Still caught up in his panic attack, Crow was unaware of the discourse between Preston and Penelope. He kept his eyes shut, trying to reign in his uncontrolled breathing as he realized he was starting to feel lightheaded. With the nightmare still so fresh in his mind, he didn’t want to let himself pass out and risk facing it twice in one day. Thinking about it again, he flinched as the images passed, unwarranted, through his mind. He lifted his hands to his head, murmuring to himself under his breath as he tried to get them to go away. They were definitely getting worse. He was sure of that now.

Suddenly, he tensed as he felt someone rest a hand on his back. He wanted to look up to see who was there but, worried that he would just open his eyes to another vision of Jaxon or a knight or something even worse, he couldn’t bring himself to move. He shivered, putting his focus back into getting rid of the lingering pictures in his mind. It was getting harder to tell dream from reality. Even though he’d dealt with nightmares in the past, they had never been this bad. If they continued to progress as they had been, he wasn’t sure what he was going to do.

[color=fff79a][b]“Crow, I’m here.”[/b][/color]

The viceroy’s breath caught in his throat as he recognized Penelope’s voice. For a moment, relief washed over him as he decided that it must have been her hand that he could feel on his back. However, his respite was short lived when another thought came to him: [i]What if I’m just imagining her too?[/i] His stomach twisted. As his nightmares grew more intense, he was starting to fear that he was losing his mind. If he opened his eyes to look for the knight and saw that she wasn’t there…

[color=fff79a][b]“You’re alright. You’re safe. Just breathe… In and out.”[/b][/color]

Crow bit his lip. He really wanted her to be there. Her voice [i]sounded[/i] tangible, but he had to know for sure. Pushing back against his fear, he managed to open his eyes and tentatively glanced toward his bedside. As his gaze fell on the knight, he felt weak with relief. He hadn’t imagined her after all. She really was there.

Without giving it another thought, he abruptly wrapped his arms around her, closing his eyes again as he took comfort in knowing she was with him. Somehow, holding onto her helped to ground him a bit more. He wasn’t in Tamsworth or Jaxon’s camp. He was in the castle with her, safe and unscathed. The thought gave him just enough strength to start getting his breathing back under control.

He held her for a while longer—he wasn’t sure how much time passed—until the effects of his nightmare finally subsided. Once his heart had stopped racing and his body had stopped trembling, he opened his eyes again and looked off to the side, resting his head against her chest. The panic was gone now, but it had been replaced by a sharp sense of humiliation as it hit him that she’d seen him in such a miserable state. He hadn’t wanted her to find out just how bad his dreams had gotten.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” he mumbled under his breath, keeping his gaze fixed away from her. Putting his feelings aside, he knew she had to have been upset with him for keeping secrets from her yet again. She probably thought he didn’t trust her enough or that he didn’t want to rely on her as a partner. He didn’t want to see the look of disappointment on her face knowing he’d let her down again.