Page 93 of Lady of the Nightmares

My eyes connected with the stranger’s through the holes in his mask, and I gasped. I sat up, throwing off my quilt, my heart pounding wildly out of control. “What are you doing here?”

“I don’t know.” His tone said he was smiling behind the mask. “Even I could never have foreseen meeting this way.”

* * *

I woke slowly,unwilling to leave the warmth and safety of my cocoon. I snuggled deeper into the heat of my bed and sighed.

As with all my dreams lately, the world of sleep lingered just a bit too long after awareness dawned so that for several moments, I had to parse out what was real and what was imagined. If I didn’t know better, I would say my dreams felt more like memories as of late…perhaps they had for some time.

Only that couldn’t be. I could hardly imagine a reality such as the one conjured in my subconscious. Perhaps I was reading too much into things. Becoming too influenced by all the talk of seers and of my sister’s journals so that I was starting to see signs where there was nothing at all.

A noise from somewhere in the room, like a throat clearing, penetrated my thoughts, and I frowned. Confusion pulled me from the safe space between sleeping and waking, where everything was warm and soft and bright behind dark eyelids.

My eyes popped open.

Disoriented, the contented feeling in my stomach left me in a woosh, to be replaced with dread. The remnants of the dream fell away, replaced by images of last night.

Very real images.

I sat up, pressing a hand to my forehead, and the room spun slightly, where… I let out a strangled gasp as everything came flooding back in a rush: opening the drawer and wondering for a split second if I’d made a mistake before everything was eclipsed in total euphoria. Suddenly having that wonderful feeling of elation, of being too hot, too big for my own body. Like nothing was wrong or ever could be wrong again. Like I was everything, knew everything, and needed to share it.

Why couldn’t I have simply forgotten?

“Are you alright, rebel?” Scion’s voice spoke from the other side of the room.

I turned to look at him, and another wave of shame hit me all over again. Shame at what I’d said, at how I’d infected him with whatever had been in that drawer, at what we’d done…

He sat in the same chair he’d been in hours ago, cramped and uncomfortable, clearly too tall for the small wooden frame. I doubted he’d slept at all last night.

I couldn’t find the words to answer his question. Indeed, I wasn’t sure I wanted to speak to him at all. I had no desire to hear whatever scathing things he no doubt thought of me right now.

Throwing my quilt off, I practically fell over myself to reach the ground. My bare feet hit the floor ungracefully, and my head spun. I pitched forward and had to catch myself on one hand before my nose slammed into the carpet.

Immediately, I heard the chair in the corner creak and saw the outline of heavy boots in front of me. There was a long moment of silence. “Do you need assistance?”

“No,” I said, staring blankly at the wall with unseeing, horrified eyes. “I’m fine here. Simply leave me.”

“Right.” He sounded more than a little uncomfortable. “I’m sorry…”

I looked up sharply. I wasn’t sure why he was apologizing when I was the one who had caused this and brought it all on him as well. “I wish I could enjoy your first-ever apology, but I’m not sure it’s warranted.”

“You’re not angry?”

“No, although I would quite like to be left alone to die of shame if you wouldn’t mind.”

I shifted, kicking my legs out straight on the floor. They were bare.Wonderful.

I closed my eyes, willing myself not to picture everything last night and failing miserably. It was too fresh in my mind, as if I’d been a passenger in my own head, unable to control my body, but now with full awareness after the fact. I could recall every kiss, every touch, every filthy word, feel the heat on my skin and the fingers bruising my throat.

And worse, if not for the overwhelming embarrassment of the entire situation, I would have liked it.

I did like it.

I groaned. “Please just get out? I cannot stand you staring at me.”

Of course, Scion didn’t move. “Gancanagh’s Dust.”

“Excuse me?

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