Chapter 16

 

Chapter Sixteen

 

We were both soaked through by the time we made it home, and wanted to get out of our wet clothing. Our dusters found their places respectively on the back of the sofa to dry out. I took off my corset hanging it over the shower curtain bar, the remainder of the clothing making it into the basket in the bathroom, to be taken to the laundry first thing in the morning. We were soaked, cold, and tired, not a good combination by any means. I found us dry towels, throwing one in Thomas’ general direction. He caught it, proceeding to dry off his hair and drenched skin. We both wrapped our towels around us when we were finished.

I sat down on the sofa and turned on the television to see if there was anything worth watching on before we settled in to bed for the night. Thomas headed into the kitchen calling behind him “Would you like anything to drink?”

“Sure, water would be fine” I about half shouted back at him. He came back in, handing me the bottle of water and sitting down , pulling me into him, he was in the same cuddly mood I was. I flipped through the channels, finding a rerun of a shipwreck movie, about a large ship traveling across the Atlantic on it’s maiden voyage.

About halfway through the movie, I shivered. “Are you cold” Thomas asked, wrapping his arms more tightly around me.

“A little, I just can’t seem to get warm tonight.” I shrugged. He got up went over to the bed and pulled the folded quilt on the end off, he came back over sitting down, wrapping both of us in it. I finally started to warm up a few moments later, promptly falling asleep before the end of the movie. Thomas woke me up as the credits started running. “Would you like to go to bed, it would probably be more comfortable” He said. I got up off the sofa heading towards the bed. I dropped my towel, crawling between the softness of the silk sheets, pulling the comforter up around me to keep me warm. Thomas got into bed on the other side, moving to the middle where I was waiting. I rolled on to my side, pressing my body close to his, spooning. Lying there like that, all the world was good. I could feel his warm strong body against mine, I could hear the rhythm of his breathing, his strong arms holding me as if he were protecting me from everything that could possibly hurt me, ever.

The one thing that Thomas couldn’t protect me from, was my dreams. They came vivid, and violent, making me scream out in my sleep. I woke Thomas several times, only for him to ask if I was ok. He’d wipe the sweat from my brow and pull me close in hopes of comforting me into not having another one. This happened many times through out the course of the night. Scenes of fighting with Emerald playing though my dreams randomly, I couldn’t make sense of any of it, I only knew I was scared, completely scared of what was happening.

I woke up screaming, sweat beading on forehead, I sat there shaking. Thomas looked up at me with concern, “Are you ok?” he asked, “You’ve had bad dreams since shortly after we came to bed.”

I couldn’t bring myself to speak, I nodded, trying to assure him and myself, I was fine. He got out of bed, to find a wash cloth. He wet it with cool water, returning to the bed pressing it against my forehead. I smiled weakly, how did I get so very lucky to have such a man in my life that wanted to take care of me? We snuggled back in as close as we could get together, his strong arms around me, I drifted back off asleep.

I found myself in the grotto, though I’d never been there, my tail shining in the foggy light. I had a sword in one hand, the crackle of magic playing across the other. I reached out with the empty hand, as if to throw something towards Emma. She was above me slightly, holding herself in place with her tail, she threw magic back at me before mine could hit her, it knocked me to the floor, gasping, I forgot how to breath underwater for a moment, I had to recast my spell before I drown. I regained my spell as she made a sweep at me with a trident, catching me across the abdomen, gashing it open. The cut wasn’t deep, but it bled, I tried to call healing magic to slow it. I barely got the spell off before Emerald again assaulted me with magic, netting me in place. It took everything I could muster to break free of the net, with little time to spare, she charged me with the trident, glancing my left shoulder, I winced. My hesitation was all she needed, I looked up just in time, as she ran me through with the trident, I crumpled to the floor of the grotto.

I sat straight up in bed, screaming, seemingly soaked in sweat though I‘d never remembered being this wet from sweating, “No! No!” my breathing was shallow and rapid. Thomas sat up beside me, more concerned than before.

