Page 64 of The Nightmare Queen

I get up letting my feet hit the cold floor and rush into the bathroom to splash my face, the temperature shocking my system. My head hangs between my shoulders, with my stare planted on the basin in the counter top.Little demon…drifts through my mind jolting me from my thoughts. I search my mental channels for her, for that voice, but nothing else comes. Just a figment of my imagination, I guess, so I send another splash up into my face.

“No. No please don’t do it. Don’t lock…” I whip my head towards the sound of his voice. “Don’t lock…” Tiptoeing back into the room I peer around the bedpost. He's thrashing around on the blankets and there is sweat plastering his hair to his brow while panicked mutterings escape his lips. I hate to admit it but the tortured look frozen on his face highlights how beautiful he is, raw and unfiltered.

A part of me wants to reach into his mind and watch the nightmare - but I know already what I’ll see. It’ll be that same boy on the same dusty floor with the dead man spitting threats at him. The same thing I saw in his mind in the outer lands.

Wake him.I flinch at the sound of my conscience.Wake him!

Fine, persistent bitch.I hiss. I hesitate before closing the distance and crouching next to his twitching form, my fingertips ghost over his cheekbone. “princeling…princeling, it’s not real. Wake up.”I let my hand rest on his cheek fully. His face is burning up underneath my palm. “Ror—”my feet flip out from under me. Rorin’s eyes are glazed over as his facetwists in rage, his hand squeezing and pressing down into my windpipe. The full weight of his body digging into my freshly healed gash on my torso. “Rorin, let go of me!”I struggle to break into his mind."I would really rather die in a much more valiant way than being choked out on the floor."I tell him but it does nothing. The dull burn of the rune on my wrist progresses to full third degree, “RORIN!”At my shout, his pupils shrink back down to their normal size and air starts flowing into my lungs. Familiarity and then confusion enters his hazel eyes as he looks down at our position and then at his hand, realization dawning in his face.

“Oh my gods, Eveera.” The rasp in his voice a result from all of his earlier muttering. His hand flies off of my neck and in a quick succession he grabs my waist flipping me over and on top of him. His right hand spears into the hair above my nape while he cradles me against his sweaty chest. “I am so sorry…” I am struck dumb in my place as he rocks us back and forth. I’m torn between considering staying here and catapulting him across the room.

The latter wins…thank the gods. My elbow connects with his ribs as I push him away as far as his body weight allows me to. “WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!” My voice is broken and hoarse and he reaches towards me, lightly brushing the bruises that match the shape of his fingers already forming.

“Gods, Eveera. I didn’t realize…” the tenderness and concern in his face is enough to make me want to vomit. I tear my gaze from his, scrambling to stand and move over to the mirror where I can get a closer look at the purple marks blooming across it.That’s what you get for listening and waking up the damn swine.I didn’t notice he'd moved until I felt his chest brushing against me. He drops his forehead to my shoulder with each of his hands wrapping gently around my biceps. Electricity sparks under histouch and I withhold the shiver that threatens to run through my body at the contact. How utterly ridiculous and pathetic the both of us look. Bruised, sweaty, and winded;usually in my book these would all be positive signs of a male and female interaction,but tonight it’s just…unsettling.

We stand here for awhile. Finally, his palm reaches around my front and finds my chin. He forcefully tilts my head to the side as he looks over the marks. “You’re overstepping.” I hiss, yanking my chin out of his grip. He spins me in my spot until it’s both our chests that are brushing against one another. “Next time you’re squealing like a pig in your sleep, I’ll throw a pillow at you. That’ll leave less marks.”

His eyes narrow and I swear the muscle in his cheek twitches as he ignores me and continues his appraisal of my injuries. From the corner of my eye I can see the sky brightening. “The staff will be in soon to wake us with their chores.” He says breaking away from me to pick up his disheveled bedding off the floor. We wordlessly climb into the bed and instantly the heat from his body warms the covers, fatigue ramming into me like a bull. His arm reaches over, fingertips lightly brushing my throat before he flips around to face the windows. I swallow thickly, ignoring the discomfort as I stare at the wall.

“This plan better work.”I whisper into his mind before everything fades to black.

Rorin

She fell asleep almost instantly once I crawled under the covers. The curve of her backside is barely nestled into me, I flipped back over once I heard her breathing even out and I knew she was out, now I’ve been staring at her for the past two hours painfully waiting for someone to disrupt us. My fingers reach over to trace the imprints they left behind. I fucking choked her.Dammit. How ironic that we are in the kingdom of healers and I can’t even fix the damage I caused.

One.Breath.Two.Breath.Three.Breath. Four.

I’ve fallen into a routine of watching the rise and fall of her chest. I’m not sure when exactly it started but with this being the second time I’ve inflicted an injury on her - intentional or not-I’ll either need to sneak a healer mage, that isn’t under my father’s thumb, in here to fix the bruises or she won’t be able to show her throat for several days.

I fucking choked her…if it weren't for that same fucking dream.It hasn’t haunted my mind in years but since her…it’s like her presence brings out the very demon in me I’ve worked so hard tosuppress.

“An omen if there ever was one.”The man's grating voice echoes around in my head.I am broken. My Wield is broken. I am a dishonor to this kingdom.The chant goes on a loop as my chest aches with guilt. She shifts, her body inching closer to mine if that’s even possible. And another pang of guilt spears through me as I add a verse to the chant.

I am a dishonor toher.

It’s been a few days now since that night. The guilt never subsided, but we got into a routine. She didn’t wake me from any of the other nightmares and other than the moments where we share a bed, we’ve been narrowly avoiding one another every time we are alone. The only words we’ve uttered were when I suggested to her that she should wear a high neck for those bruises. Her response? “We’ll call it foreplay.”

No one else has said anything yet to us. For the most part she’s stayed holed up either in my room or in Axel’s. She thought it was best if she told her men our plan alone. Based on the looks they’ve laid on me every time I am near them, they didn’t take to the idea well.

By the morning of the sixth day, her bruises had begun to fade and there was still no word from my parents other than to say I am currently not required to be at any council meetings. Which means one of two things:

One - my mother has chosen to not say anything to the council or my father for some undisclosed reason, but knowing my mother, I am sure it serves her in some way.

Or two - they know and they’re biding their time, waiting to see how Eveera reacts when cornered.

A soft knock sounds at the door followed by Millicent walking in holding the new linens. She makes her way around me and strips the bed. She must think I don’t notice the reason she is doing housekeeping as a lady isn’t just for good housekeeping but in hopes she’ll find something of interest on Eveera’s bedside.The little sneak.She shuffles behind me - carefully sifting through the drawers. I laugh while lacing my sparring leathers up and grabbing the dagger sheath from the top of my wardrobe. “Millie - if she catches you doing that, I won’t stop her from putting you in your place.” Her incoherent grumbles are the only response I get but she makes sure I understand,prick, come out of her mouth. I pull my boots on last and move to my desk, rifling through the notes of importance on it.

“Any summons yet?” I jump at the proximity of her voice.

“Gods, Mil don’t you know not to sneak up on someone?”

She raises her brows at me, “didn’t know you scared so easily…what are you looking at?” She asks while snatching the document from my hands.

“Sure help yourself…” I mutter, my arms crossing over my chest.

Millie’s brows furrow as she flips the paper over. “These are all just updates on the border outposts.” I nod. “Hmph, well, guess that’s better than a summons from daddy dearest.”

I scoff. I think I would rather it be a summons. All these notes updating me on Bair and Piram are grim at best and if Will and Bennett haven’t seen them already then I’ll have to brief them with hopes that we can get word quickly to the troops.

---