Chapter Thirty-Seven
“I suppose it’s a good thing I’m supposed to be queen… seeing as how I can’t go back into the mortal world anymore. Not with the government hunting me down, anyway.”
“I wouldn’t worry too much about that,” Nicholas told her. “I’ve got friends working on it. You’d be surprised what goes on day in and day out in the mortal world that most people have no memory of.”
Addie processed that, wondering who those friends were and what they were doing – and sort of not caring. Then she added, “Well… there’s the Challenger to worry about too, I guess. You know,” she said softly, “you look just like Nero.”
“Well, there’s a reason for that,” he said from where he lay behind her, spooning her. He sounded calm, peaceful. He sounded the way she felt. Her whole body tingled – and some of it ached. But it was a delicious, well-tended ache that made her belly tighten a little and flushed her skin warm. The cool satin sheets caressed her marked flesh, every brush reminding her of what they’d just done.
She thought about going at it again. The fact that he was pressed hard against her back reinforced that thought.
But… there was something happening inside her. It wasn’t a bad thing. She’d been there before, in that place where something just felt “wrong,” that place a person went just before they died. This was wholly different. It was the opposite, in fact. She felt almost high, as if she were coming alive, and for the first time.
“In a way, I suppose he is my brother,” he said. “We’ve always been equals in most respects. We were created of the same Nightmare mold, so forming us in the same image isn’t a stretch. We were both made for the throne. I’ve simply won the battle every time.”
Addie turned slowly in the bed to face him. She looked up into his gray-silver eyes. “The only physical difference between you is that he has green eyes and yours are gray.”
Nicholas smiled. “You have a thing for him, don’t you?”
Addie blushed. “Okay, no lies between us because you’ve just screwed my brains out.” She shrugged. “I have a thing for green eyes.”
Nicholas chuckled, the sound warm and comforting.
“Would you consider wearing contacts?” she teased.
“For you, I would wear contacts and a saddle if I knew it would turn you on.” He cupped her face, and grinned. “But I know it wouldn’t, so we’ll stick with the contacts.”
Addie laughed. Happiness just rose up and bubbled out of her, and for the first time in a very long time, her laughter was not forced at all. She’d forgotten what that felt like – to laugh for real, and not for pretend because society expects it. But he made her feel peaceful. He made her feel like this was natural. It was as if their souls had met long ago and she were reuniting with an old friend. With benefits.
Her giggle died down, and Nicholas propped himself up on his elbow. She watched the muscles of his chest and arms flex and ripple, and she gulped. He’d turned back into his human form long ago, but she would never get the image of him as the Nightmare King out of her head. Hopefully.
“You are beautiful beyond words,” he told her as he ran the fingers of his free hand through her curly hair – and then they got stuck.
She cringed. “Yeah right.”
He laughed whole heartedly now, and then spoke a strange, clearly magical word. A crystal clear breeze, cool and tinkling like wind chimes, brushed over her, moving through her hair like gentle fingertips. When it passed, she looked down and grabbed a lock.
It was shimmering shiny, there was zero frizz, and it was soft as silk. Her went eyes wide with fascination. She pushed her fingers through it. They ran smoothly, not a single hint of a knot to be found. She sat up and pulled all of her hair over her shoulders, for once not even caring that she was completely naked in front of someone. Her hair felt as wonderful as the sheets, softer than any hair had ever felt, and the curls were stunning.
She dropped her hair and looked up at the Nightmare King. “I think I love you,” she told him frankly. She was only half-teasing. Any man who could do what he did to her in bed and fix her damned hair pretty much had her heart in his hands.
He was still smiling, but something mysterious passed through his silver-gray eyes, and caught Addie’s gaze. It was gone as soon as it had come, and he said, “You’ll soon be able to do it yourself given practice. To a Nightmare, appearance is integral, so we have all sorts of nifty abilities like that.”
“Why is beauty so integral?” she thought, suddenly feeling not as beautiful as she wanted to.
Nicholas cupped her cheek and looked deep into her eyes. “As Nightmares, we are fortunate enough to see a soul’s beauty with the unaided eye.” He shook his head, and his gaze skirted around her form. His eyes took on a mystified look. “It’s far lovelier than any form a human body can take.”
He fell silent for a moment, caught up in what Addie could only assume was her soul. And then he re-focused and shrugged, chuckling. “But it’s impressive to us, too. And sometimes, a little shaming.” He grinned. So naturally, we want to appear as beautiful as we can to those souls in return.”
Addie smiled. Just like that, her self esteem was back.
And then the premonition struck.
Addie lost her breath with this one. Her body convulsed as it was jerked violently downward then passed through the floor. It flew down and broke through a floor after that, and then another. She fell and fell, crashing through layers of reality, striking each one with tremendous force that she heard explode in her eardrums. She felt as if her body were being destroyed, but there was no pain.
And then she was on the floor, and this time she didn’t break through. This time, she opened her eyes to find herself staring into the very dead gaze of another girl. Blood covered the girl’s face. Her brown eyes looked at nothing; they could no longer see. Blood had pooled and dried beneath her. All around, there was movement. All around, there was chaos. But it sounded far away, muffled as if separated from Addie by the trauma of the situation.
Among those muffled sounds were gunshots. One… two… three, four, five…. On and on they went, slow and methodical. Addie knew where she was. She was in the school where the bullied girl was shooting.
Oh God, she thought, staring into that young, dead face. Where? Where was the school? She could feel the reality of the image moving closer through time. She felt it pressing in. But she couldn’t move. She couldn’t even sit up to look around. All she could do was look at the murdered student in front of her.
So that’s what she did. Her eyes slid over the young girl’s features to the collar of her shirt. No, wait. Not a shirt. A uniform. Cheerleader? No, not quite. Drill team, maybe. But it didn’t matter, because over the left breast was the crest of the school. Addie stared at it fixedly, her heart racing. She stayed as still as she could, willing the premonition to last long enough for her to sear the image of the crest into her mind.
Bang… bang….
But she was losing focus. The image was fading around her as it always did. She felt her body being pulled back into itself, into the reality that waited somewhere else.
Don’t forget!
She wouldn’t. She would never, as long as she live, forget that school’s crest.
Moments later, she opened her eyes in the carousel room in the massive, dark bed beside her massive, dark king to find she’d been pulled into his lap, and he was cradling her, his expression grim, his eyes spinning silver.
“Addie,” he said, probably not for the first or even the tenth time. “Answer me. Are you okay?”
“Yes,” she replied to let him know she was okay. Her voice was slightly scratchy, and her chest ached, and she realized the vision had literally knocked the breath out of her. “It was that vision,” she told him quickly, pushing against him to sit up. Time was of the essence. “I need something to draw with right away.”