Beautiful nightmares, p.44
Beautiful Nightmares, page 44
“Ready?” I asked, my tone heavy with meaning.
Collith’s gaze didn’t waver. “Ready,” he said.
The word felt like someone had pressed down on a gas pedal, launching my engine of a heart. Tightening my lips to hide how they trembled, I nodded and turned to leave. But then I saw Thuridan. He was at the part of the conversation with Lyari when he’d deliberately chosen words to repel her. Tell me, do you keep the Nightmare’s bed warm for her?
I slowed to a halt in front of him, and Thuridan stared back with glassy eyes. I studied his features and thought about his fear. I’d used it because I knew firsthand how powerful the avoidance of love could be. Especially when love felt undeserved.
There was no time, but for this, I’d take the risk.
“I’m not going to free you,” I told the warrior, knowing some part of him would hear me. “Consider it a… peace offering. Because what I’m giving you is a gift, Thuridan Sarwraek, no matter how shitty it may feel right now. Most people don’t know this, but if someone breaks out from a Nightmare’s magic, it usually means one of two things. One, they died. This is the most common outcome, and if I’m being honest, it’s probably yours. You did just try to kill me, so I don’t feel too bad about it. The second outcome, and the more rare occurrence, is that the morsel has overcome their fear. My power stopped working on them, because they were no longer afraid of the thing I’d created, you see? Basically, if you manage to survive this, you’ll be free… to love her. And if she loves you back, you’ll be the luckiest asshole alive. So good luck, asshole. You’ll need it. Oh, and I’m keeping the sword.”
I turned away from Thuridan and fixed my eyes on the door. Here goes nothing, I thought. I took a small breath and moved toward the darkness, fighting the instinct to kick Collith out of my head. He appeared at my side, and strangely enough, being able to see him made it easier to let his magic have me. I looked back at the yawning tunnel, the torches even dimmer now.
Together, Collith and I walked out of that small, terrible room, and neither of us looked back.
The wall of cells loomed ahead. Collith matched my pace without complaint, his stiff gait the only indication that he was in pain. He almost had me convinced of his recovery, but we were halfway to the stairs when he stumbled. I caught hold of him again, no small feat when I was carrying Thuridan’s sword. The movement made something catch my eye. I frowned and shifted to see Collith’s back. Fresh blood dribbled down his skin, and I knew this was the splotch of darkness I’d spotted.
“Did someone stab you?” I breathed, staring at the wound. Had it torn open when I was sitting in Collith’s lap? Damn it. Nothing good ever came from making out with Collith Sylvyre. When would I ever learn?
He raised his gaze and started to answer, but then his attention flicked to something over my shoulder. “Behind you,” Collith said, making a move to shove me.
I raised my sword just as Nuvian’s came down. The blades clashed, sending a ringing sound into the stillness. The reflection of a nearby torch flickered in his eyes, which looked black in the gloom. In a move that made it abundantly clear I was outclassed, Nuvian swung his sword around and sent me stumbling back. I bared my teeth and instinctively delved inside his mind, using my power like most people take a breath.
But then I remembered that damn promise I’d made, and I stopped. In that frozen, silent instant we found ourselves staring at each other, our faces inches apart, I saw fear flare in Nuvian’s eyes. No matter how much he probably wanted to hide it, he knew I was stronger than him. His life was in my hands.
I may have promised not to use my abilities on him, but I hadn’t said anything about swords.
In a swift, skilled move, I used the instincts Adam had ingrained in me and maneuvered Nuvian’s blade around mine, using his own weight as momentum to force him backward. Nuvian recovered in an instant, but it was too late. I held the tip of the sword I’d stolen against the golden column of his throat.
“You shouldn’t be scared of what I’ve done—you should be scared of what I can do,” I told him quietly. I lowered the sword and stepped back. “You saved my life, and now I’ve spared yours. We’re even.”
Slow clapping disrupted the hushed tension between us.
Nuvian and I moved apart, and I swung to face whoever was making that sound. Viessa stood farther down the tunnel, half in shadow, a contingent of Guardians at her back.
