Page 283 of The Spider Queen
I battered them into a tiny corner of my mind and envisioned laying a wall of bricks. It was difficult and I was distracted by the feelings attempting to claw their way out.
Emotions didn’t like to be held prisoner.
But I was stronger than they were, and I assaulted them back. After the mental brick wall was finally in place, my mind was blessedly silent. I felt around for my own emotions—finding them easily.
Terror. Fear. Confusion.
My eyes widened in bemusement as I sat up on a bed—which was larger than a California king. Dozens of fluffy white pillows graced the top. I stroked my hand across the light pink coverlet.
Pink? Really?
And it was frilly.
The room was vast and opulent. I looked up at the ceiling. There was a burning ball of golden light floating in the air.
“Okay, this is weird,” I said out loud. My voice echoed in the quiet and I shivered.
The last I remembered, the masquerade man had been in my shop and whisked me away.
That had been a dream, right? No way it had been real. No waythiswas real.
I slowly slid off the huge bed, feeling like the princess inThe Princess and the Pea. My bare feet touched the ground. I padded across the cool floor to the timber door. It looked heavy and ancient. Reaching for the iron handle, I inhaled a deep breath. I opened the door—and encountered sky.
Puffy white clouds as far as the eye could see. I gripped the doorframe, gouging my fingernails into the wood. A sliver found its way underneath a nail and I sucked in a breath of pain and shock.
I thought back to childhood, and how I had wanted so desperately to fly. My heart thundered in my chest and the excitement of youth overtook me.
I stepped over the ledge.
And then I was in free fall.
Tears blotted my cheeks, and my hair whipped across my face. Panic set into my limbs, but it was too late.
I knew I was going to hit the ground and die.
The air was warm, but the clouds were cool. As I fell through them, mist caressed my skin. Finally, I had plummeted far enough to see the land below me appear. Black and gray igneous rock mountains.
LikeMordor, I thought hysterically.
Just before I was about to be impaled on a sharp jagged rock, a beast with huge black wings swooped in underneath my falling body to grab me, saving me from a most gruesome death.
I was pressed against a warm chest, the sound of flapping wings in my ears. The skin against my nose smelled like apples and honey.
The beast growled.
I shut my eyes tighter and listened as the wind whipped across my face.
Suddenly, I was no longer against a bare chest. The beast plopped me down on the huge bed, in the room I’d jumped from, thinking it was all a dream. I bounced a few times and then fell back against the pillows.
My eyes widened when I saw my savior.
Glowing, indigo blue eyes ensnared me.
His black wings fluttered and then retracted.
The stranger I’d met at the masquerade had been urbane, polished. But there was no trace of that man now. He was bare-chested, showcasing beautiful rippling muscles and a trim waist. His lower half was covered in a pair of loose-fitting trousers.
I swallowed.
