Page 9 of The Bonds of Nyx
Adrian nodded silently, jaw ticking. “I felt your panic and fear.” His voice darkened as he dropped his eyes to his lap. “I thought something happened to you, and I was…terrifiedthat I was about to lose you again.”
Thickness lodges in my throat. I take his hand and entwine our fingers. “Will you always be able to feel…that?”
“I don’t know.” He tightened his hold on my hand before shrugging. “But I won’t complain because that means I’ll know if you’re in danger.”
I blew out a shaky breath. “I promise it won’t be that bad all the time.”
“Will you ever tell me what they’re about?” he asked quietly, eyes shimmering with sadness.
A flash of the nightmare hit, and instead of sadness, there was bitter betrayal and anger in the depths of his green irises. Thehand tucked into mine was no longer clean but washed with blood.
I blinked hard, and it disappeared, but the damage was done. My heart raced with fear, my breaths sharp in my chest, and as I untangled myself from Adrian, my fingers trembled.
“Ivy?”
I swallowed as bile rose in my throat and shook my head. “Sorry, I just—I’m sorry.”
Hurt flashed across Adrian’s eyes, but he moved, getting to his feet hesitantly. “It’s okay, Sweetheart. I’ll be back, okay?”
I opened my mouth to tell him not to go, but he strode to the door, his hands trembling. As I watched him leave, another memory popped into my mind. Maeve had promised a potion to end the nightmares, one the Queen swore by.
I wondered if she’d be able to get it for me while we’re here, because I wasn’t sure I’d survive another night of those terrifying dreams.
~
I steeled myself as I knocked on Maeve’s door later that afternoon. My heart pounded with nerves and something else I couldn’t fully identify. It tightened in my stomach and wound around my lungs, threatening to suffocate me with everything that had happened in the last forty-eight hours.
I held my breath as I waited and tried not to sigh with relief when I heard footsteps from inside the room. The door opened to reveal Maeve, her long, inky hair pulled back into a tight ponytail, dressed in slacks and a satin blouse. Her eyes softened as she checked me over before meeting my gaze.
“Ivy, is everything all right?” she asked, opening the door wider for me. I took the invitation and slipped past her, trying to ignore the electricity that sparked across my skin as our arms brushed.
Instead, I focused on the set of armchairs by the window in her office; the room was small, designed for one person to use, and had nice modern fixtures that complemented the house. The bookshelves were a similar dark grain of wood to the exterior of the safe house, while everything else was either a black leather or a silver accent.
It almost didn’t suit Maeve, yet she seemed to blend in well. I perched on the edge of the leather armchair and tucked my hands into my lap to stop them from fidgeting with the hem of the borrowed t-shirt.
Maeve’s brows furrowed as she sat across from me. “What’s wrong?” she asked quietly, leaning forward, hands pressed against her thighs.
I swallowed thickly. Flashes of the nightmare came back with a sharpness that made my heart rate quicken. “Back home,” I started, dropping my eyes to my lap, “you mentioned a potion. To stop the nightmares.”
“I did.” Maeve’s voice darkened as she hummed under her breath. “I’ll reach out to the Queen and see if it can be made for you while you’re here.”
My breath rattled in my chest as I released it, and I felt the muscles in my shoulders finally relax. “Thanks.”
Relief flooded through me as my eyes closed. I could almost taste freedom, and it was divine. To be free from the nightmares, to finally be able to sleep without the burden of those dark thoughts and dreams…I’d been cursed with them since my twenty-first birthday, and now, after a long year of being plagued with these demons, I might actually be free of them.
After having them for so long, would I miss them? My chest tightened, which told me enough. I wouldn’t. And now, with everything else, I was terrified of what my subconscious might create from that.
“What else worries you?” Maeve asked, her soft voice cutting through my thoughts. Her accent, usually mild, seemed to bleed through thicker, strained almost.
My eyes popped open, and I took in the worry written clearly across her face. Lines creased her forehead as she frowned, and I found myself leaning forward, as if pulled in by the mysterious vampire before me.
I caught myself and sat back, swallowing thickly as I averted my eyes. “Nothing,” I stuttered, my voice hoarse. It was a lie, of course. One I sensed she caught, because when I looked back, her eyes were narrowed, and the blue of her irises swam with regret.
“Ivy,” she started, her voice stiff, “I won’t ever force you to do or say anything you don’t want to. But you’ve gone through something no one should.”
Flashes of blood and death came rushing back into my mind. The first soldier, with her pinned-back blonde hair and cruel smile as she kicked me in the stomach. Her warm blood dripping through my fingers as I lowered her to the ground, and her dying words echoing in my ears.
Cold hands framed my face, forcing me back to the present. Harsh breaths rattled in my chest as I sucked in cool air and pushed the panic down until all I could feel, see—scent—was Maeve. I focused on her, on the rippling waves of her eyes, to the redness of her lips and the slight flush of her otherwise pale skin. Electricity from where her skin touched mine was enough to pull me out of the dark hole I was stumbling into.