“I can assure you, it is,” he whispered as we passed through the ballroom doors.
“Gross.” I pushed him away in the safety of the empty hall and lengthened my stride.
“I think what you meant to say was, ‘Thank you, Dommik for whoring yourself out so we could keep it a secret that my body is ACTIVELY bleeding.’”
I stopped mid-stride and he nearly crashed into me.
“Donotput that on me. I didnotask you to dothat,” I spat at him.
“Oh, this isabsolutelyon you. But we aren’t going to fight about it here.”
Chapter 24
Feast
Iwas the creeping darkness. Slithering. Stalking. Hunting down the living, driven by jealousy and greed. I was smoke, rolling over myself as I closed in on my prey. Shadow itself. My hands reached out, translucent claws extending from my misty form. Insatiable hunger radiated from my chest; my mouth filled with the taste of dry ash.
“Feeeedddd,”a menacing whisper reverberated against the foggy walls of the dream. Encouraging me. Instructing me. Somehow I knew ripping into the flesh of the living would satiate this thirst.
I raised my arms, ready to skewer my victim. Smoke tendrils fell from tattered, ghostly gossamer. A buzzing built in my ears, like a swarm of hornets had infested my mind.
“FEEEEEEEEEDDDD,”the whisper demanded over the angry hum.
Before I struck, the figure turned to me. Her features were recognizable. She was paler than I remembered. But unmistakable.
She was…me.
Thenheappeared—tall and broad—swallowing my living reflection’s frame. Recognition and fear flashed in his familiar gaze. A hollow ache crept through me at the sight of him, swiftly followed by hot, molten rage.
A snarl died within my ash covered throat and I strained to launch myself at him. The determination to rip him apart and tear his soul from his flesh so I could hold and keep it was bigger than any feeling I’d ever known.
No. Don’t hurt him. I can’t. I won’t!
I awoke, gasping. Sweat beaded my forehead. I reached out for Rhazien, but where I would normally find the rise and fall of his bare, muscled chest, I found emptiness and soft linens.
My heart pounded as the dream echoed. The thrill of the hunt. The urge to kill. The unbearable mourning. Such foreign, overwhelming, and heavy feelings to carry.
I clutched at the fabric and stifled a sob. Emotions I recognized as my own blossomed, along with my conscience. There was a sword propped on an unfamiliar bedside table.
This wasn’t my room.
“Reyva…” A concerned tone slid across the dimly lit room. “You were dreaming.”
I jolted upright, finally noticing a figure seated in a lone chair at the foot of the bed. A bed with a different color comforter than my assigned chambers.
The lazy, dying flames from the fireplace behind the chair gave the tousled locks of his silhouette a golden hue. Shadows ebbed across the ridges of Dommik’s bare chest and flowed over his muscled shoulders and arms.
It’s not safe for you in your quarters, he’d insisted before leading me to his room and locking me inside. He haddutieshe’d needed to attend to. Everyone had their duties.
It was Rhazien’s duty to woo Eryx and his court, keeping their relationship strong to ensure peace between Hives, which also meant satiating an apparently voracious appetite.
And it was Dommik’s duty to pleasure Valta in exchange for keeping a secret—my secret—that my courses had started while in dangerous territory.
Disgust at the thought of either of their prescribed duties slithered up my spine and coiled around my bones.
“I…yes…” I breathed, gathering myself. “It was just a nightmare.”
Justa nightmare. The declaration did nothing against the gnawing feeling in my gut.
