Page 33 of The Nightmare Queen

It took me several minutes to find her. She’s sitting with both palms pressed into the dirt. Rivulets of her black magic splinter through theground around her. I rest my back against one of the barren trees witnessing her Wield work, not wanting to interrupt but wanting to watch her.

It’s interesting to see her tattoos go so still, frozen in whatever position they were in before the magic started leaving her. So much power pours out of one small human. It’s suffocating bottling in a Wield, I can’t imagine what hers would feel like if she didn’t expel it so freely.

“You’re not very discreet when you’re stalking someone.” Her voice rasps. But the sound of it as it leaves isn’t her usual voice. The voice she is speaking to me in is distorted. It sounds like she is battling between herself and her Wield.

“I wasn’t stalking, I was ob—”

“Observing.I know. I told you to stop doing that.” She doesn’t turn around to address me. She stays prone on the ground with her hair out of its loose braid falling around her face. Her eyes - from what I can see at this angle - are as black as ever. “Didn’t they tell you I don’t like being followed?” She growls.

“They did. I didn’t listen. I have an investment to protect. And they all seem to forget that they’re meant to be guarding you.”

She plays with a small tendril of her magic.Fascinating.I look her over, paying closer attention to those tattoos. The women in Vellar aren’t quite so bold with painting their skin. “Why the serpents?”

“Got a thing for reptiles, I guess.” Her reply is toneless, but it’s returned to her normal, raspy and sultry voice.

“A thing for reptiles?”

Her head lifts up, the gold of her irises peeking through cracks of black as the last of her magic is absorbed. She hops up to her feet, somehow she still manages to look her nose down at me no matter how much shortershe may be. “That’s what I said.” Her hand comes up and pats my chest, the touch leaving behind a burning sensation.

I skulk behind her the rest of the way back to camp where most everyone has gone down for the night. She walks over to the fire and with a swift kick she snuffs it out, waking Will. “What the hell did you do that for?” He groans pulling the blanket up to his chin.

“Light will only draw attention to us. And I’d rather not draw attention out here, Mousy.”

He purses his lips, “I thought you said that the war and yourselves were more dangerous?” He asks, his tone mocking as he flops back down.

Across from the fire, Ezra shifts on his mat, leaving a very blatant amount of excess room on it. My eyes flick between him and Eveera who glances at him and then glances over to her own mat. For a brief moment I swear she meets my stare, before casting her gaze down. She turns and walks to her mat next to Axel who’s already snoring. Ezra’s face contorts, the rage clear on it.

Coincidentally it would seem Will laid out my mat between hers and Axel's. I can’t help the smirk that grows on my face. She chose being closer to me - her enemy - than her own lover. Whether she realizes that or not, Ezra seems to. At least that’s what I’m assuming based on the murderous look he gives me before flopping over and giving me his back.

I lay down next to her. She’s created as much distance between us as possible to the point that she’s practically on top of Axel who remains asleep despite his queen fusing her chest to his side.

Her long dark hair blends into the night, the curls spreading across her mat behind her. In this state they look nearly identical to the tendrils of her Wield. Her side lifts up and down matching the rhythm of her breathing as she falls asleep.

Screaming, who the hell is screaming?

I’m standing in a dark hall the screams echoing off the stone. The pain vibrating with the sound. I follow the noise, weaving around the bodies that are in pieces and littered everywhere. Their blood splattered all over the walls.

The screams lead me to a set of doors. The markings and carvings in the wood seem familiar to me, but I can’t recall why. I peer through the crack in the door, looking into the room. In the center is a small girl on her knees, hair a sea of black flows down her back, blood covering her nightgown, legs, and hands. There’s magic pooling around her black as her hair.

Eveera? It can’t be…she can’t be older than maybe eleven or twelve…

My hands push the door wider which allows the smell inside to overwhelm my senses. More of that thick, coppery, scent of blood enters my nostrils. My eyes follow to where her blackened gaze is trained, all the way to where I see—

Ohfuck.Oh no, no, no gods no. I fall to my knees next to the younger Eveera, horror clawing up my throat as I stare at the body hanging above the both of us. Her mother, Queen Ayla, is completely disemboweled. She’s strung up by her innards from the posts of her bed.

It’s a gory and hideous display and Eveera found her.

I gulp down the bile building in my throat.

“This was the night of the assassination. It has to be.” I whisper, my voice coming out garbled, like I were speaking underwater. But I wouldn’t dream this-this isn’t my memory…this isn’t my nightmare…it’s hers.

-

My eyes fly open, a fiery sensation tearing up my arm. The sky is still pitch black, shadows dancing around us. The only visible light is comingfrom my wrist, it’s glowing red. Whimpers and rustling fill the otherwise silent camp.

Eveera -tosses and turns in her sleep -no doubt from the living hell I just witnessed in her mind.

Inhermind.I think.Oh this is going to piss her off.

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