“Show me, Bram.” I run my fingernails along his scalp and he purrs like a cat.
“Show you what?”
“You know what. The Otherworld. Just a peek.”
“I shouldn’t,” he protests.
“It’s been my dream ever since I was a little girl. Remember, I told you that day in the barn back in the spring, the day you gave me your ring.”
His hands are sloppy as they reach toward me, but his touch is soft. Silently, he twists the gold band inlaid with the small pearl that I’ve worn ever since that day. I take it off at night and set it in a dish next to my wedding band and engagement ring, my stomach turning as I slip them back on every morning.
He doesn’t answer.
“You never got me a wedding present.” I pout.
His eyes flutter closed. “You hate me.”
“So, so much.” I whisper so quiet not even Rhion can hear. “But only sometimes.”
Bram extends an arm lazily across the bed, then with a turn of his wrist like he’s opening a door, something clicks.
I blink against the sudden light flooding the room. I pry open my stinging eyes and see it: a perfect rectangle of verdant green landscape.
With the sharp edges of the door around it, the image looks almost like a postage stamp. The gently rolling hills are dotted with trees in a riot of autumn colors. Crimson leaves float gently on the breeze, landing on the ground in a silent flutter. I squint against the sunlight and can barely make out the vague shape of a shining castle in the distance.
“Go on.” Rhion appears right behind me.
I stand from the bed, my knees shaking. I never actually thought we’d achieve this. For all my dreaming as a child, for all my scheming as queen, I didn’t really believe I’d ever get to see the Otherworld.
I glance at Bram on the bed. His eyes are closed and his mouth hangs open.
“I’ve got him,” Rhion whispers over Bram’s sleeping form.“Go.”
I step one foot through the doorway and can’t help but look down. One slippered foot sinks into sun-warmed green grass and the other remains planted in the shadowed cream carpet of Bram’s bedchambers.
I cast one last look at the room and at Rhion. If all goes according to plan, the next time I cross this threshold, Emmett and Lydia will be at my side and Bram will be gone.
“We all believe in you, Your Majesty,” Rhion says with more reverence than I deserve.
I nod in wordless gratitude. Then I muster every ounce of bravery I’ve ever possessed, and step fully into the Otherworld.
Chapter Eight
Rhion slams the door behind me, and with aclick, it’s vanished, like it never existed at all. I reach out for it, but find nothing but the sweetly perfumed air of the Otherworld.
I tilt my head back and breathe, attempting to slow my rapid heartbeat. I’m going to need to have my wits about me and it’s much too early to panic.
Birds chirp serenely as crisp fall leaves rustle in the gentle breeze.
My slippers sink into grass a slightly different shade of green than I’m used to, but the sky is the same blue-gray as it is in England.
I’m in an open meadow, surrounded on three sides by a sparse forest. Ahead of me, far off among the rolling hills, a castle juts up from the landscape.
It’s grander than even Buckingham Palace, constructed of a strange opalescent material that shimmers in the sunlight.
It reaches up into the sky, marked by spires and turrets as sharp as canine teeth.
I hike up my skirts and head for the castle on the hill.
