Heat by Donna Grant

Author:Donna Grant
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Icy shards of apprehension immobilized Esther. She recognized the darkness around her, sensed the threat just out of sight.

The last thing she remembered was Nikolai holding her with the fire warming their naked bodies after hours of making love. She’d only closed her eyes for a second, but that’s all it took for sleep to claim her.

She swallowed and pinched herself to try and wake. It was a useless endeavor, but that didn’t stop her from trying again and again.

“Nikolai,” she whispered.

The sound would never reach him. She was on her own, locked in her mind and about to face terrors she’d run from ever since waking from the Druid’s hold.

She lifted her hand and saw it clearly. There was a light above her as if spotlighting her for whatever waited in the recesses of her psyche. Yet everything else was black as pitch, the dark so deep that she instinctively recoiled from it. Not that it did any good when it surrounded her.

Esther had walked into meetings with people armed to the teeth. She’d dined with a known terrorist, and even partied with a man who was involved with human trafficking. All of those people were among the most evil of humanity, but the fear she’d felt around them was nothing compared to what gripped her now.

She was a joke, telling everyone how strong—both mentally and physically—she was. That her training had prepared her for anything.

The instruction had done nothing to prevent a Druid from controlling her thoughts and actions. It hadn’t readied her for magic or the supernatural. It did little to show her how to defend herself against her own mind—or whatever creature was there, waiting for her.

But she wasn’t a Dragon King. She couldn’t remain awake indefinitely.

“Bloody brilliant,” she mumbled.

How did one plan for battle with oneself? One way or another, she was going to find out just how tough and resilient she was.

She took the first tentative step, her knees literally knocking together. How Henry would love to see her so terrified after all those pranks he’d played while they were growing up. What she wouldn’t do to have someone with her. Nikolai or Henry. Hell, she’d even take Con. Yet she had no choice but to face whatever was to come alone.

“You can do this,” she told herself.

The encouragement might have worked if her voice hadn’t shaken so badly, but it was hard to motivate yourself to move forward when all you wanted to do was curl up in a ball and pretend that none of it was happening.

Standing around wishing she would wake up wouldn’t solve her dilemma. If she wanted to survive, she had to do something.

She thought of Nikolai and how he’d stood steadfastly beside her. His stillness and silence were a peace she hadn’t realized she needed. He was a calm in the storm that was her life. The tree with roots that went so deep, nothing could ever move him. And he offered for her to hang onto him.

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