Page 170 of Flirting with Darkness

Despite the warmth of Faolán curled around me, rigid, my blood ran cold. Not just cold—frozen.

This was no show.

And maybe this wasn’t a dream.

“I’ve got you,” Faolán breathed into my ear. “I won’t let them hurt you.”

Our host—our beautiful, terrible host—lifted the heart, which still beat sluggishly.

Her sapphire eyes fixed on mine as she opened her mouth, revealing all those perfect, white teeth.

No. No. No.

She took a bite. Blood flowed over her hand and down her chin.

I screamed, and the dark theatre shattered.

19

AWAKE

Iwoke up screaming.

Bolt upright, I searched left and right, breaths heaving, throat raw. No blood. No bizarre theatre. No sapphire-eyed woman who both terrified and turned me on so much I didn’t know what to do with myself. Just the dim light of our bedroom.

It wasn’t real.

“Rose?”

Faolán was here.

Thank the fucking gods.

I flung myself into him, even as part of me said that he wasn’t the same Faolán who had kissed me at the ball or comforted me in that terrible theatre.

But his huge arms closed around me all the same and he let me curl into his lap as tears of pure terror streamed down my face.

“It wasn’t real,” I whispered against his chest. “It wasn’t real.”

“I’ve got you.” He stroked my back, my hair. When my breaths had slowed, he grazed my cheek with his knuckles. “What’s wrong? What wasn’t real?”

“A dream. It was just a dream.” I half laughed, even though my heart still pounded against the inside of my ribcage. “You were in it. We went to a ball and—and it was nice until…” I rubbed my chest like it wasmyheart that had been ripped out. “She ate—”

“Her heart.”

I flinched and stared up at him. “How did you…?”

His expression usually veered somewhere between long-suffering low-level irritation and a full scowl, but I’d never seen him look this grim. Mouth flat, eyes shadowed, jaw tight. Under me and around me, his every muscle was tense. “You saw it too. The Calan Gaeaf ritual.”

I swallowed, nodded.

“I thought it was a dream.” His gaze flicked to my mouth as though he was remembering our kiss. “But if you saw the same thing…” His frown ratcheted deeper.

“We woke up, though. It had to be a dream.”

“Hmm.” His shoulders lowered. “Maybe.” His eyes narrowed, glinting in the dimness. “House?”

A soft rattle from the fireplace.

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