Page 91 of Her Dark Promise

Maybe he wasn’t so different from me.

“Sleep well, your grace.” I could barely hear him. He sounded so far away. I tried to open my eyes, but I was thoroughly fucked without the fucking. Then I remembered that I had yet to see all of him and I wanted to. I heard him laugh. “There’s time for that later. Sleep.”

Did I say that out loud?

More laughter, but it sounded even further away. I was being dragged underwater, and my body was thankful for the exhaustion finally taking over.

“What about your questions?”

“Tonight wasn’t about me. I have plenty of time.”

I had to shield my eyes from the light flooding onto my face. Strange. Even if I slept with my curtains open, my bed was back far enough that the light would never hit me.

It took another moment before I was sitting straight up. A blanket fell from my lap. I was in the chapel, sleeping on the pew.

Sleeping? I was sleeping!

I slapped a hand to my chest and thought back on last night. Soren promised to relax me and he succeeded. I had never slept through the entire night. And…and…no nightmares.

That wasn’t possible.

Right?

There had not been one night that I hadn’t had a nightmare. Was it truly possible?

I looked to see if he was around but found an empty chapel.

I scoffed and smirked toward the door as if I could see all the way to his room. He won this round, but the next time I got my hands on him, he would be screaming my name.

Hisgod.

Chapter sixteen

Iwrapped myself with the blanket Soren had used to cover me last night and started walking toward the dining hall.

Wake up. Eat. Garden. Fuck Callum. Eat. Repeat.

Though that was slowly changing wasn’t it? Soren and Bastian were turning my world upside down, and even though the past few weeks hadn’t been easy, they had been lively. I thought back to last night and thought of another word: transformative.

There was no other word for Soren's feat in getting me to fall into a deep slumber. Even if it was only for a few hours.

I stopped by one of the glass doors leading outside and saw the landscape covered in a blanket of snow. The light that hit the snow made it look like there were millions of stars twinkling amongst the morning haze.

It was so beautiful that it made my heart catch. Winter always did that to me, reminding me of a simpler time.

I opened the door, wanting to feel the bite of the chill air, when something startled me. I gripped the handle of the door and heard two young girls squealing in delight as they rushedpast me and jumped, flying through the air and landing in a mountain of snow.

“Slow down! Don’t hurt yourself!”

I snapped my eyes to the woman next to me. She was wrapped in her winter coat lined in ermine fur. Her chin was high, hair wrapped into a braided bun atop her head with a crown pinned in.

“Mother,” I choked out.

I couldn’t move, frozen in place as she rolled her eyes and braved the outdoors for her daughters.

I remembered this day; I was ten and Belle was five. I followed after Mother barefoot, not caring that my feet burned from the cold snow. I would burn in Hell for eternity if that meant I could live in this moment forever.

I saw the younger me surge up through the snow, shivering. Laughing.

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