Was he saving her from the tower? Climbing up, so high, to kiss her awake? No, no, he was leaving her, she remembered. He was leaving her, she thought dully, and watched, too buffered by shock to feel alarm as he slid five full feet down the cliff face. She watched as he swung a hand up, dug in with bare fingers, and fought his way up the rough, unforgiving wall.

He was going away, she thought, but he would come back for her. He’d come back, then he would leave again.

When he reached the top, he stared down at her. His eyes seemed oddly close again, as if she could reach up and touch his face. Then he was gone, and she was alone.

He’d left her. He didn’t want to be part of her life any longer. Or to allow her to be part of his. He would come back, she didn’t doubt that he would come back and do as he’d promised. But she would still be alone.

And she would survive, Laura thought. Because there really was no other choice. She hadn’t leapt from the cliff. She hadn’t tossed her life aside. Fate had pushed her, but she would survive that as well. And go on.

Poor Seraphina. Drifting a little, Laura turned her head. She hadn’t fought for life, hadn’t survived. And had lost all of her dreams.

A tear trickled down her cheek, in sympathy, in sorrow, and as she turned to brush it away, her gaze fell on the small, dark hole in the wall of the cliff.

A cave? she thought hazily. There was no cave on this ledge. The rocks had moved, she realized, and sighed a little. Everything had moved. She inched her way toward the opening. A secret place, she thought. A hiding place. A lovers’ place. She was smiling as she pushed herself up, sat, smelled—surely she smelled the faint scent of a young girl’s perfume.

“Seraphina,” she murmured even as she reached her hand inside the opening and laid it on the polished wood of a chest. “I’ve found you. Poor Seraphina, lost for so long.”

She continued to speak, and if the words were incoherent, there was no one to hear. She knelt, waited for her head to stop spinning, and tried to drag the chest into the light.

“Laura, goddamn it.”

Her smile soft, her eyes vague, she lifted her face and saw him atop the cliff. “Seraphina. We’ve found her. Michael, come and see.”

“Stay put. Stay just where you are.”

It was the hit on the head, he thought, and worked rapidly to secure the rope to the horn of Max’s saddle. She was disoriented, confused. His heart drummed in his throat at the idea that she might try to stand. She might fall before he could get back to her.