Chapter 29 - Nic

I come back to my senses when I feel cool water on my face. My captor is bending over me with the most worried expression.

"Oh thank God you're alright," he says, suddenly hugging me for a second before letting me as abruptly. His eyes look clear, and for a moment, I'm tempted to believe that I might be able to reason with him. He is no longer wearing the tattered rags but a pretty decent looking robe, the kind worn by priests.

"I got water," he beams at me, pointing to the broken terracotta pot next to him. The crazy glint is back in his eyes. He seems enormously pleased with himself for having fetched the water.

My shoulders sag and I'm tempted to give in to my despair.

"Aren't you thirsty anymore?"

I try to smile, but I simply can't. So I just nod, scoop water into my palms, and drink. The cold, sweet water feels like an elixir. I drink greedily, not caring that I'm getting water all over me. I look up when I feel his eyes on me. He's looking at me with an expression of such tenderness that I'm taken aback. Who is this man?

"I'm going to take very, very good care of you. You won't have to worry about a thing. I know you might be feeling intense gratitude since I saved your life and your dragon's, but I don't really need your gratitude. Virtue is its own reward. ‘As there is sense in truth and truth in virtue', in the words of the Bard."

He is staring fixedly at a point behind me. Suddenly, he grabs me by my shoulders. I press myself against the wall of the cave and screw my eyes shut.

"I am never going to let you go. I'm going to keep you safe. I should have kept her safe. It's all my fault!"

I dare to peek through my lids and am horrified to see tears rolling down his cheeks into his dirty beard.

Maybe it's only a nightmare I'm having. Maybe none of this is real. Any minute now, I will wake up and I will be back in my bed. It's perhaps only a bad reaction to stress. Yeah, that's what it must be. That's, in fact, the only thing that makes sense. I mean, kidnapping me makes no sense at all! And dragons! Surely that is only my imagination? Everybody knows dragons are not real!

I curl up on my side with my eyes still screwed shut. I am going to fall asleep, and when I wake up, I will be in Lex's bed, safe in his arms. It's not real. It's not real, I chant in my head till mercifully, my exhausted brain shuts down and I fall asleep.