“I can’t do this Thomas; she’s going to kill me.” I said in a panic, trying to catch my breath.

“You can’t do what?” he asked, “Who’s going to kill you?”

“Emma” I started bawling and hyperventilating. “She’s going to kill me, getting both you and the throne. And there’s nothing I can do about it.”

He pulled me close, wrapping his arms around me, “Amy, you can do this, I know you can.” He said reassuringly. I wasn’t so convinced.

“How?” I asked, the tears starting to subside, my breathing slowing, “How, when I don’t even know the spells I was casting in the dream, nor do I know how to use the sword I was holding.”

“I will teach you, I promise.”

“When?” I asked, the urgency of the situation causing my voice to crack and strain.

“When do you want to start?” He asked. I looked over at the clock, it was four a.m., there wasn’t much use starting right now, I was tired, my body ached from the dreams, not to mention how out of sorts I was.

“Well, without my having to work, that only leaves my practice times today and then again in the morning” I said, almost back to feeling more like myself. Thomas looked at me nodding. “That means I’ll have plenty of spare time to start learning.”

“I was actually hoping to hold off a bit,” he said in earnest, “Until we had more room and maybe a private pool, which was really the only reason I hadn’t started to teach you much yet.”

“A private pool in The Village?” I looked shocked, “It’s impossible, there isn’t anything here that has a private pool.”

“Actually, there is a place I’ve been looking at that has a private pool on the ground floor,” he stated, “It’s a single family townhouse not far from the Washington Park.”

I tried to think of what was in the area, houses like that don’t just spring up. They’re usually very old, and very heavily advertised. “You don’t mean the Bacchus House, do you?!” I asked almost in shock. Thomas nodded. I couldn’t believe he was even considering it.

“Do you know how expensive that place is?” I asked, I was sure he didn’t.

“Yes,” he stated simply, “It listed at eighteen million, however, it’s been listed for a while now, and I’ve been in negotiations with the realtor trying to get him to drop the price.”

I didn’t know what to say; he wasn’t just thinking of buying us a bigger place in The Village, he was looking at the premier place in The Village to own. It was huge, beautiful, and huge. “Even if you get the price lowered, it’s going to be well over fifteen million.” I pointed out to him.

“I know, and?” he said, as though he was waiting for me to find something else wrong with it.

“It’s huge, it has several bedrooms, we’d need a maid just to keep it clean.” I said, “Not to mention, we don’t’ have near enough furniture.”

“We can fix that.” He said playfully trying to take my mind off the dreams, it was working, slowly. “The furniture part I mean.” I shook my head in disbelief.

“Does my grandmother know how much you intend to spend on a house?” I arched an eyebrow at him.

“Yes actually, she’s been trying to use her influence to get the price lowered for us a bit.” He smiled deeply at me. I didn’t understand why she would do such a thing, I was under the impression the whole idea was to get me back home, a place that wonderful wasn’t going to help convince me.

“I think I’ve given up on sleep for the night.” I told Thomas, even though I was still tired and my body ached, I had a burning sensation just below my rib cage.

“Amy!” Thomas shouted, a look of shock crossing his face.

“What?” I asked fearfully.

“What were you dreaming about?” he asked, I could hear the distress in his voice, as he looked at me, naked against glow of the streetlights shining through the window.

“Fighting with Emma, why?” I looked at him perplexed. He crawled across the bed, coming to stand in front of me, looking down at my body, his hand landed in something wet, he picked it up looked at it, and wiped whatever it was on the sheet. I looked down to see what was so alarming to him. There across my abdomen, was a slash mark, just below it was a large puncture wound, it was healing fast, but it was there plain as day. I looked to my left shoulder, wondering if there would be anything there. A small cut shown against my perfect skin, it was in the last stages of healing. I shook my head wondering how I could have evidence of a battle that never took place.