Page 64 of Kill the Queens
Not far away a door had been left open that led into a modest washroom. There she peeled her clothes away and scrubbed her skin until the blood was gone and her skin felt overly sensitized. Only then did she let herself touch the clothing. She unfolded a nightdress and pulled it over her head.
Who had it belonged to? A mother? A sister? Someone else?
She stared down at her body, feeling so foreign evento herself that she wanted to scream. Her life wasn’t her own anymore. She was an instrument to the gods. She’d marry Rehan—who she hardly knew anything about—to become a puppet for the Fae.
All this she would do by killing her sisters. She didn’t like to think of them as such anymore. It was so much easier to believe that they were just wicked queens she knew nothing about. After coming face to face with Farah, she couldn’t avoid facing her demons anymore.
Ace turned to stare at the bed. She should sleep, but there was no way she could.
A door opened and closed. Slowly, she shuffled to face her door as floorboards outside creaked. Was it Shelby? Was he coming to her door? Her heart did a small flip in her chest.
Ace couldn’t move. She couldn’t breathe as she waited to see if her door would open. Or if maybe he would knock. No, he would definitely knock. Silence stretched on only with her shallow breaths to break it up.
She inhaled sharply as another step was taken. Then the steps retreated to the other end of the hall, Shelby’s door opening and closing once more.
Go, Mina said.Go to him.
If only to appease the need for the two pieces of her soul to be near each other, Ace padded across the room, out her door, across the hall, and hovered with her hand at the door.Knock. She told herself.Do it. Knock and go in.
She pulled her knuckles back, forcing herself to finally knock. The door swung open. Shelby was there, eyes soft, lips pursed. He was clean, in a new pair of pants and a loose white shirt. Ace tried to swallow the lump in her throat but it didn’t budge.
“Can I…” Shelby looked her up and down. Ace felt silly in the frilly nightgown she’d put on. “Can I help you? Are youokay?”
“I don’t think I can sleep. I don’t want to be alone.”
He shifted out of the doorway, wordlessly inviting her inside. Ace stepped into the room—the mirror opposite of hers. He’d already removed the excessive pillows from the bed and they’d been stacked in a large pile under one of his windows. The covers had been turned down, the sheets wrinkled to suggest that he’d been in the bed even if only for a moment. From his room, there was a better view of the creek and in the quiet Ace swore she could hear it flowing.
“Shelby?”
“Yes?”
She couldn’t say it. What exactly was she supposed to say? It would sound stupid. She would sound stupid and Shelby…he’d probably laugh at her. Ace wouldn’t blame him. Then there was the issue of marrying Rehan.
“Never mind.” She mumbled. Her hands busied themselves playing with lace that ran down the side of the nightgown. Slowly, she walked the few feet till she reached the bed and lowered herself onto it.
“Do you want to talk about something?” His voice was still rough and raspy.
“No. Not tonight.” She shook her head noticing how tired Shelby looked. His whole body seemed to slouch, his eyes dark and bloodshot. “Come sleep. Don’t let me keep you up. I’ll be quiet.”
Ace ignored the way the bed bounced when Shelby let himself under the covers. She kept her attention focused on the floor while she attempted to release the tension that riddled her body.
“Come here,” Shelby whispered.
The mattress dipped more as she turned to see him with an arm stretched out toward her. She held his gaze. “What?” shebreathed.
“Didn’t you say it was called a hug?” The corner of his mouth lifted. Now her heart was doing damn summersaults in her chest. “Something has you really worked up,” he continued. “I can feel it like a huge knot in my chest. How amIsupposed to sleep like this?”
“You’ll probably sleep like a baby if you just shut your mouth.” Ace lowered herself to the bed, letting Shelby throw the blanket over her legs before he pulled her to his chest. Here she could take in his clean scent, feeling his pulse as it carried on, and one thumb traced a line up and down her arm over the fabric of the gown.
“I’m glad to see getting kidnapped and killing a queen hasn’t changed you much.” His lips were moving against her hairline. He was so close that if she moved just right she could align their bodies in the right way. A hand swept down her arm, over her waist, and settled on her thigh. His fingers curled into her leg, pulling her closer. “Being away from you, when I’m carrying part of you, is almost painful,” he admitted.
“Really?”
“Yes. I felt like I was losing my mind, but that’s better now. You’re here again, everything can go back to how it was.” He let out a long sigh. “We can kill the queens. Free the warlocks.”
“Then what?” The question hung in the air without answer.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”