Shadows in the Silence Read Online Free PDF Page B

real.
    No matter how hard I tried to believe the words circling in my mind, I could only focus on Will, who kissed me like he needed my lips to breathe, like we were sinking beneath the ocean beyond the cliffs and we’d drown if he pulled away. I could only think of how much time I’d wasted, all these centuries of denying how much I was in love with him, and now he was dying.
    Something tugged at my core, pulling my stomach out my back. I broke our kiss and stared into his face, confusion wrapping around me. My body jerked involuntarily and he tightened his grip on me.
    “Ellie?” he asked.
    “I don’t know what that is,” I confessed, holding on to him.
    “Please don’t leave me,” he begged. “Please stay here so I’m not alone.”
    A vice clamped down on my heart. “I can’t control this.”
    “Ellie—”
    Then something yanked me back at a lightning speed and Will’s form blurred to nothingness at the end of a dark tunnel as he cried out my name. The sensation of flying through the air came to a halt when I woke up in a soft bed. I thrashed in the sheets with a desperate gasp of fright and I sat bolt upright. My pulse hammered beneath my skin, which was damp with cold sweat. Once again, I had no idea where I was, but this place was real. I was truly awake this time.
    The room around me was dark and unfamiliar, and I pulled back the sheets to find myself still wearing my clothes from earlier. They were ripped and dirty from the fight at the nightclub. As I started to slide off the bed, a door on the far wall opened and Cadan appeared with a frightened look on his face.
    “Are you okay?” he asked. “What’s wrong?”
    “Where am I?” I demanded, ignoring his concern.
    “Relax. We’re back at my apartment. You fell asleep on the drive so I brought you here. I tried to wake you, but you wouldn’t respond. I figured you were exhausted so I let you sleep in my bed. Are you upset? I’m sorry if I—”
    I realized that tears soaked my cheeks and I wiped them away. “No, it’s okay. I had a bad dream, or something. I didn’t know where I was for a second. Just freaked me out a bit.”
    He sat down on the bed beside me and smoothed my hair back. “Do you always sleep like that?”
    “Like what?” I asked defensively. I touched the corner of my mouth to check for drool.
    He studied me curiously, his opal eyes bright in the dim light pouring in from the doorway. “You were practically out cold. I was pretty worried about you.”
    I shook my head. “Just a deep sleeper sometimes, I guess.” I wasn’t about to confess to him what had really happened. How I had been sucked into Will’s dream was a mystery, but part of me wanted to fall immediately back to sleep in case I could be with him again. I could still feel the ocean wind, his touch on my skin, my lips numb from his kisses. I closed my eyes at the memory and inhaled, but instead of Will’s scent, I caught Cadan’s.
    “You should go back to sleep,” Cadan offered. “Stay here a few more hours and we can figure out a plan once you’ve had some more rest.”
    “Sleep…here?” I asked, suddenly remembering I was in Cadan’s bed.
    “It’s okay,” he said. “I’ve got a couch.” He gave me a kind smile that made me feel a little reassured.
    “I don’t mean to take your bed.”
    “Sleep. Just come on out when you’re ready. The worldwon’t end if you sleep a bit more.”
    I wanted out of my dirty clothes, but I was too tired to think of an alternative. I crawled back into the bed and sank into the silk sheets. Cadan rose and walked toward the door. I rested my head against the pillow and watched him.
    He paused with one hand on the doorknob. “Sleep sweet,” he said softly and closed the bedroom door behind him.
    I could only muse over the strange, almost archaic phrase for a few moments before I fell into a fitful sleep, one in which Will was noticeably absent.

4

    WHEN I WOKE IN THE MORNING, I WAS FAR TOO aware of the