Page 51 of Summer's Seduction

Holding on to him, I dared a glance around. My breathing hitched as the blood drained from my face. The pit I’d been standing in moments ago was gone, replaced by a shifting landscape of snowy mountains and sharp glass spikes jutting from the white torrents.

They were beautiful, reflecting rainbow prisms across the undisturbed snow, but a thin sheen of sweat pricked my brow when I saw them.

“Larkspur,” Morpheus breathed, taking my face gently into his hands, forcing me to focus on him. “I need you to bite me. My blood should give you the strength to get us out of here.”

With more confidence than I had, I nodded once before leaning down and drinking.

My head felt like someone had slammed a boulder into it repeatedly. It hurt to think, the throbbing behind my eyes spiking as I rolled to the side.

With a groan, I blinked my eyes open, finding the sun low in the sky. It was late afternoon, meaning Artemis would insist on leaving soon, despite the threatening migraine. They weren’tuncommon for me, and always seemed to preside over my poor night of sleep riddled with nightmares.

I could tell from my groggy state that I’d had fitful sleep, but the details evaded me.

“Are you okay, little monster?”

The fear-tinged gentleness of Morpheus’s voice drew my attention. He looked more pale than usual, his golden eyes staring at me as if I might collapse at any moment.

My brows furrowed as his gaze raked over my body, looking for injuries he wouldn’t find. Gods below, it must have been a horrible dream.

“I’m fine,” I said, trying to calm the thick panic in the air between us. “It’s just a migraine. They sometimes occur after I’ve slept poorly.”

“You don’t remember?” He shook his head in disbelief, thumb reaching up to drag across the edge of my lip.

I tilted my head to the side, unease twisting my stomach as I stared at the drop of blood on his thumb. “I bit you?”

He nodded slowly, holding my gaze. He opened his lips as if to say something, but a rustling of branches and the thudding of heartbeats stilled his words.

Carefree conversations carried through the air, revealing the huntresses with Artemis at their head. She stepped into the clearing just as I tugged the blankets over my nakedness.

The easy smile lightened her face twisted into horrified realization as she looked from me to Morpheus, who hadn’t bothered to cover up.

“Gross,” Artemis mumbled, shaking her head as she averted her eyes. “You two couldn’t find a cave?”

Camilla appeared beside her, her eyes wide and cheeks flushing as she saw what had startled the goddess. An awkward giggle bubbled from her lips as she turned, catching Megara by the arm and leading her and the others away.

“Gods below,” I muttered, wanting to curl up and die right then.

Artemis glared at me as if saying this awkwardness was all my fault and I had no right to be upset about it. “Get dressed. If we leave now, we’ll be there before moonrise.”

MORPHEUS

She didn’t remember anything. Camilla had been able to brew a quick tea for Larkspur to help with her headache before we’d left. It had been nearly an hour. Her vision had returned to normal, the throbbing behind her eyes resolved, and still, she could tell me nothing about her dream.

“I couldn’t wake you up, even with slumber magic.”

“Maybe you’re not as powerful as you think, Dark Prince,” she said with a smug smirk, not worried in the least. Letting her eyes close, she lifted her chin to the twilight sky as the pegasus she rode glided through the air. We needed to discuss so many things, but she looked so peaceful and my mind was a jumbled mess of information. Better I sort through everything first.

Umber curls fanned out behind her as she lifted her arms, looking like she was flying. I remembered the little girl trapped at the bottom of the pit, punished for not having her own wings, and wondered if Larkspur ever wished things were different. But growing up in The Underworld was harsh, particularly in the north. Any softness—any kindness—was squeezed out of us.

So many questions were ricocheting in my mind, each getting tangled in another, but I kept returning to Larkspur’s true identity as the lost princess. My mother’s family had usurpedhers when I was just a child, securing my place as prince to The Slumber Kingdom and The Kingdom of Nightmares.

It had been another seven years before rumors of the young princess's survival surfaced. On the eve of my seventeenth name day, I remembered that my father had ordered anyone whispering of the true heir to have their tongues cut out.

But that would mean…

“How old are you?” I asked, my back wings pumping leisurely as I kept pace with the pegasi.

Larkspur’s gaze snapped to mine, her head tilting. “Twenty-six, soon to be twenty-seven. But it’s a little late to worry about the age gap, don’t you think?”

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