Page 74 of Sweet Nightmares
He raised a manicured silver eyebrow when she didn’t move to stand.
“I love dancing, but I can’t.” Confusion painted across his face, and she gulped. “You must command me to do it because I can’t.”
“Is that what you want?”
“Yes.”
He gave a downward glance before raising his chin again. “Dance with me tonight.”
Jane bit her lip. It didn’t break his original command completely, and his original command had barred her from speaking about it. So even if she wanted to bring it up now, could she? Jane didn’t want to linger on that.
So she just wanted to experience this moment… With him.
She took his hand and let him walk her to the dance floor. It was a waltz. He grasped her waist tightly and slid his hand into hers, turning into her, and then he led her into the three-four rhythm of the dance. It was simple and sweet. Just the simple movement caused joy to stir in her blood and fill her with tranquility that she hadn’t felt in years—a peace she missed.
It was beautiful and simple.
Jane closed her eyes and sucked in his scent, sharing this moment with him. He smelled of musk, black tea, and a hint of vanilla.
The night was perfect, but it was followed by a morning of horrors. Around five in the morning, Jane and Nightmare were woken by what felt like an earthquake. It was either the ship hitting an iceberg or a mine, but the effect was immediate chaos.
The ship went down in forty minutes, and all forty of those minutes were tumultuous.
Nightmare and Jane grabbed their jackets and life jackets and stormed out to the lifeboats, along with everyone else on the ship. They found one that allowed them to board, but as Nightmare was lifting Jane onto the boat, the sailor responsiblefor lowering the lifeboat into the water let go of his rigging, and it swung, hitting Jane at the edge of her temple.
A strike of pain surged through her head, then she fell sideways, nothing beneath her legs, and she tumbled into the ocean six decks below. As she hit the water, darkness poured into her vision, pain jolted her bones, and water filled her lungs.
She was unconscious and drowning, and that was the last thing she was able to recall before she heard him—her nightmares.
“You don’t die. You never die,” he seethed, his voice riddled with a darkness that rattled her bones.
She felt a hard pressure on her chest before her eyes flung open, and she was coughing up water onto the wooden deck. Her throat and lungs were burning from the effort.
When she was finally able to look at him, he said again. “You never die. Do you understand me?”
Jane’s mouth ran dry, despite having just been filled with water. Because what could she say? And more importantly, what was she feeling? It was a buzzing in her chest like she’d never felt before. It was warmth, home, and rightness. But it was all wrong. All lies because Nightmare, Gavriil, was not her home. He never could be.
He was the greatest villain she’d ever known… Yet he was also more than that.
And that was dangerous.
“Is that a command?” she finally asked, her voice raw.
“Yes,” Gavrail snarled, his eyes still wild.
Jane sucked in a slow, painful breath and felt her fingers on the deck, the wood grain coarse like her following words. “I don’t think even you could command Death like that.”
“I can’t.” His voice was raw and honest. “I can’t command you back to life, Jane. So don’t you dare die on me.” He pulled her into a desperate hug.
“I won’t,” she lied, because she knew she was destined to die young and painfully.
“And stop getting yourself into so much trouble. I am rather sick of saving your life.”
“No, you’re not.” Jane laughed and rubbed her head, a bump forming where the rigging had hit her. “You killed the boy, didn’t you?”
She didn’t have to look at him or hear his words to know the truth. Gavriil was one thing above all else: consistently wicked. It wouldn’t even have been a question in his mind. The boy had hurt what belonged to him, and therefore, he would be eliminated. Simple. Swift.
“Yes.” As Jane suspected, no remorse or guilt was evident in the words. It was hard and cold. It was what nightmares were formed from. “Now, bargain with me to make you a lifeboat.”
