Chapter 53

WILLOW

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The door suddenly came open and I paused in spreading the linen on the dinning table.

Lan leant his broad shoulder against the doorframe, folding his hands before him. There was... something different about him, but I couldn't tell what.

His deep voice filled the small space. "How were you able to communicate with your people?"

Turning away, I resumed what I'd been doing before he came in. Uncaring of whether or not he'll believe me, I said, "Through my dreams. Allegra had a dream-walker reach out to me."

"So I'm guessing the plan was to give them the code to the refuge so they'd come in and launch a surprise attack on us."

I pasted a smile on my face. "Again, you guessed right."

He nodded, then as if quoting someone, he said, "I could not have known your people were coming, and you would have just remained with me until they did... right?"

Growing stiff, I looked at him. What was he implying? Averting my gaze,