Page 142 of Illusory

“Because I’d be enough,” Trace went on sorrowfully, his voice strained and broken then. “But we both know that I’m not. Fate fucked us over, and this is where we are now.”

The most suffocating wave of guilt slammed into my chest and took me under. “You’re not supposed to just settle, Trace. You deserve more than that. More thanthis,” I said, gesturing around to my room, as though it was indicative of the horrible situation we were in. “Both of you do.”

“This isn’t settling,” he said quietly, though I wasn’t sure if he was trying to convince me, or himself. “Settling would be trying to be with someone else—to love them even a quarter of what I feel for you. Settling would be accepting my life without you in it. I’m not settling, Jemma. I’m taking what’smine.”

Butterflies slashed through my belly at his words, even though I didn’t want them to.

“I couldn’t have said it better myself.”

Despite the near-pitch darkness in my room, I rolled my eyes at Dominic anyway.

“You ought to just accept that neither one of us is willing to give you up, angel. Not now. Perhaps it would have been different had you been able to make a choice,” he continued,his voice low. Confessional. “As excruciatingly painful as it would have been, I would have forced myself to let you go if you had chosen him. But you didn’t.”

“Give me a break,” muttered Trace before I could say anything in defense of myself. “Don’t act like you’re some martyr. We both know you weren’t going anywhere, even if she did choose me. You’re restraining-order level obsessed with her.”

“I resent that.”

Trace snorted. “You’re not denying it, though.”

“Of course not, though I’m certainly not any more captivated or unwilling to let her go than you are,” he promptly fired back.

Trace didn’t challenge that, and I was left lying there, my cheeks burning with heat and my stomach twisted in knots, grateful that it was too dark in the room to see anything.

The way they were bickering, so casual and almost…friendly, it was downright scary. I wasn’t sure what had gotten into them or how long it was going to last, but all I could think about was how much I really liked it this way, and that was the scariest thing of all.

46. INTO THE FIRE

I bolted upright from a nightmare later that night, the chilling image still lingering in the dark room with me, as though the horror had followed me out of my dream. My legs were straddling a pale horse, thundering through the forest on its back, my face twisted and unfamiliar as I raced to reachhimfirst.The baby. I could hear its cries echoing from deep within the woods, a haunting wail that gripped my chest, and I knew with a sickening certainty that I was there…to take his life.

“No,” I rasped, a cold sweat clinging desperately to my skin. I could still feel the wind whipping across my face, hear the pounding of hooves against the ground, roaring in my ears.

“It’s just a dream,” murmured Trace as he pulled the bedsheet around me and then gently brushed the matted strands of hair away from my forehead, our soulmate bond already thrumming soothingly beneath my skin.

“The Horsemen…the baby…he was…I was—”

“Shh, you’re safe, angel,” whispered Dominic, stroking my cheeks with the back of his knuckles. “Everything is fine. There’s no one here but us.”

Their presence comforted me like the gentle hum of a lullaby, and my racing pulse gradually slowed as I relaxed into the pillow, drawing in a shaky breath. I was safe. The baby was safe.

It was just a dream…

Everything is fine…

I sighed and then closed my eyes, my body humming contentedly as I repeated their words back to myself, over andover again until sleep finally reclaimed me.

* * *

I only vaguely remembered my nightmare when I woke up the next morning, the remnants of it lingering in my consciousness like wisps of smoke. My mind drifted to Trace and Dominic, remembering how they had been there for me, comforting and reassuring me that I was safe and sound.

They had stayed with me until I finally drifted off to sleep again, until the horror disintegrated and slipped back into the dark gallows from which it had come.

It had only been a dream, yet something about it felt likemore—like a warning of what was coming. I wanted to piece it together, to work it out in my mind, but all I could focus on in that moment was the weight of limbs draped over me and the two hard bodies resting peacefully on either side of me.

Trace and Dominic’s hard bodies.

In my bed.

The realization jolted me wide awake, making my eyes snap open and my breath catch in my throat.

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