What if it was her fault the human Gabriel loved died?
"I need some fresh air," she mumbled. "My head is killing me."
"I can walk you outside, if you'd like."
She nodded and rose. Andre waited as she put on shoes. He led her through the stronghold and into the courtyard and garden area between the walls and the fortress. Deidre's eyes were caught by the gardens but drifted to the pine trees beyond the walls.
"I believe Cora is staying with you," Andre said.
Deidre glanced over her shoulder, not really caring at that moment, not when she felt like her world was squeezing the life out of her. She headed for the door in the wall that led from the gardens to the exterior of the compound.
She was able to breathe easier when she stood outside the massive fortress that sat on a clearing the size of two football fields. Deidre gazed at the strange human forest, whose trees weren't alive like those of her underworld. These didn't move out of her way when she started into them. She stopped and gazed around, spotting a small dirt trail a few feet away.
Deidre started down the trail, holding out her hands to the pine trees. The needles were long and soft, their vibrant green coloring leaving her breathless. The forest air was cool and damp. It smelled of earth and sunshine. She walked slowly, taking in everything from the patches of blue sky visible through the trees to the spring flowers sprinkling the forest floor.
She traded everything for this moment, and Gabriel wasn't beside her.
Were Wynn and Andre both right about telling him?
Did it matter, if doing as they said cost her Gabriel?
Deidre walked deeper into the forest, wrestling with herself mentally. After half an hour, she grew tired of the internal argument. She wasn't able to win either way. She loved human emotion, but she hated the doubt and insecurity she felt.
"Gabriel." She didn't know why she summoned him, except that right now, she wanted to see him, to reassure herself.