“You sleep,”a voice said as the darkness of sleep closed in around me.Now, I feast.”
Chapter 21
NEVE
Prince Gervais stood before me, his hands bloodied, his fangs dripping red.
“I require a nightcap, wildcat. Come to me. Listen to your master.Beg meto drink from you.”
Unable to stop myself, I moved forward. Metal clanged nearby, and one glance down told me why. Not only was I wearing a familiar red collar, but shackles bound my ankles.
My muscles tightened. I was the prince’s slave—sold to him. I’d never escaped. I’d never been free.
The cold of the vampire’s palm against my shoulder made me shudder as he pulled me close, brought his lips to my neck, and then his teeth slid in?—
Delicious. Something sweeter this time.
I barely had time to hear the voice—not Prince Gervais’s voice, but a deeper, raspier one—when the scene changed.
“What in the stars?” I breathed, again looking down at my feet. No shackles. No collar. No vampire prince.
“Ofcourse there wasn’t,” I assured myself, though my heart still raced. To be back there, captive, a slave—I could imagine nothing worse. “I killed him.”
“Killed who?”
I turned and found Vale standing at the entrance to this room,Skeldahanging off his hip. Sweat glistened on his face as though he’d returned from training. Only then did I realize we were back at Frostveil. In his suite.
“Vale, why are we here?” I asked.
“This is our home. Your castle.” He came closer. “Don’t you remember?” His lips twitched with amusement.
“My castle . . .” I trailed off, searching the room again and this time seeing that it was different. Similar, but not exactly the same. Paintings of the Falks hung on the wall. A crown heavy with amethysts and diamonds sat in a case.
Mine?
Before I voiced such a question, however, Vale stepped before me, tilted my chin up, and his lips crashed into mine. I moaned, the sensation so heady, so electric.
Calloused but gentle hands roamed my backside, and only then did I notice I was wearing very little.
Vale cupped my rear, lifted, and carried me to the large bed we’d shared in his room. He set me down and pressed my hands above my head. His hardness pushed into my core, and my breath became tighter, more needy.
“Tell me what you want,” Vale murmured. “Anything you want, wife, I’ll give it.”
Heat flushed my cheeks.
Now something with a bite.
The bed disappeared, and I found myself in the Royal Theater. All around me, fae ran and screamed. I whirled around looking for Vale, but he was in the air, sword swinging.
It was the night of the rebel attack. No sooner had I realized that than the female with ice-blue eyes and dark hair rose from below. Arrow pointed at me, her wings fluttering, she sneered.
“You thought you got away!” The arrow flew, sank into my chest.
I let out a scream, and my eyes fluttered open. Sleep still clung to me, but I was aware enough to know that I’d been dreaming. Feeling around for Vale, I grasped only cold air. I wasn’t lying down anymore. Nor on the ground. My heart leapt.
Someone held me and judging by the jostling, they seemed to be running? Blazing sky, every step they took sent sharp pangs of pain through my head. Through the splitting headache, I blinked, looked up, and met a pair of ice-blue eyes.
I jerked as a faerie I feared, the same one who shot me in my dream, stared down at me. “I should have let the Dream Eater have you!”