Lyari Paynore was one of them.
It was the first time we’d seen each other since Belanor’s cherubim had taken me from the hospital. I briefly met her gaze before returning my focus to the new queen. My mind raced with questions. Was Lyari pretending to be loyal to Viessa? Or had she been pretending with me? Was that why she’d ignored my summons?
“I knew you’d come for our boy sooner or later,” Viessa said by way of greeting. Tonight, the Ice Queen was wearing black. A gown of glittering, endless black. “You didn’t kill the guard on duty, did you? Because I’d have to hurt you for that, and I really don’t want to hurt you.”
Thankfully, she seemed to have left Paul somewhere else this evening, so Viessa’s threat didn’t worry me as much as she meant it to. As Collith moved to stand beside me, I made a sound of contempt and gestured at the Guardians with my sword. “What is this? A game? Some twisted form of entertainment? If ruling the Unseelie Court is that boring, let me tell you, you’re doing it wrong.”
“I can’t let you save him, Fortuna,” Viessa said, ignoring the sarcasm that dripped off my words. “He still has supporters, and if Collith goes free, it would only be a matter of time before he comes back for the throne. Except next time, he might be smarter about it and bring an army with him.”
I raised my eyebrows. “We have a problem, then, because I’m not leaving him down here to be tortured.”
Viessa tilted her head. A calculating expression came over her face, but I had learned to recognize a fae trick when I saw one. She was pretending to think, but whatever came out of her mouth next was the real reason she’d let me get this close to Collith. There was a reason it had been so easy. Viessa wanted something, and she was using me to get it.
“He has information I need,” she said finally. “By all means, if you can persuade Collith to tell me what I want to know, I’d be happy to revisit the issue of his confinement.”
And there it is. I understood now. Collith had withstood their tortures, and Viessa thought I was his weakness. A new tactic. I’d choose how to play this once I could see the entire board, I decided silently. “What is it you want to know?” was all I said.
She didn’t pretend to think about this response. “Bank account numbers. The location of hidden passageways within this Court. The sort of things only a king would know.”
If Viessa wanted account numbers, maybe she hadn’t been able to access the crown’s finances. The council members, I thought suddenly. She’d disbanded their organization and taken their power. In return, those bloodlines had probably pulled whatever investments they’d made, or called in their loans. I couldn’t remember the technicalities of how everything worked—during Lyari or Nuvian’s lectures, my thoughts had kept drifting off. I was regretting that now.
I mulled over the reasons I should keep that information from Viessa, but I couldn’t come up with any. Despite my guilt over how I’d handled my abdication, I didn’t want to rule again. Unless Collith gathered an army and reclaimed his power, ruling wasn’t an option for him, either. With a mental shrug, I turned slightly and directed my next words at the dethroned king. “Are you feeling more talkative now?”
If he handed the information over to Viessa, she might actually let us go free. We could walk out of here without shedding a single drop of blood. Collith knew what his refusal meant; I could see it in the set of his jaw. But he still answered exactly how I’d known he would. “No.”
Good thing I didn’t mind spilling a little blood.
I gave Collith a grim smile, then turned to face Viessa. I hoped the fae couldn’t hear my rapid heartbeat. Adjusting my grip on the sword, I shifted so that I stood slightly in front of Collith.
It was the equivalent of drawing a line in the sand. If the tension had been subtle before, it was everywhere now, and I knew the faeries had gotten my message loud and clear. Including Lyari. I matched Viessa’s regretful tone as I said, “Forgive the cliché… but if you want him, you’ll have to go through me.”
“Actually, you’ll have to go through us.”
Laurie materialized on my other side. I glanced at him, knowing he’d see my annoyance. Took you long enough.
He shrugged as if to say, I wanted to see how this would play out. To Viessa he said, “This may seem like a strange request, but would you take about seven steps backward?”
I frowned. Seven steps? Did that mean what I thought it did?
Viessa heaved a sigh at the sight of Laurie. “You do realize this means war between our Courts, Prince Laurelis.”
