He was safe. He was here. He was protecting me, even in sleep.
I had never had anyone protect me before.
For a long moment, I lay there, battling the urge to bolt. My anxiety insisted I disappear, to slip away before he woke and saw me, before I had to form words I would inevitably stumble and stutter over. But the stubborn side of me held me in place.
I would not get better by running. I knew this. If I didn’t push myself a little, I would stay frozen forever, trapped in the shadows where I’d always lived.
But as much as I wanted to test myself, the desire to clean was becoming unbearable. My magic screamed for some mess to rectify. The room we were in was clean, and my skin crawled with the absence of purpose. I needed to find dirt. I needed to find dust.
Careful not to disturb Nico, I inched toward the edge of the bed. I held my breath as my feet touched the floor, waiting for him to wake and question me.
He didn’t stir.
My invisibility washed over me, becoming nothing more than a whisper of movement. This was who I was. This was what I knew.
The hallway was dark as I slipped through the door, my feet silent. I made my way down the stairs, my rag trailing along the railing, collecting any dirt and grime that might be there. The reception area was empty.
There was a sitting area off to the side, with several chairs and a low table covered in dust. My eyes nearly watered with relief. Dust.
I’d just stepped into the sitting area, rag poised to get to work, when the door burst open.
I froze, my heart stopping mid-beat. Three figures stumbled through the entrance, laughing and clutching at each other in a way that made my face heat. There was a man in the middle, dark-haired and sharp-featured, with a woman on each arm. One of the women had horns curving from her forehead and skin that shimmered with an almost luminous quality. She was a succubus, and the other two were vampires.
My legs wouldn’t move. I was rooted to the spot, caught between the instinct to flee and the need to stay hidden. The succubus laughed, and the vampire man lifted her effortlessly, setting her on the front counter as their mouths crashed together. The other woman slid her hand up the succubus’s thigh.
I should go. I should run upstairs and wake Nico.
The vampire woman who worked at the front desk appeared in the doorway behind them. “I suggest you take that to your room. Now is not the time to give other guests a show.”
The succubus pulled away from the man, her lips swollen and her eyes bright. “You’re no fun, Cassandra.”
Cassandra waved a dismissive hand. “I’ll join you later.”
The threesome disentangled themselves, making their way up the stairs in a tangle of limbs. Cassandra walked behind the desk, smoothing her hair and muttering something about the “squirrel stench.”
I forced myself to move toward the table. My hands shook as I began dusting. The cleaning helped. It always helped.
The front door opened again.
I froze, cloth in hand, as four guards entered. They weren’t wearing the royal uniforms, but they carried themselves with the same brutal confidence—they moved like hunters who had caught prey before and would catch it again.
Cassandra’s smile curled into something menacing. “Room three.”
Room three. Our room.
One guard laughed. “Time to collect our prize.”
They walked toward the stairs, and I followed without thinking, trailing behind them like a ghost. I needed to warn Nico or fight them off.
They kicked the door to room three open with a splintering crash.
I moved through the wall just as Nico sat up in bed, his eyes wide and wild, his body already tensing to shift. But before he could, the guards threw a net over him.
It glowed, the threads shimmering with obvious magic. Nico snarled as he tried to remove the netting, but the more he struggled, the tighter it seemed to pull.
He stumbled to his feet, and one guard kicked his feet out from under him, sending him crashing to the floor. The men laughed.
One of them kicked Nico in the stomach. “Try to fight all you want, rodent. You’re going nowhere.”
