Until We Fly (Beautifully Broken 4)

Skin rubbing mine.

I’m too weak to move.

I can’t move.

I can’t breathe.

I can’t breathe.

I can’t breathe.

I wake up screaming.

And as I sit up and open my eyes, I see the only thing that makes me feel safe.

Brand.

Chapter Nine

Brand

Nora’s shrill screams had woken me from a dead slumber. I’d leaped from bed and twisted my knee in the process, but it sounded like the hounds of hell were literally at her tail from the way she was screaming.

But now, I see she was only dreaming.

Her face is devoid of all color, so pale it almost looks silver as she sits in the light of the moon. Her hands are twisted in the sheets so tightly that her knuckles are white.

She looks up and sees me, and relief floods her face.

“Brand,” she breathes.

She’s limp and still and I fight the urge to cross the room and pull her to me. She seems so helpless and alone.

“Is everything all right?” I say instead, remaining in the doorway.

She nods. “I’m sorry if I woke you. I just…had a bad dream.”

I know all about bad dreams.

I clear my throat, very aware that Nora is naked in her sheets. She doesn’t seem to even notice, so I know that her fear right now is very real.

“Okay. I just wanted to make sure.”

I turn to leave, but her voice stops me.

“Wait.”

I turn back and her face is pensive.

“Can you stay?”

She’s naked.

“Uh. I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

Because she’s naked and this is not a smart thing.

She hardly lets me finish before she interrupts.