“I will always come for you,” he replied. “I love you, Brighton.”
Tears filled my eyes as I stared up at him. He…he’d come for me, and he…he loved me.
Caden let go of my hand and went to the door. The hinges creaked as he opened it. The faint glow of dusk crept into the chamber. Inhaling deeply, I caught the faint scent of roses reaching me. He turned back, stretching out his hand—
Wait.
His…his eyes weren’t a cool blue the last time I saw them. They were a warm, fiery amber, but his eyes were now blue. I didn’t understand.
“Come,” Caden urged. “You must follow me. Quick. Before we run out of time.”
Realizing that he was right and the whole eye thing wasn’t important, I started forward, hurrying toward freedom, toward life—
Jerked backward by the neck, my feet slipped out from underneath me. I went down hard on my ass, grunting as a bolt of pain jolted up my spine. My hands flew to my throat. Cool, hard metal greeted my fingers.
“What…?” Confusion swamped me as I twisted toward the stone slab.
The chain….
The tether was still there, bolted to the floor, and the chain was still…. It was still connected to the band around my neck.
Why didn’t Caden take that off? He had to know that I couldn’t leave with it still attached. Rising to my knees, I turned back to Caden—
He wasn’t there.
Where he stood was now just the wooden door—the closed, locked, wooden door.
I fell back onto my ass, my hands dropping to the floor. “He’s not here,” I said to the empty chamber.
He was never here.
Realization slammed into me, punching a harsh cry from my chest. Caden had never been here. The door had never been opened, and I was awake. This wasn’t a dream. This was a…this was a hallucination. I lifted a hand, touching my lips. A very real hallucination because I could still feel the press of his soft kiss.
“Oh, God,” I whispered, curling my hand into a fist.
Memories of my mom surfaced. Many of them flipping together, forming a whirlwind of the hours where she was utterly detached from reality. Episodes where she spoke to people who weren’t there or when she believed that she was still being held by the fae. All those times when it was like I wasn’t even there with her. When it was like she couldn’t even see me.
I had just experienced that. A hallucination so real I had mistaken it for reality.
God.
It was official.
I was losing my mind.
I didn’t know where I was or why…why I hurt so badly. I was cold, and yet I was hot as I lay on my side on a hard table of stone and stared at the still flames across from me. They didn’t even seem real to me, barely flickering. I was in a tomb, that much I knew, and there was a chain secured to my neck. And I hurt.
My gaze dropped to where my fingers lay limply in front of me. They were covered in tiny, stinging cuts.
I hurt all over.
I was also hungry.
None of these things pointed to anything good.
I started to shift onto my back but stopped with a wince. The skin there felt raw too, because…because there were cuts there also.
Disjointed images and memories took form. The glint of a blade. Pale blue eyes. Screams…screams and laughter—cold, malicious laughter.
