Page 47 of Queen of Diamonds

A tangle of a lightning storm, of snow, and pear trees. Not enough to contend with redwood and rose that clogged my airway like a cruel promise.

“Tell me,” Ace asked again, his hand curling around my throat ever so gently.

I shut my eyes.

This wasn’t real.

He couldn’t be here.

There is nowhere he can’t be… Not even in the home of your mates. If you believed they were beyond his reach, you would have told them the truth. You wouldn’t be fleeing their protection.

But to answer his question, I might be handing a dream the power to be forever. If I didn’t, and if he was real…? Then I would pay.

My breathing caught as I cycled through my options. My breath hitched as Ace’s hand closed tighter around my throat.

Make a choice.

Real or dream?

“You,” I whispered, my voice weak. I wished I was strong enough to fight it, but after yesterday? He’d caught up to me, almost within reach.

But I knew it was the wrong choice the moment I’d spoken.

“Good.” His voice was a low purr that vibrated down my spine.

Tell me who you belong to.

I hated that demand.

It always came, becoming more terrifying every day after I’d escaped.

Another trap, designed to cage me in fears while it threatened the freedom and confidence I fought for every day. I always answered wrong, and when I woke, I’d spend the day a shell of myself. No matter if I was out for a night on the town with the girls, or working the bar with Tallow, as if I’d given up the right to the life I stepped back into.

Ace dragged me closer, teeth grazing my neck—a gesture of dominance more than anything—as he’d never truly intended a bond.

I shook, trying to find the courage to take it back, to deny him, knowing I would fail.

My eyes traced the cracks in the wall. It was so real. He was here. He was really here, and if I didn’t answer, he would?—

“Glade!”

I jerked violently, eyes snapping open. The same cracked walls swam in teary vision. I turned, confused by the scents around me. Redwood and roses had vanished, and in their void, violence was a shot of adrenaline ripping me from sanity. I had a body pinned in a flash, and Ace’s blue eyes stared back at me.

I blinked, panic shredding my lungs to ribbons, a fist squeezing my throat.

Real.

It had been real, like I’d always known it would be one?—

I froze.

Silver hair. Messy silver waves swept across those blue eyes, not flutters of black. Tattoos, detailed shards and thorns and leaves, beautiful in how they reached up his neck, scattering almost delicately across his chin and cheek, emphasising a razor sharp jaw.

I blinked.

“Zed?”

Still, my heart thundered in my chest. Ace had one tattoo, no more.

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