“The Future Norn holds you?”
“Aye.”
“Why?”
She shook her head. “I cannot speak of it.”
“Can’t, or won’t?”
“They are one and the same. To speak is to have thoughts. To have thoughts is to make action. She can see action.”
It was like talking to a walking riddle. Heath sighed. “Tell me your name.”
“They called me Ash at one time.”
Ash. It didn’t fit her. She wasn’t burned cinders after having lost all their color. She was vibrant, full of light and life. But he bit his tongue from digging further. First, he had to focus on how to get her to his side.
“I am Heath.”
“Heath? That is not a Fae name.”
No, but then he didn’t want to be tied to who he was before. Maybe they both wanted to separate themselves from what was before. He couldn’t fault her there.
“It is still my name.”
He laughed at himself. Without realizing it, he’d switched to her formal way of speaking. It was only then he realized she was speaking High Eldalisfae, the language of his kind. He’d been responding in English, but she seemed to understand.
A sudden wrenching of his soul took Heath’s breath away. “Shit.”
“It is harder to maintain this form. I have to go.”
“Wait. Tell me how to get you out.”
Ash closed her eyes. “I dare not hope, but you are here. This is all I can offer, and even this may doom us both. Find your way to the Forgotten Tower. I am there. But beware, Foraltin, there are many dangers that lie in wait. She does not want anyone to ruin her plans. I dare not even say her name.”
The Forgotten Tower was the information that mattered to him most of all. “I will find you. I swear it on my life.”
Ash took one hesitant step forward and lifted her hand toward Heath. When her small, heated palm touched his chest, directly over his heart, he sucked in a breath.
“You are but a dream, but I thank the gods I was blessed to have seen you. I have never known any man could be as heartbreaking to set eyes upon as you.”
“Heartbreaking?”
“Because even when you find me, taking me will be impossible. But here, in these moment, I will enjoy wishing you were mine.”
Ash was gone before he could say a single word, and he woke up, gasping for breath.
It didn’t matter what she believed. Heath would find her and free her.
The dreams would only make it so he could know her before the time came, if he were so lucky to have another.
I swear it, Ash.
Chapter Six
Waking hours weren’t as happy as he wanted.
He longed to be back in his dreams with Ash, watching the play of the sun over her skin. Going back and forth from that brilliant color to the drabness of the In Between was mind-boggling. He kept blinking, hoping some speck of color would leak in eventually. He knew Eiravel’s armor normally glistened dark red like freshly spilled blood, but it appeared a deep charcoal now.