Dreamwalker's Bride - Chapter 388

Chapter 388: Preparations
Mia sat next to her aunt, sorting out what they would need for the final push to rescue Uncle Trace.

Now that they had Martin with them, it felt like the end was in sight. That their goal of so long was finally almost within reach, and yet…

The young woman was profoundly distracted.

That filled her with guilt, alternating with elation, pricked with anxiety.

Ford had walked off with her father shortly before, and the last look he sent her felt like an apology. An apology for what, she could guess, based on the fact that he asked her father to go gather firewood with him.

Another bit of fear jabbed at her, but she suppressed it. It didn’t last long anyway; the memory of Ford holding her, kissing her–

“Mia?” Anaisa’s voice broke through into the reverie, startling Mia.

“Yes, Aunt Annie?” She tried to cover her distraction.

“Are you feeling alright?” The older woman tilted her head.

“I’m fine. Wonderful!” Mia flinched, and then smiled. She was overdoing it. The clever woman would see through her in a second.

“Ah, my mistake. I thought you might try to explain your dewey eyes and red face by claiming a fever,” Anaisa raised an eyebrow, “but I’m glad to know you are, in fact, wonderful.”

Mia’s eyes darted to her younger cousin and her grandfather, who were near enough to overhear if they were trying. It seemed they were talking over proper horse care for the cold weather.

“We’ll see whether I stay wonderful when Papa and Ford get back,” Mia confided quietly.

“Is he asking, now?” Anaisa’s eyes widened, then flicked to where the men had disappeared.

“Asking?” Mia blinked, then realized what her aunt was implying. “No… no, I don’t think so.”

“Hm.” Anaisa pursed her lips and put more supplies to one side.

“That’s not very important right now anyway,” Mia shook thoughts about Ford off and tried to be less self-centered. “We’re getting close to finding Uncle Trace. We shouldn’t be talking about me.”

“Thinking about you helps keep me from thinking too much about myself,” Anaisa’s facade wavered for a second. “I want to reach Trace quickly, and badly. The fact that he’s so close now threatens my composure. But it mustn’t.”

“We’ll save him,” Mia laid one hand over her aunt’s and squeezed it gently.

The woman inhaled and nodded, looking down at her lap rather than directly at her niece.

“I hope so, Mia.” She smiled slowly.

It was growth, the young woman hoped, that she wasn’t assaulted by a crippling wave of guilt over her uncle being taken. The dream that Ford had told them about had assured them that Trace was alive, at least.

Mia glanced intermittently towards the secondary pull. It wasn’t a conscious choice, just something that her eyes naturally did. Her heart leapt when she saw Ford and her father emerging from the trees, carrying armfuls of firewood.

It shouldn’t surprise her that they accomplished the simple task they purportedly left for, but somehow it did. Anaisa smiled at the pair.

“Thank you both. It’s a comfort to me that Daniel and Seth will be able to stay together and warm, with the horses, while the rest of us go on ahead,” She paused as her son cast a glance in her direction and added. “There is safety in numbers, and I don’t want Seth to get lost, either.”

Daniel made a face at the joke, but Seth chuckled lightly. Mia was only paying partial attention.

Her eyes were locked on Ford. He stared back at her and offered a smile she couldn’t quite interpret. Part of her wanted to blurt out her questions in front of everyone. Why wasn’t her father angry? Did the two not talk at all while they were gone?

If not, why did Ford ask the man to go with him?

When she’d asked Ford about his feelings, he’d told her that he forgot everything he wanted to say. But he had been about to kiss her again.

That said a lot, and also not nearly enough. Why couldn’t she think of some clever ruse to go off with him privately?

Why couldn’t he have asked her to go gather firewood with him?

Well, everyone would have seen through that in an instant, for one thing. Her face was all too readable right now, as Anaisa had demonstrated, and Mia would be even worse off if Ford had asked her something like that.

“Are things almost ready?” Seth looked around at the group’s progress. “It’ll be dark soon.”

“Should be ready to go in the morning,” Anaisa confirmed, looking over at her son and giving him a shaky smile. Mia frowned, wondering just how much turmoil Anaisa was in leaving her son behind as the rest of them raced ahead to save Uncle Trace.

Mia should put her own feelings aside and concentrate on her aunt’s. Only, Ford made that difficult with his dark, steady eyes.

“We’ve left you plenty of food,” Mia gestured, addressing her father. “I’m hoping we won’t take that long.”

But there were no guarantees. As they walked, they would need to reformulate their plans. Having Martin in tow was a great boon, but their limited knowledge of Trace’s role in the wights’ plans was both perplexing and complex.

If he was holding something back, would he want to be rescued? What would it do to the world?

Would the wights punish them and kick them out before the humans even saw the man?

The group fell into a discussion of strategy, taking Seth’s input and Daniel’s reminders of what he knew about wights and dragons into account as they would lose the benefit of those two factors the following day.

Mia sat next to her father during supper, leaning lightly against his arm. She found that she didn’t want to leave him behind and go on without him, even though she knew this plan was the best they had.

He smiled and kissed her temple before bedtime, an easy show of affection which assured her that their relationship was capable of healing fully from the damage they’d both done to it. That was more comforting than she could say.

As it grew dark, the group moved themselves and the horses into Martin’s custom-made cave. They all needed the rest; tomorrow would bring a new phase of the journey, and all new challenges.