"Olivia? Can you hear me?"
He knelt beside the tub, face above mine, hands on my shoulders, holding me in the tub but not pushing me under.
"You have a fever," he said. "You're burning up. You were delirious."
"Where . . . ?" The answer came with a click as I saw the towels again. "Rose."
"She's downstairs calling the doctor and getting ice."
"Ice." I shivered at the thought of it. "Please. Yes. So . . ." My throat seemed to seize, parched. "So hot."
"I know."
His hand brushed sweat-soaked hair from my face. Then he dipped his hand into the water and did it again, the chill so refreshing I sighed.
"Better?"
I nodded.
He leaned over the tub. "You'll be all right."
He looked down at me, and all I could see were his eyes, those gorgeous blue eyes, sharp with worry, and I swore I could feel their coolness wash over me. I wanted to lose myself in those eyes, just--
"Ice." Rose strode in, appearing over Gabriel. She looked down at me in the tub. "She's still dressed."
"Of course," Gabriel said.
A strained half smile as she shook her head then bent with the bowl of ice. "Is she lucid?" she asked.
Gabriel nodded as he grabbed the ice and dumped it in. I let out a gasp as the ice hit the water--and me.
"I was asking so I could warn her before doing that," Rose said. "Can you hear me, Olivia?"
I nodded.
"I've called the doctor. She'll be here soon. You should go to the hospital, but Gabriel said--"
"N-no hospital," I said, teeth chattering. "Please."
"I know. Gabriel said you don't like them, but if this fever doesn't drop--"
I didn't hear the rest. The room was tilting, the bright light flickering. My eyelids flagged as I struggled to focus, and then . . . Dark.
--
I surfaced to lucidity a few times. Dr. Webster was there once, while I was still in the tub. She said yes, the fever was dropping. Then I woke again as Rose was stripping me out of my wet clothing and Gabriel was pacing outside the closed door, complaining that it was taking so long, that the doctor said I needed to be in bed, Rose snapping that some idiot put me in a tub while dressed and my clothes were practically glued on now.
Then I woke in bed, Gabriel trying to get me
to drink, which he really should have done after I was fully awake, because I was still fevered and thought I was being poisoned, which meant he ended up wearing the water before I drifted off again.
When I woke next, it was to Gabriel and Rose arguing--I was dehydrated and if they couldn't get fluids into me, I had to go to the hospital. I roused myself enough then to drink a whole glass of water. Then I zonked out, dimly aware of the glass falling from my hand, hearing it shatter as it hit the hardwood--
Darkness.
No matter how deeply my body slept, my fevered brain stayed wide awake, pelting me with nightmares.
I was back in the Tylwyth Teg castle, as Matilda, smiling when the golden-haired man appeared in the doorway. He kissed me, that incredible storybook kiss, desire and lust and love and need, and I clung to him, never wanting it to end. But then I heard the hounds and the horses, and I pulled from his arms and turned to look out--