“No.” The word came out strangled.

“Did you touch me?”

There was a pause. “Yes.”

“Were you trying to wake me up?”

There was another pause. “No.”

His frown deepened. Then why had she touched him?

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.” She began to shift around.

“Selene. Stop.”

She glanced over her shoulder.

Damien spotted Taegis on the other side of the camp. Either he could not hear them, or he was ignoring them. The other men slept on. Damien looked back at Selene. “Is something wrong?”

She lay down on her back, her face toward the sky, her fingers curled around the edge of her blanket. He could barely see the contours of her face in the dying firelight.

Just when he thought she wasn’t going to answer, she whispered, “I can’t sleep.”

Damien blinked. That didn’t explain why she had reached over and touched him.

“The nightmares won’t stop. Every time I close my eyes, they’re there. I’ve barely slept since we left the Hyr River.”

Damien knit his brows. “What about the inn? You seemed to sleep fine there. Is it the strain of traveling? Or the newness of everything?”

“I don’t know.”

She still hadn’t explained why she had reached out to him. Did she find comfort in touch? That was the last thing he would have expected of her. Or had it been an accidental brush of her fingers? “Can I do anything to help you?”

He heard her quiet intake of breath.

“Selene?” he whispered.

She rolled onto her side so she was facing him. “Can I . . . touch your hand?”

His eyes went wide and every notion of sleep disappeared. Selene wanted to hold hands? His heart started thudding inside his chest and his mouth went dry. Why was he nervous? He’d touched the hand of a woman many times. He’d even held Selene’s hand when they were running toward the river. Was it because they were now married? Because she was his wife and unlike any other woman to him?

Slowly he pulled his hand out of his oiled cloak and reached forward.

Selene lifted her hand, then hesitated. “Damien,” she whispered.

“Yes?” he answered, surprised at her use of his name.

“You know what I can do.”

What did she . . . Oh. Her dreamwalking gift. He started to say the word but found no sound came when he moved his mouth. Apparently he was too close to the other men to speak of it. “I know only a little.”

“I’m afraid I cannot explain it here. But I want to be honest with you. I . . . that is . . .” She sighed. “I’ve held your hand every night since the inn at Rone.”

“You have?”

“Yes. I should have asked before I did it. But I was desperate. And so tired. You . . . you help me sleep. The nightmares cannot follow me there.”

“I don’t underst— Wait.” He sat up and stared at her. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Taegis turn in their direction. He leaned toward Selene until there were only inches between their faces. “You mean when you hold my hand . . .”