Page 46 of Haunted Nightmares

“It’ll be whoever is madder when the sun goes down.” Normally I’d say Wraith, simply because of the look on his face when I dropped my glamor but I saw Declan come to the door and between him and the fact that Lorna is currently holed up with my most likely going berserk mate, he might not get out of that house as quickly as he’d like.

And Nate is literally two tents over so he’s basically already here.

Ana stabs her dagger into the table next to the sword then crosses her arms against her chest before tilting her head to watch me. “Your mate will be madder but he will not be here first.”

“You think?” I say sarcastically and roll my eyes becauseduh.

“He won’t believe you.”

Stopping dead in my tracks I turn wide eyes her way.

She’s right.

And I’m so nervous about the confrontation itself that I didn’t even think about the fact that Wraith isn’t going to believe one word out of my mouth.

He’s deep into his madness so that’s a huge factor on its own but he’s a skeptic by nature, questioning everyone and everything regardless of what they say and most of that can be blamed on his parents but Wraith is also trying to smoke out a mole within his army. He’s on high alert as it is then throw in the belief that I’m a witch, and a troll crossed his path after hundreds of years of believing they were extinct, my mate isn’t going to believeanyoneanymore. I’d even put money on him considering Declan was the traitor, fleeting or not.

And he watched me die.

Wraith watching with tears in his eyes as my flesh burned, as I screamed and writhed in pain. He saw everything, right up until I combusted on that obelisk andthatis all my dark king is going to believe.

Well, shit.

That really throws a wrench in things.

It’s not like Lorna is going to tell him anything. She’ll probably try to sedate him and pump him full of donor blood to keep him as level as possible. Not that it’ll work but she’ll try to keep me a secret as long as she can, by almost any means necessary.

Outside of that, Orion and Aries, everyone who’s at the house with my mate will assume he finally snapped and started hallucinating me into existence. Except Declan but I’m not really sure what he’ll do. He looked me right in the eye, saw me standing there plain as day so there isn’t any denying that but he could spin it any number of ways to my beautiful mate. For all I know, Declan could fuel his belief that witches have returned right along with everything else that goes bump in the night.

And that most definitely means I need a plan.

“Do you wish me to stay when the king arrives?”

Blinking, I shake my head and resume pacing. “It’s not a good idea. Wraith was unhinged well before he started going mad, if you’re here when he?—“

“I am aware,” Ana says with a sigh. “You forget he is my king as well, and we have been watching him since the day he was conceived. I know all he has done because I have always fought alongside him.”

“Yeah, yeah.” I wave her off then start popping my knuckles. “I’ve heard all about it for the last six months. Prophecy this, preordained that. Eye in the sky always watching. It doesn’t mean you need to be here for what has the potential to be a very bloody reunion.”

She shrugs one shoulder and glances toward the fastened flap of the opening. “And with Akhenaten?”

Who comes tearing into the tent the second his name is out of Ana’s mouth.Guess it’s sundown.

“How dare you!”

Stealing myself, I turn to face Nate with my head held high. “Don’t you even try to start with me.”

“We were prepared for this, spent months training so you would know what to do when you unavoidably came face to face with him.” He clenches his jaw as he stops about two feet away from where I’m standing. “One troll hardly counts for completing our tasks and just because that worthless, selfish, sorry excuse for a ki?—“

My body moves on instinct and faster than I knew it could, my feet carrying me forward to close the gap as my right hand connects with Nate’s face, slapping him hard enough to turn his head.

His angry stare snaps back to mine, the two of us now locked in a standoff, breathing heavily as Nate’s golden eyes burn into mine. “Never, ever say anything like that about my mate again.”

“Yourmatewho got you killed,” he asks with a growl as he glares. “Your matewho tortured you? Yourgoddamn matewho refused to take up the throne and lead his people like the king he’s supposed to be?” Nate scoffs when I can feel my eyes begin to glow. “He doesn’t deserve those titles let alone you coming to his defense and why the Creator allowed him to survive his horrible mother’s womb will be one of life’s greatest mysteries.”

“Go to hell, Nate.”

He chuckles as he takes a step back. “I’ve been there, thanks. Wandering that desolate wasteland waiting for your stubborn ass to grace us with your presence.”

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