After bathing and putting on clean clothes, Aden marched up to the seventh floor where he knew Ilyin would be. Standing in front of the door, he quickly composed himself. Smelling the faint smell of summer, that lingered in the hallway, seemed to calm him down and he took a deep breath before knocking and asked, “Are you in?”

“Please, enter.” Her voice sounded faint. Aden’s breathing had steadied but his calmness hid an inner turmoil; he suppressed his thoughts and pulled the door open.

***

The door opened and Aden switched the lights off. Ilyin felt momentarily blinded and she blinked in surprise. She couldn’t see anything, even with her eyes open. Squinting her eyes, she was able to see his silhouette in the faint corridor light. She could see his shadow and his hand as he closed the door before the room was enveloped in darkness.

“You are back early,” Ilyin spoke first. She’d seen him returning earlier, while she’d sat at the window feeling anxious. The avalanche had been large enough for the people in the estate to feel the tremors. The Delrose knights, who’d followed their leader closely, hadn’t looked injured and she’d felt a wave of relief. The one leading them, Aden, had entered the manor at great speed, and it was then that Ilyin had sent the maids out of her room.

“You seem to have expected my visit.”

Ilyin had known that Aden would be curious about how she knew about the avalanche. That thought had crossed her mind when she’d given him the warning, but she couldn’t stand by and just watch him being buried in snow. Her husband had taken good care of her, and the servant’s attitude towards her had changed because of him.

Her dreams were not a secret that she’d kept from everyone, but Viscount Arlen had told her to keep quiet about the insane curses Ilyin spat out of her mouth, that she’d dreamt about. She had kept silent since then because no one had believed her and she feared that the Duke would disbelieve her too. She thought of her husband, who was meticulous when it came to his day-to-day business affairs. He must know about Ilyin by now, or at least about how she’d been treated in her home. While her father had hidden her, as if she were a deadly secret, the Arlen’s weren’t that capable of keeping their mouths shut and they had little experience in hiding information in the first place. Aden may even know about Ilyin predicting Sid’s death.action

However, she was convinced that he wouldn’t believe her. She glanced out of the window and spoke with a shaking voice, “I saw you arriving from the window.”

Sitting upright in bed she listened to Aden’s breathing, which sounded heavy, and she wondered if he was angry or whether he’d just been in a rush to get to her. Ilyin quivered. While he would have no reason to be angry, the sounds in darkness brought unnecessary thoughts to her.

“Then you would know what I am curious about,” he said.

His voice was much calmer than she’d expected, and she felt the mattress cave in slightly as he sat down next to her. Ilyin hesitated as she felt his heavy presence right next to her as his body pressed against her shoulder; he felt hot.

“Um…” Ilyin had planned on telling him about her dream, as she thought Aden wouldn’t treat her words as complete nonsense after he’d seen the avalanche with his own eyes. Her reason said that that would be the case, but she was struggling to accept the idea that he may very well listen to her with an open mind.

She had not acted suspiciously until now, and she had been a quiet bride on the outside. Had her dream not revealed that Aden and his knights would be buried in the snow, she may very well have ignored it. Ilyin realized that she was afraid of being rejected and treated differently if she revealed her ability to foresee things. And if one person treated her differently, rumors would spread like wildfire, as had been the case in the small Arlen Estate. She imagined the awful position she’d be in if that happened here in the wintery lands.

“You cannot tell me?” His low voice hurt Ilyin as he seemed angry.

“I believe that Your Highness already knows,” she spoke slowly, as she didn’t want to tell him directly about her dream.