“If you wanted to get me in bed, dear, all you had to do was ask. I mean, I would’ve rejected you in a heartbeat, but you still could’ve asked.” Dismissing her, Laurie’s gaze moved to Collith. Something passed between them.
“Why?” Collith said. He was asking Laurie why he was here.
The other faerie’s answering grin was faint, bittersweet. “No one tortures you but me. Those manacles are hot, by the way.”
“Seven steps?” he asked suddenly.
Laurie nodded. “Give or take.”
A blast of ice shot down the length of the tunnel, making me slam against the wall and lose my grip on the sword. Shards still caught my shoulder, shredding through the layer of polyester, tearing skin as easily as bits of glass. I cried out, but I knew it was probably nothing compared to Laurie’s wound. He’d been Viessa’s target, and he’d been standing partially in front of me.
Through the haze of pain, I heard Viessa speaking again. Her voice was as cold as the frost covering the cell bars next to us. “It’s clear now, why I could never fully claim your heart, Collith,” she said. To me she said, “I like you, Fortuna Sworn. I wish I didn’t. It would make this far easier.”
Lowering her hands, Viessa stepped back and nodded to Nuvian. He, in turn, signaled to one of the Guardians behind him. I searched for Lyari, but she must’ve shifted out of view. Collith, me, and Laurie were all wounded, robbed of speed and strength. Gil couldn’t help us.
Shit. We didn’t plan for this.
That was all I had time to think before Nuvian gripped me by the throat. He placed the tip of his sword at my gut, and his arm tensed. If I could’ve moved my mouth, I would’ve screamed.
“Now we’re even,” Nuvian whispered, his eyes boring into mine.
He never got the chance to make the killing blow. He’d barely finished speaking when Collith bellowed. It was a sound I’d never heard him make before. And then… he imploded.
Heavenly fire—more lightning than the red-orange flames people thought of when they heard the word fire—filled the dark. Lyari materialized at my side and yanked me down the tunnel, out of the inferno’s path.
The heat was so powerful that it burned a hole in Nuvian’s shoulder and through the other Guardian in its path. It knocked all the faeries in the passageway back as if they were a bunch of bowling balls. Collith stood before them, his chest heaving, his eyes burning hotter than the flames he’d just released. His bare, bloody body gleamed in the torchlight.
“Threaten her again,” he said quietly, a drop of sweat sliding down his temple, “and their deaths will seem like a mercy compared to yours. Would you say that was seven steps?”
“I’d say so. Excellent work, Sylvyre.” Laurie appeared on my other side, and I was relieved to see his wound had already started healing. But Nuvian didn’t look at him. He didn’t look at any of us, actually. His blue eyes scanned our surroundings, and he didn’t try to hide a confused frown. I followed his gaze. In an instant, I knew why he was so mystified.
We weren’t on the path next to the cells anymore.
When Collith had thrown so much power behind that blast, he’d lost hold of the illusion he’d been casting over everyone. The illusion he’d created the moment I let him inside my head. The illusion Laurie had also been working on from the moment Viessa and her guards arrived in the passageway at the top of the stairs, and had continued all the way down here.
I abruptly switched my focus to Viessa. I knew the instant she figured out what we’d done because I was watching her face when it happened.
The queen was standing inside the very cell she had put Collith in.
The cell she’d still been seven steps away from when Laurie finally revealed himself.
From the moment they set foot in these dungeons, Viessa and her Guardians had been under the sway of Laurie and Collith’s shared power. An intricately designed illusion. It was necessary to put the images inside my head, too, since I’d had to stick to the limitations of the room in order to lure Viessa and her Guardians over the threshold… and across the boundary of the spell.
A spell that Savannah Simonson couldn’t break. She did, however, manage to alter it. Just as Laurie had hoped.
We stood on the other side of it, protected by the very magic Viessa was now trapped by. Although she doesn’t know that yet, I thought.
“I made a few tweaks to the spell,” Laurie said cheerfully. “You and your Guardians can’t leave this room.”
Well, now she does.
