Page 73 of The Nightmare Bride
With a shake of his head, he swept past. I watched him go, my every breath laced with remorse.
Gods among us. I was a terrible, horrible person. No heart to speak of. Which usually came in handy, but with Merron, I always walked away painted in a fresh layer of shame.
And right now, I had never felt so small.
18.
On my return to the library, I found Amryssa and Lunk sitting cross-legged on the carpet together, laughing.
I paused, letting their lightheartedness soothe the sting of my disgrace. It helped that they weren’t just laughing, but outrightgiggling—her with a silvery twitter, him with a rumble akin to furniture being moved.
I watched them until my heart quieted.
Because...this was it, wasn’t it?Thiswas why I loved her, why I’d give anything. Why I’d marry Kyven all over again if necessary. Because even after the nightmare had brought such suffering, Amryssa shone like a diamond in a coal mine, like a lamp on a foggy night. She was the best and brightest humanity had to offer, and she deserved a little peace.
She glanced up at my approach. Her white curls spilled down her back and trailed onto the carpet. Amusement brightened her face.
And...wow. I’d have to leave her with Lunk more often. He’d done more to revive her than anything else I’d tried. Affection for the man surged through me, so potent my eyes stung.
“Harlowe.” Amryssa patted the floor. “Come sit. Lunk was just telling me about the time he tried to slaughter a chicken, but it made off with his underwear, instead.”
The giant ducked his head. “Oh, the keymistress doesn’t need to hear about that.”Keymistresscame out askeymithreth, whiledoesn’tbecamedoethn’t.“No doubt she’s got better things to do.”
He was right, of course—there were four massive walls of books here for me to hunt through. A million leatherbound possibilities that might describe the rise of the nightmares, or the Lady Marche’s dagger, or...well, I didn’t know what I was looking for, exactly.
But Ididknow Lunk was simply being shy. Amryssa had an undeniable softness, a tranquility that encouraged confessions about underwear-pilfering chickens, but I was decidedly less inviting, and the giant often slanted away when I came near.
I smiled, trying to soften the harshness of my features, but Lunk’s dark eyes sought the floor and stayed there.
Well, no chicken stories for me today.
“Don’t mind me.” I moved away. “Pretend I’m not even here.”
“Oh, but you are.” Amryssa pulled a pale curl through her fingers. “And without your husband, at that. Where is he?”
Myhusband. I wished she wouldn’t call him that. Somehow, on her lips, the word sounded much too real.
“I’m right here,” came a voice behind me.
I turned to find Kyven striding through the doors.
My heart momentarily forgot its cadence. He looked fresh and clean and perfect, his wet hair glinting like polished mahogany, that sky-blue waistcoat accentuating his eyes. As I stood there, trying to quiet the fireworks in my bloodstream, he rolled one snowy shirtsleeve to the elbow, then the other. Those sinewy forearms hooked my gaze and held it.
I tried to shake off my reaction. All he’d done was resist a nightmare—okay, he’d also done a mild amount of saving my life—but that shouldn’t have granted him the power to affect me like this. Especially because logic implied he might also be kidnapping the housemaids.
I just...gods among us, I didn’t believe it. I couldn’tmakemyself, not when he was standing there like he was ready to work. To help me save the person I loved most.
“How’d you get out of my room?” I said, hating my own breathiness.
He shrugged. “I picked the lock.”
“Picked the...” I pressed my lips together. I didn’t want to know where he’d learnedthatparticular skill. Or why. I didn’t want to know anything except how to free Zephyrine, because every word I exchanged with this man only drew me further into his thrall.
“I assume,” he said, “that when I agreed to help, I agreed to do research. So where do we start?”
“Didn’t you say you don’t read?”
He made a face. “Gods forbid. But this isn’treading, really. More like solving a puzzle. Conquering a challenge, you could say.”
