely against the wall, and she crossed her arms over her chest like she was somehow cold in this summer heat. “As long as I’m here, I’ll never really feel safe.”
At nightfall, I waited at the gate.
The sound of approaching hooves announced Fender’s arrival. One of his armed guards shouted over the fence to let us know they were there. They turned the lock on their side of the door, and then I turned mine.
I pulled both the doors open and let the horses pass through. Fender was in the center and in the lead. He was in his typical jeans, boots, and a long-sleeved shirt because it was a bit cooler that night than usual. The guys behind him turned off their flashlights once they were in the lit-up camp.
My brother got off his horse then removed his gloves. The men immediately moved in to take his things and lead his horse away to the stables without making a single noise. There was no greeting. No questions. Fender stepped farther into the camp and scanned his surroundings, as if a simple observation was enough to gauge the progress of the work happening in his absence. He looked at the clearing for a few seconds before he glanced at the edge of the fence, his paranoid mind needing assurance of safety with his own gaze.
I came to his side. “Do you want to talk tomorrow?” I noticed that he hadn’t brought Melanie to the camp again. That seemed to be a one-time thing. I wondered what she was doing while he was away. Did she have the liberty to go anywhere she chose? Like Raven did?
“No.” He moved ahead, crossing the space between the cabins toward his at the rear of the camp. The man was never tired, despite the long journey it took to bring him there.