Page 2 of Veil of Night & Flames

I glance up once more at the still-empty terrace, then continue along the outdoor walkway toward the ornate door leading back into the castle, all the while wishing I really could see Mom one more time.

I pick up my pace, desperate to get to my room. To get some sleep. More than that, I need to see Chase. Need to curl up beside him and feel his body move as he breathes, safe in the deep slumber of his recovery.

We’d lost Whistler in that battle. A Nightmare Hunter from the Realm of Others, he’d been cornered by the vile wolves that prowl beyond the castle grounds. They’d almost destroyed Chase, too. It had been touch-and-go for a while, and I’d been terrified that I’d lose him until I finally found a cure—Adric’s blood.

Because of Adric, Chase is still alive, albeit exhausted. Still mine in every way that matters. And I just betrayed him by paying the price Adric had demanded—I’d agreed to become Adric’s betrothed. A sacrifice I’d made as payment for the healing powers of Adric’s blood—blood he and Chase once shared, just as they’d once shared a single body.

So, yes, Adric had come through. And I don’t regret his touch and comfort in that tent tonight.

But I will never sleep with him once we are wed. Not with the prophecy hanging over our heads. A prophecy that portends that when the Nightmare King and a willing bride consummate their marriage, the barriers that separate the realms will fall. And that would be more than chaos. It would be hell.

I may be the Bride—the last female descendant of some ancient mystical emperor—but I won’t be the woman who destroys the world.

As for last night…well, there’d been no prophecy hanging over us. Just heat and longing and a bone-deep need to which we’d both surrendered.

Honestly, it’s going to be hard not to sleep with him once we’re wed. I’m wildly attracted to him—just as I’m desperately in love with Chase, only with Chase that passion feels calmer and more centered.

But the difficulty isn’t just that I want Adric—it’s that he wants me, too. And there’s no fear of a hellish world keeping his desire at bay. After all, he’s all about the nightmares.

More than that, Adric fully believes the realms should be united because he’s convinced that once the barriers fall, the chaos that will spill out over all the realms can be controlled.

Chase believes the opposite and is stalwart in his certainty that the universe would be upended, and I’m Team Chase where that’s concerned. The Realm of the Real—my world, with my friends and my college and the life I know so well—will be the first to be destroyed by the swarms of nightmare creatures and denizens of other realms who will rise up in battle to claim it. After all, the Real is a realm where only a few scattered humans have the faintest clue that armies of mares are even a threat.

Not long ago, I’d been among the blissfully clueless. Now I’m at the center of it.

Me. An average college freshman, now betrothed to a king and the consort of his brother.

Honestly, sometimes I wonder if this is the dream. Or the nightmare.

Then I ask myself if it really matters. Like it or not, this is my reality, be it real or a dream. And what I need most of all is to pull up my big girl panties and tell Chase everything. That I love him. That I’ll continue to love him even though I want Adric, too. Even though I don’t know what that means for any of us.

I sigh, because I truly don’t know, and I very sternly tell myself that right now, I don’t care. Right now, all I want is to know why I saw my dead mother.

More than that, I want to know why she was with Kali. Because that really doesn’t seem like something my imagination would conjure.

Resigned, I shift my gaze toward the dragon stables, dark and quiet now. Beyond them, I see the courtyard where our tent still stands, its silk catching the moonlight with exquisite loveliness.

Technically, I guess it’s my tent since I’m the one who conjured it out of nothing with power I still don’t fully understand. I’d brought it forth in burgundy and gold silk, with cushions scattered everywhere and lanterns that light themselves.

And the whole time I’d done that little trick, Adric had stood watching me with the hunger of a man and the pride of a king in his queen.

My skin heats just thinking about it. The way he’d undressed me like he was unwrapping a gift. The way he’d said my name, as if the word was something precious and breakable. The heat of his kiss, long and deep and more than sufficient to melt me. The way he’d known exactly how to move, how to touch, how to make me forget every reason I should have said no.

It worked, too. I didn’t say no. Instead, I’d said please.

And now here I am, about to return to the room I share with a man I truly love—only to crawl into his bed with the scent of his brother lingering on my skin.

In the morning, I’ll stand across from Adric in a betrothal ceremony and pledge myself to him because that was the price I’d paid for Adric’s blood to heal Chase.

And, once again, I wonder—how the hell did this become my life?

I groan as I turn in a circle, but my mother is nowhere in sight.

With doubt and confusion still poking at me, I hurry back inside the castle, fully intending to smother my roiling thoughts and simply head back to the suite I’m sharing with Chase. But then I see a corridor I hadn’t noticed before, and I remember the book I’d found in the library—or, more accurately, the book that had found me because I’d needed it—and I can’t help but wonder if this corridor is its cousin. A pathway that wasn’t there before, but appeared now because I need it. After all, that seems to be how this realm works for me.

Then again, it could be a trap. Or just a corridor I never noticed since I’m seeing eight billion new things every time I look around.

Except, no. I’ve passed this way too many times. I would have noticed.