He huffed out a small chuckle, running a finger down my arm. “Yeah, I guess we did.”
After that, I lay in his arms in quiet contentment until my bladder forced me to the bathroom to pee. After washing my hands, I brushed my teeth, staring at myself in the mirror while contemplating the last few days. There were changes I’d have to make, but most of them couldn’t be sorted right this minute…except one.
“I have an idea.” I bounced back on to the bed, sitting crisscrossed near King’s stomach, and he smiled lazily, relaxed.Go me!
“What’s that?”
Inhaling, I closed my eyes, then blew out a breath. “Patchy,” I said tentatively.
Nothing.
King rolled to his side, propping his head on one hand and grabbing my knee with the other and squeezing. “You miss him, don’t you?”
Sighing heavily, my shoulders fell. “Duchess is with your gran all the time. I don’t know why Patchy doesn’t stay with me. I thought maybe…”
King snorted and tapped my knee. “Maybe you should try asking him to come. What you just did could’ve simply beensaying his name for all he knew. He might not have taken it as a command.” He gazed around the room. “Wherever he’s listening for you from,” he muttered.
Frowning, I plucked the sheet between my legs. “I don’t want to make him do anything, though. Maybe he likes wherever”—I found myself staring up into the air over the bed—“he exists when not with me. Us,” I corrected.
King smiled. “He’s definitely your baby. Don’t worry, I’m okay with that. So…” He rolled onto his back, arms behind his head, and closed his eyes. That orgasm had worn him out, and he was ready for sleep. I’d worry about Patchy tomorrow.
Stretching out next to King, I threw an arm and leg over him, snuggling in close.
“So,” he continued. Had he fallen asleep mid-sentence? I bit back a giggle. Big lug must be exhausted. “Why don’t you”—he yawned—“invite him instead of commanding him?”
Ha. That might work. It still didn’t mean he’d come necessarily, but it could be worth a try. “No, I don’t know. I don’t wanna bug him.”
King yawned again. “Sweetheart, your pup adores you as much as you love him. You should try.” I bit my lip, hesitating, and King’s hand came down, petting at my head absently. “Go ahead and try so you can go to sleep. We might need to work tonight, and we both need rest.”
He was right. Sitting up again, I squared my shoulders and placed my hands on my thighs, palms up. “Patchy, I don’t know where you are or what you’re doing, but you’re welcome here. If you want. You don’t have to, but I’d lo?—”
Then my lap was full of a yipping, tail-wagging psychopomp puppy who was attacking my chin with slobbery tongue licks. “Patchy.”
I heard King chuckle, but I was too busy petting my Dream-veil dog who was now here, in my room, in my house, of my reallife, in what I considered the normal plane. Patchy’s head reared back at the sound of laughter, and he turned toward King. Then off he shot, from me right on to King’s chest, where he proceeded to give his face a tongue bath.
King’s arms flailed as he tried to scoot up with the quivering canine mass of energy on top of him. Laughing, I scratched between Patchy’s ears, drawing his attention. He hopped back and forth between the two of us like a bunny, and happiness permeated every cell of my body. This was what it was all about. And it was just the beginning. I’d make everything right.
Chapter 16
Kingston
“Soooo…worthless.Stoooopid…boy. Nooooo…one loves you. Noooo…one wants you. Your parents hate yooooou. Stoooopid…worthless boy.”
We were back in the Dream-veil, and the taunting, cruel words of that thing were in my ears before I even opened my eyes.
Sky clutched my arm. “King,” he said, sounding panicked.
I understood the fear in his voice. We were back on the boardwalk, and I could hear it, but I couldn’t see it, nor the person he was torturing with his disgusting mockery.
“Stooopid…boy. Duuumb…human. Uselessss. Noooo one wants yooooou. Noooooo…one loooooooves yooooou.”
“Where is it coming from?” Sky asked.
It felt like it came from everywhere. I felt the darkness down to my soul in a way I hadn’t last time. Like inky blackness permeating, trying to attack my bones. Violating my core. I shook off the profound uncomfortableness of it all. Sweeping my gaze around, I tried finding a spot where our unknown man might have huddled for the night. All I saw were gated shops that ripped off tourists with their baubles and tchotchke and t-shirts, and the rolled-down metal doors that protected the other merchants and their goods from vandals. No hidden alleyways.
“Is there another abandoned sewer duct anywhere close? I haven’t spent a lot of time down at the boardwalk since I moved here.”
This time, we’d shown up at the opposite end of the rides, closer to the inlet. I squeezed my eyes shut, blocking the view around me, and tried zeroing in on the voice that was repeating the same disgusting words as last time. Needing to parse through the overwhelm of it surrounding us and locate the actual direction it came from.
