Page 148 of Wicked Dreams (Fallen Royals 1)

“Buying me jewelry already?” I quip.

“Open it.”

We pull into the hotel parking lot. The dance is in one of their ballrooms, apparently—and I’d bet our room is in the same building. He hasn’t said as much, though.

“Dude,” Eli says. “Quit staring at your girl. We’re here.”

Caleb doesn’t tear his gaze away from me. “Leave us. We’ll be there in a minute.”

Riley and Eli get out. I’m not sure why I’m nervous, but my heart rate has spiked.

I flip it open, and it feels like Ian’s kicking me in the stomach all over again.

There’s no oxygen in here.

Sitting on a bed of foam is a bracelet. The hand-braided thread has been strengthened with a cage of sterling silver. I lean closer to get a better look at the work, because it’s familiar. Like a dream or a long-lost memory.

The braid is blue with a single thread of gold. In the fading light, it’s hard to make it out, but the gold glitters.

“I… I made this,” I whisper. “A version of it, anyway.”

“You did.” He lifts the bracelet. It’s been lengthened by chain. Altered. “Do you remember when?”

“I made two.” I shake my head. It is a memory. One I’ve dreamed about recently. Still, it seems to be coming at me from a long way off.

We’re married until these fall off.

He shows me his wrist. There’s the other one, also fortified with metal.

“You—”

“I remember.” His eyes are dark.

God, I used to hate him. And now—I’m pretty sure I just fell in love with him.

Again.

“You fixed them?”

He fastens it to my wrist. Surprisingly—or maybe not, since this seemed to be his color scheme all along—it matches everything. The dress, the masks, my shoes.

“I don’t want them to fall off.”

There goes my heart.

“Let’s have fun, yeah?”

I shake my head. “And then sneak away early?”

His eyes dance. “If you’re persuasive enough.”

“I can do that.”

He opens the door, taking my thin clutch from my hands and tucking it into a pocket in his jacket. Then he holds his hands out for me.

After we tie on our masks, he offers his arm again.

I take a deep breath. The bracelet is all I can concentrate on. That, and what it might mean.

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