To Claim A Crown Book One: The Half-Blood King (Complete)

17.

Naomi stirs in her sleep and then sits up suddenly. Raurlin wraps an arm around her, a deep frown on his face.

"Naomi?"

"How long have I been out?"

"A couple hours...Why what's going on?"

Naomi looks up at Raurlin a look of pure shock on her face. The afternoon sun is peeking through the curtains.. Naomi exhales a small smile that grows bigger. She stands up and stretches and Raurlin watches on with a confused smile. The sun gently caresses the curves of her silhouette.

"Not a single bad dream...no nightmare...no Jackson. That was genuinely the best sleep I've ever had. Except for that time I had my wisdom teeth removed but I don't think anesthesia counts."

Naomi beams down at Raurlin and Raurlin chuckles.

"You suffer frequently with bad dreams, Naomi?"

Naomi nods slowly then withdraws completely. She folds her hands over her chest. "Why is it so easy for me to open up to him?"

'Because you're my arternum. And I am yours."

"You can read my mind?"

Raurlin chuckles "no. But I can imagine how you must be feeling right now."

Naomi walks to the kitchen and settles onto a kitchen stool, feeling the need to put some distance between herself and Raurlin.

"No offense but I don't think you could imagine how I feel."

Raurlin nods slowly and is silent a moment then responds "I know I may be old. Very old. But there was a time in my life where literally overnight everything about me changed. Everything about my family...my people. Suddenly we're gearing up for a war we shouldn't have been fighting in the first place."

There's a hint of sadness in Raurlin's words and his sincerity pulls at Naomi's heart. She wants to hold him but she forces herself to stay sitting.

"I'm sorry that this happened to you."

Raurlin nods "I am too. And I'm equally as sorry that so much of your life is changing in an instant. I wish there was something I could do to make this easier for you."

The statement is more of a question and Naomi muses on it for a few minutes.

"You could give me space so we can learn more about each other. Also I have no intention to be missing out on class so I hope that doesn't irritate our thread or whatever."

"Thread?"

"Yes. Jackson told me about it in a dream. The red thread. Follow the thread. That's how I ended up here in the first place."

Raurlin stops himself from shaking his head. Jackson and his antics.

"Look I won't stop you from going to class or living your life. That's not what I'm trying to do at all. If you'd like I can take you to class and pick you up? We can even go out for lunch after class?"

Naomi nods slowly trying to hide the fact that she loves the idea.

"That would be great. What's your number? I'll forward you my timetable."

Raurlin unlocks his phone and hands it to Naomi. Naomi is surprised at how open he is. She saves his number and forwards the timetable to him and saves her number in his phone as Naomi-Aeturnum with a winking emoji. She giggles at her work then hands the phone back to Raurlin. Raurlin examines the screen with a happy smile tugging at his cheeks. "Perfect" he mutters.