Don’t you have something else you’d rather be doing? Like plotting vengeance? Telling me to crush bones?
I’m taking a break from killing. I’d much rather learn things about Chelsea. Do that thing with our magic again. That was heaven, wasn’t it? I’ve never orgasmed so hard in my life.
Nightmare wants to convince me it didn’t have anything to do with our magics pleasuring us, but I know better.
It cannot control itself around Chelsea, and I don’t know what to do about that.
Lock her in a tower where I can’t get to her? Keep her as far away from me as possible?
And a far more worrisome thought is—keep her close. Get to know her. Earn her trust and maybe, just maybe this marriage won’t be a sham.
Maybe it’ll be real.
The thought should terrify me. A real marriage means vulnerability. Trust. Opening up parts of myself I've kept locked away since my father died. Instead it feels like… relief.
How interesting that is.
Something shifts inside me at that thought, something that’s been hardened over years spent seeking out my father’s killer.
I catch up to her. She’s playing tug of war with the shadow, which releases the ball when Chelsea says, “Drop it.”
“It likes you.”
She smiles timidly at me, and I can’t help but take a moment to memorize her features—how her cheek dimples when she smiles, how her eyes search over me as if she’s trying to learn my secrets.
Maybe she just thinks you’re hot.
“We should name it,” she says, picking up the ball and holding it as we walk down the hall.
“You can name it whatever you’d like.”
“How about Echo?”
“Because it’s an echo of a dream?”
“Exactly.”
Our gazes lock for just a breath. “I like it.”
“Echo,” she murmurs as if feeling out the word.
We walk a few more moments until I stop. “Here’s your room.”
She eyes the door warily. “So it is.”
“Is something wrong?”
“It’s just… It’s silly.”
“Whatever it is, you can say it. This is your home now. You’re in charge.”
“I’ve never been a queen.”
“Then we’ll figure it out together, show this district who you are.”
She nods somberly as if that’s more responsibility than she wants. Chelsea reaches out and picks up Echo, cradling the shadow to her chest.
I wish she’d hold us like that.