Viessa didn’t answer. She was looking, I noticed, at the mark on the floor we’d been trying so hard not to draw notice to. Savannah had warned us it would be there. Apparently it had been necessary for the success of the spell. Maybe Viessa doesn’t see it, I thought hopefully. Maybe she won’t know what it is.
“I demand you break that chalk line,” Viessa called. I swallowed a sigh—of course she had enough knowledge about magic to understand what it was. Viessa Folduin was intelligent, despite her questionable taste in men.
“You’re not in any position to make demands,” I told her.
The queen didn’t look at me. “I wasn’t talking to you.”
It had felt so natural to have Lyari at my back that I’d forgotten she wasn’t supposed to be there. If she obeyed Viessa, it was all over for us. Collith wouldn’t be able to repeat another blast. Laurie was still healing. I could try to fight this battle on my own, but I wasn’t sure my powers could be depended upon. Nuvian had also just proven that he could gain the upper hand when my guard was lowered.
The boundary needed to stay in place.
“Lyari, that was a direct order from your queen,” Viessa added. “If you disobey, you may consider yourself banished from this Court.”
Okay, that changed things. Thrumming with tension, I started to tell Lyari she should break the line, but Laurie put his hand on my wrist. I jerked my head toward him and he gave a single, wordless shake of his head. Don’t. I stared, my stomach sinking. Laurie knew what it meant for Lyari if she was banished, and he was still choosing the spell. It meant that he didn’t like our odds, either. How much power had he drained casting that illusion over so many minds, several of them just as powerful as his?
Before I could decide what to do, Lyari stepped back.
We all listened to the sound of her heel sinking onto the stone. She lifted her chin and gazed steadily at Viessa. She didn’t say a word, but her answer was clear.
I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe she’d just done that for me.
Slowly, I turned back to Viessa, half-expecting to see a ball of ice forming between her hands. But she stood there calmly, the force of Guardians gathered behind her again. When our eyes met, a small, faint smile touched Viessa’s red lips—she’d accepted that we had won this round.
“Are we still friends?” I asked her, flashing a weak grin in return.
To my surprise, the Unseelie Queen smiled back with a warmth that actually seemed genuine this time. “Hell, yes.”
Huh, I thought. In spite of the bad things she’d done, like just declaring war on my… whatever Laurie was, I still liked her. I could imagine a friendship with this faerie made of ice and a dark fire. “I’m glad. Really,” I added, feeling awkward. “I’ll call you sometime. Maybe we can have a girls night or something. I’ll get your number from Lyari, I’m sure she has it.”
I could feel Laurie’s silent laughter beside me. “Oh, shut up,” I growled at him.
With that, I stepped back and closed the door.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
We made our way through the maze with preternatural speed.
Gil and Laurie carried Collith between them, his arms slung over their shoulders. Lyari walked ahead of our small group, leading the way through every trick and turn of the Unseelie Court, while I brought up the rear. We’d bought ourselves some time by trapping Viessa and Nuvian—exactly as Laurie had planned—but they wouldn’t stay put long. Especially if Viessa used her bond with the Guardians to make them aware of Collith’s escape. Maybe I should’ve let Laurie knock her unconscious like he’d wanted to.
“I have a safe house in Amsterdam,” Laurie informed us under his breath. “Once we reach the Door, keep the thought of the St. Nicholas Basilica uppermost in your minds, please.”
“Where was this safe house yesterday, before we came to the Unseelie Court?” I demanded in a hot whisper.
Laurie shushed me. “Quickly, now. Mustn’t waste time.”
Only knowledge of the argument we were about to have kept me from kicking him in the shin—I’d already decided that I was going home, but now wasn’t the time to announce that. I had a feeling Lyari especially would have some pointed comments to make. They wouldn’t change my mind, though. I was desperate to make sure Finn had gotten back to the house safely.
So I walked behind the three males silently, keeping my focus on every flickering shadow and pulse of darkness. The Unseelie Court was full of monsters, and most of them weren’t in the cages we’d left behind. Since I wasn’t the queen anymore, it wasn’t considered treasonous to harm me.
