Page 75 of Sweet Nightmares
“What should I bargain for?”
“A kiss.”
“Alright,” she said. “Alexei, I will kiss you if you give me a lifeboat.”
“I accept your deal.” He leaned in and touched his lips to hers.
It took two more days on a smaller ship, during which they had to sleep in the cold to get to Grand York City, the greatest city across the ocean. The travel would have been miserable if Nightmare hadn’t been there to keep her warm and company. They sat silently for most of it, but also engaged in small talk, learning a little more about each other, such as their favorite colors and foods.
Nightmare’s was red, and he said, “Like your hair.” Jane’s favorite was black, which he argued was not, in fact, a color but the absence of it.
When they arrived in the city, they didn’t waste their time. For such a traumatic journey, they were only on the other side of the ocean for fifty-seven minutes, half of which was the cab ride to the Grand History Museum. Once they got to the Museum, Nightmare quickly found the exhibit with the magical item he was looking for—a cloak.
Jane didn’t even want to know what it did or why he wanted it.
Nightmare punched the glass and didn’t even bother to make a bigger hole; he just placed his hand through and pulled out the cloak, the glass ripping a tear in his skin and causing blood to trickle on the floor.
But he didn’t care. He simply walked over to Jane, wrapped his hand around her waist, and hauled her into the travel void, pulling her back into his mirror.
When her feet hit the marble of his castle floor, she asked, “If you could do that all along, why did we have to take the ship?”
“I can return to my mirror from anywhere. I cannot always go anywhere from inside of it.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Age 29.
Jane’s life was one of service. Serving and servicing powerful men, pleasuring her first husband and his debtors, being Nightmare’s minion, working for the Mirror Mafia… Everything was for someone else.
Jane was done. She wanted her own life. She wanted freedom.
But at that moment, she wanted him.
All of him. Finally.
His back muscles shifted as he walked toward his forbidden wing to drop the cloak off.
“Nightmare, stop. I—”
He rounded on her and snarled. “Do not call me tha—“
“No,” she cut him off. “I am going to call you Nightmare because you are my nightmare.Mine.”
She pushed him up against the wall with the force of her wind, and at first, he fought, standing his ground, but then he relented and let her. His back hit with a thud, and a rush of air came out of him.
She held him to the wall with a hand on his chest. He could overpower her at any moment, but he didn’t.
“You are my Nightmare, the creature that haunts the night, slaying my enemies and keeping me safe. My entire life since I remember it has been a nightmare, and then I met you. and you were worse until you were better.” Moisture curled at the edges of her eyes. “So, I get to call you my Nightmare because you made it better. Because even at your worst, you have always protected me, even if for selfish reasons.”
Jane stood on pointe and fiercely pulled his mouth to hers, using his shirt as leverage.
The kiss was a conquering, a claiming. Jane was telling him that, while he might own her body and soul, she owned him, too.
He was hers.
The good, the evil, and the monstrous. It was all hers.
She pulled away for a moment and glared up at him. “And you are gonna fuck me now.” Her chest beat to a frantic and needy rhythm. “Eight years is far too long to wait, far too long to want you and not have you.”
