Chapter 74

Sloane

I woke because someone was touching my leg.

Pain hit before I could open my eyes.

I jerked instinctively.

“Stop.”

Malachi.

My eyes opened.

The room was unfamiliar.

Wooden ceiling.

Stone fireplace.

Dark curtains over narrow windows.

For one terrible second, I thought I had somehow ended up back in another hidden room inside the temple.

Then I smelled pine.

Cold air leaked around the window frames.

A cabin.

My leg throbbed.

I looked down.

Bandages wrapped it from just below my knee to my ankle.

Malachi sat at the edge of the bed, one hand still resting near my calf.

For several seconds, I stared at him.

Then everything came back.

The temple collapsing.

Running barefoot through the corridors.

His hand on my arm.

The fight.

Stone.

Cressida telling him to leave me.

His footsteps disappearing.

Then returning.<