Page 71 of The Nightmare Queen

All teasing aside, I dip my face low. The alcohol mixing with her scent overwhelms me our lips skimming one another.Gods this damn fucking woman.“Is that what you want?”

She pulls back the look she's giving me now has the same hatred in it that she held the day we met in her throne room. The truth to her feelings regardless of her body’s inclinations are written all over her face. “Torture truly is your specialty.” I mutter.

“I’ve hardly tortured you, Rorin.”

I drop my hands from her, the loss of feeling her warmth beneath my fingers is immediate. “What do you think this is?” I didn’t stick around to see the change in her face. But I don’t miss her words that hit my back.

“A game.”

I step outside, the warm air sweeping over me.

The alleyways are crawling with serviceable women and the men desperate and drunk enough to pay for their company. I tug at the ends of my hair, the curls wrapping around my fingers still caught up in our exchange I briefly think of her fingers being the ones my curls wrap around.

What is wrong with you?My conscience hisses. She puts ononeshow in front of everyone and that’s enough to have you panting after her?Gods. I’ve never been one to trail after women for more than a night, but apparently if they hate me and tries to kill me as a fun daily activity then they’ll have me tripping hand over foot.

Drunken patrons stumble out of the tavern some searching for a basin to vomit in, others looking for a dark corner in which to debase themselves, delirious laughter rings out all around me. My head drops against the stone behind me staring up at the night sky. I have no idea how we are going to pull all of this off. The hand portals and written correspondence have kept us up to date with the front lines. Since our last update things have been eerily quiet. Certainly not because of my father and his orders, no, he has something up his sleeve and the prickling sensation under my skin warns me it’s nothing good.

I’d caught them off guard with my initial suggestion to obtain Obsidian’s help, and I threw them off further when I showed up, Obsidian soldiers and queen in tow.

For a kingdom with magic that Wields in healing and not in defensive measures you would think they would have a more efficient military base. And we did at one point, but he’s whittled them down to the bare bones. Now I’m whittling her men down too, something that I wouldn’t have to do if we had brought her dragon with us. Fuck, she has a dragon and we can’t even use it. With force like that we’d have taken Baelor’s men within the day and my father would be forced to admit that getting them on our side was the right thing to do.

“There you are.” Bennett stares at me from under the glow of a street light.

“Here I am.”

The crunch of the stones under his feet echoes in the alley. “You’re hiding, Rorin Collier. Course I can’t say I blame you. The woman is downright terrifying. Guess that’s how she got her nicknames.” He smiles crookedly at me and for a second I see the same boy I met in the courtyard as kids, wooden sword in hand.

-

“Hi. I’m Bennett Haid and I’m going to be a soldier one day.”

-

Will came along after and the three of us - much to his chagrin - have been tumbling on a path together ever since.

Bennett blows out a breath, “they seem more relaxed.”

“Are they drunk?” I ask.

I can feel the weight of his gaze on my profile. "Probably. Ror – just curious but…what’s her endgame?” My brows draw together and my lips flatten tightly against each other.I wish I knew.“I could believe she is doing this because she’s clearly infatuated with you but I don’t think that’s the only reason.”

“Bloody hell, Bennett. In what gods forsaken world does she seeminfatuatedwith me?”

He rolls his eyes down at me. “Oh come on, Ror. Why else would she be doing this? Why else would she bait you the way she does? Unless it’s because of course she already knows thatyouare the infatuated one and is one hell of a manipulator.”

Probably the latter,I want to snap at him. But instead I tell him, “It’s a part we both are playing. One that will get us the outcomes we each hope for.”If only I knew what her outcome she hoped for was.He looks poised to argue with me further but a scream comes from inside the tavern quickly followed by a few more screams and people fleeing from the building. “Fuck.”I mutter under my breath. We both bolt back into the building, shoving and elbowing the mob of patrons to get to the source. I could just barely feel it before Eveera’s magic slams into us at full force.

-

“P-please don’t lock me up here again. PLEASE.”, “Stupid boy. An omen if there ever wasone.”

The wave of power knocks her off her balance just enough for one of the unaffected Guards to slice his sword through her stomach. “Open those eyes, Nightmare. I need you to give me those eyes…”

-

The nightmares both new and old assault my minds eye. I hear Bennett’s wails next to me the most over the screams of everyone else. I push against her Wield, fighting through the crowd to get to wherever she is at the center of the floor. When I reach it, I find her standing over them magic out and wrapping around two separate men who flail about in her grasp. Her uncontrolled Wield fights for control over my mind, Bennett’s screams rising the closer we get to her.

If I were to guess, I would say the alcohol she drank is playing a part. The lack of inhibitions causing it to leak past her two initial targets which causes the rest of us to suffer alongside them. I see Max from the corner of my eye the electricity zapping at the ends of his fingers drawing my attention. His gaze keeps bouncing back and forth between the queen and a heap on the floor. It takes me a few seconds to realize the heap is Millie and Orem and Orem is cradling her unconscious frame.

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