Page 25 of Forsaken Dream
Chapter Twelve
Echo
Iwas dying.
My body was drenched in sweat. the fever making me shiver and freezing my bone marrow even with the temperatures outside being in the high nineties. It was the middle of summer, after all. In all the years I’d been alive, I’d never been sick—in this realm or in the Faerie realm—so this could only mean one of two things: I was dying. Or …
I had been poisoned.
My delirious mind fed me all sorts of dreams, although it wasn’t like I was sleeping exactly. In my half wakeful state, I chased the shapes of creatures through gold-covered, opulent hallways, my feet slapping a staccato over mirrored marble that stretched with no end in sight. Deep down, I knew that it was of upmost important that I reach them, but no matter how hard I tried, they kept slipping away. All four of them sent me on a dash through the labyrinth of hallways where I did nothing more than chase my tail.
I couldn’t do it anymore.
Forcing my body to stay awake—for all the good that it did me since I kept passing out—I occupied my time by sliding myself on the walls or crawling on all fours. My decision to send the three males packing and out of my life was the best one I’d made since leaving my father’s court. The last thing I needed was for them to see me like this. Leave it to a female’s brain to worry more about appearing ugly in front of a hot male than actually surviving whatever this was.
A gaping hole opened at the core of my soul when I was finally alone in my home. At first, I believed it to be because of the betrayal I felt when I found out that Vaser was an incubus who’d been manipulating my mind. Big slight on my part not realizing I was acting irrationally around the males. It wasn’t as if I was an innocent. I’d had lovers before—well two to be exact, but lovers none the less. The Seelie enjoyed the pleasures of the flesh for the blessing it was, although I never understood it completely.
It was nice.
But it was nothing to write home about in my humbled opinion.
The fact that I splintered into a million pieces and my heart nearly exploded when the incubus had me in his arms should’ve been warning enough. Stupidly, the thought of a fated mate crossed my mind too, but I disregarded it just as fast. The Seelie had one mate that the fates made for us, and we didn’t necessarily find them in one lifetime. Since we lived exponentially longer than humans—by a good seven to eight centuries, if not more— the chance of crossing paths with a fated mate was exactly zero point zero one.
In other words, never.
Feeling drawn to three males on top of those facts meant I was a hussy, as Pam liked to call the more promiscuous ladies in town. Humans never had an appeal to me in that way because their lives were too short to even contemplate an emotional connection, but obviously supernaturals did. Well at least they did for kindling lust in me like I’d never known. Who would’ve thought?
Proto appeared at my side as I crawled between the living room and the kitchen, my ass sticking in the air and clumps of hair hanging limply over my face. I had no energy left to get startled by it either, so I only huffed and continued the laborious journey to grab a glass of water.
“Are you dying?” The creature eyed me, his head cocked to the side, though he didn’t look a bit worried even though I thought I might take my last breath right there in the hallway.
“You’re not that lucky, jerk.” Rasping through dry-throat coughs racked me until I was forced to stop moving. “You won’t get rid of me that easy.” The lie was loud and clear to both of us.
“What’s wrong with you?” Scuttling closer on his stubby legs, he got in my face since I was actually at his eye level for once.
“If I knew what was wrong, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing, Proto.” Voice fading, fatigue had me listing to the side. My eyes closed, but I jerked awake in time. “Did you come here to gloat?”
“If anything happens to you, I die as well, or did you forget that little piece of information?” Bristling, he bared his teeth at me. “You should’ve stayed where you belong. I was meant to rule a kingdom—through you obviously—but we all have shitty cards dealt by the fates.” In his distress, a loud fart flew from the creature, the horrible odor slapping me in the face and making me wonder if my eyebrows had been burned off. “Look what your little rebellion did, you stupid, stupid girl!”
With a bark of hysterical laughter, I watched the scales pop up and spread down his spine. The longer I chortled, the angrier Proto became, but I couldn’t help myself. If the reason he’d bonded with me as my familiar was so he could sit on a throne, the poor shmuck had drawn the short straw of the lot. He couldn’t have picked a worse person for the job.
“You need to go to the portal this instant,” my familiar informed me like the pompous ass he was. “Hopefully you’ll survive the crossing.”
“And if I don’t? You’re okay with dying in your attempt to save my life?” All humor forgotten, I pushed past him and continued my crawling adventure toward the kitchen.
“It was you who refused to accept your responsibility as an heir, girly. Acting like an immature youngling, you ran. And your rebellion looks as if it has cost you, from what I can see. If you cross the portal, only you will die. I’ll live.” He even did a good attempt at offering me an encouraging smile, although it looked terrifying.
I paused in my crawl. “So, what you’re saying is … if I stay here, we both die. But if I go back to Faerie, I’ll die and you’ll live?” The emotion flickering in his red glowing eyes told he me he’d said something he shouldn’t have, something he couldn’t wiggle his ass out of this time. With that realization came another. “You thought after Pam passed away that I would come to my senses and go home, didn’t you? That’s why you hated the males.”
“No.” His gaze darted around and he focused on anything but me. “They were disgusting brutes. There are millions of reasons to hate them.”
“Right.” I sighed, tired of his bullying.
I needed water fast or I had a feeling I was going to pass out where I was. Knees scraping over the wooden floors, I dragged my way to the kitchen sink and pulled myself up with a desperate hold on the counter. Unfortunately, Proto followed, unperturbed by his lies being discovered.
“Why did you need those three anyway?” Jumping on a chair and hopping on the kitchen table, he prowled across it, his tail lashing the air. “You have a husband, girlie. Did you forget about him?”
“Please don’t remind me or I’ll stab myself with something.” Old fears and oppressive thoughts buckled my knees, and dread slithered up my spine. “I’ll die before I allow that male anywhere near me. If you care about it so much, you go marry him. You can live happily ever after and rule the kingdom together.”
