Nightmare Veil of Flame

Chapter 1

Chapter

One

Inever thought I’d see my mother again.

Considering she’s been dead since I was fifteen, that seemed like a reasonable assumption.

Especially since I’d watched her die screaming in her bed, her face a mask of terror, like something out of a slasher movie.

Except there were no cuts. No bruises. Just pure, cold, horrible fear. Hers and mine.

I’d watched, helpless and screaming as her face contorted. As if something horrible was barreling toward her, and she had no place to run.

So, no. I didn’t expect to see Cassandra Lyte four years later, standing on the terrace of a castle in the Nightmare Realm while I’m still wearing the king’s scent on my skin, and my body still aches from his touch.

And yet I’d seen her. I’m sure of it.

At least, I think I’m sure.

I’d been standing on the walkway after slipping from the tent I’d magically conjured, despite knowing for only about forty seconds prior that Conjuring Tent For Sex was even on my dance card.

Now Adric’s still asleep in the tent, and I’m alone in the courtyard, my head tipped back the way it was when I’d paused to take in the stunning beauty of this realm’s five orange moons.

I’d seen the moons, sure. But I’d also seen the terrace above me.

Along with the two figures who stood close together as if they were sharing a secret.

One was Kali, Adric’s advisor, bodyguard, Bitch Buddy, and who knows what else. She was all decked out in her gleaming obsidian armor, her shoulders back and her chin held high.

And standing beside her was my mother, her copper hair, just like mine, catching the moonlight in that familiar way.

Mom. Right there.

Except how? How was that even possible?

I didn’t have a clue, but my subconscious must have wanted answers because I took a half step forward without thinking, ready to call out—and then she turned, and Kali turned with her, and they disappeared back inside the castle through the heavy wooden doors.

And now I’m totally baffled. Seriously. This just doesn’t compute.

Mom’s dead, so seeing her anywhere—even in the Nightmare Realm—is more than a little freaky.

And seeing her with Kali is downright disturbing.

Especially since, as far as I can tell, Kali’s most important job is to be the king’s SWB. Sycophant With Benefits.

The very same king with whom I’d just had insanely amazing sex. The ridiculously hot immortal ruler of the Nightmare Realm to whom I’d traded my hand in matrimony for his blood. Blood that saved his brother’s life.

Chase. The man I love.

I hug myself, thinking of him. The king’s brother, who also happens to be immortal. And a Nightmare Hunter. And the man I’ve fallen for hard and fast and deep.

So, yeah. It’s no wonder my mind’s playing tricks. But I wish it wouldn’t, because I’ve got plenty of drama in my life without adding visions of my dead mother to the mix.

I hug myself to stifle a shiver. Was she really here? Or am I just so emotionally drained that I hallucinated the mommy I wanted to cuddle and protect me? Or maybe some sort of Nightmare creature stole her form to fuck with me?

I have no idea, and that simple truism sits like a lump in my gut. I’m in the Nightmare Realm—hell, I’m about to be the Nightmare King’s bride—and yet I still don’t understand my freakishly crazy new life.

Stop it.

That’s good advice, and I draw a breath, then release it slowly.

I’m getting worked up over nothing. I mean, it couldn’t have actually been my mother, right?

Kali must have been on the terrace with someone else.

A friend or a minion who looked like Cassie Lyte.

Just a resemblance. And they’d talked, then gone back inside.

Normal stuff. Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.

Except it really looked like Mom.

And shouldn’t I, of all people, know that the impossible has a way of putting on its nice, shiny Hell-Yeah-It’s-Possible coat and taking a stroll through the woods?

After all, I’m a college freshman from Florida who just slept with the dark and deliciously sexy Nightmare King himself. But I’m also a girl who’s in love with the king’s brother—a dragon-riding Nightmare Hunter who could easily pass for a GQ cover model. Hell, they both could.

Not that long ago, my biggest problem was a sleep disorder and a roommate who burned too much sage. Now I’m standing barefoot in a castle in another dimension/realm/whatever-you-call-it, wondering if my dead mother’s hanging out here, too.

I mean, seriously? Can this really be my life?

Yes. Yes, it can. And it’s absurd.

I glance up once more at the still-empty terrace, then continue along the outdoor walkway toward the ornate door leading back into the castle, all the while wishing I really could see Mom one more time.

I pick up my pace, desperate to get to my room. To get some sleep. More than that, I need to see Chase. Need to curl up beside him and feel his body move as he breathes, safe in the deep slumber of his recovery.

We’d lost Whistler in that battle. A Nightmare Hunter from the Realm of Others, he’d been cornered by the vile wolves that prowl beyond the castle grounds.

They’d almost destroyed Chase, too. It had been touch-and-go for a while, and I’d been terrified that I’d lose him until I finally found a cure—Adric’s blood.

Because of Adric, Chase is still alive, albeit exhausted.

Still mine in every way that matters. And I just betrayed him by paying the price Adric had demanded—I’d agreed to become Adric’s betrothed.

A sacrifice I’d made as payment for the healing powers of Adric’s blood—blood he and Chase once shared, just as they’d once shared a single body.

So, yes, Adric had come through. And I don’t regret his touch and comfort in that tent tonight.

But I will never sleep with him once we are wed. Not with the prophecy hanging over our heads. A prophecy that portends that when the Nightmare King and a willing bride consummate their marriage, the barriers that separate the realms will fall. And that would be more than chaos. It would be hell.

I may be the Bride—the last female descendant of some ancient mystical emperor—but I won’t be the woman who destroys the world.

As for last night…well, there’d been no prophecy hanging over us. Just heat and longing and a bone-deep need to which we’d both surrendered.

Honestly, it’s going to be hard not to sleep with him once we’re wed. I’m wildly attracted to him—just as I’m desperately in love with Chase, only with Chase that passion feels calmer and more centered.

But the difficulty isn’t just that I want Adric—it’s that he wants me, too. And there’s no fear of a hellish world keeping his desire at bay. After all, he’s all about the nightmares.

More than that, Adric fully believes the realms should be united because he’s convinced that once the barriers fall, the chaos that will spill out over all the realms can be controlled.

Chase believes the opposite and is stalwart in his certainty that the universe would be upended, and I’m Team Chase where that’s concerned.

The Realm of the Real—my world, with my friends and my college and the life I know so well—will be the first to be destroyed by the swarms of nightmare creatures and denizens of other realms who will rise up in battle to claim it.

After all, the Real is a realm where only a few scattered humans have the faintest clue that armies of mares are even a threat.

Not long ago, I’d been among the blissfully clueless. Now I’m at the center of it.

Me. An average college freshman, now betrothed to a king and the consort of his brother.

Honestly, sometimes I wonder if this is the dream. Or the nightmare.

Then I ask myself if it really matters. Like it or not, this is my reality, be it real or a dream.

And what I need most of all is to pull up my big girl panties and tell Chase everything.

That I love him. That I’ll continue to love him even though I want Adric, too.

Even though I don’t know what that means for any of us.

I sigh, because I truly don’t know, and I very sternly tell myself that right now, I don’t care. Right now, all I want is to know why I saw my dead mother.

More than that, I want to know why she was with Kali. Because that really doesn’t seem like something my imagination would conjure.

Resigned, I shift my gaze toward the dragon stables, dark and quiet now. Beyond them, I see the courtyard where our tent still stands, its silk catching the moonlight with exquisite loveliness.

Technically, I guess it’s my tent since I’m the one who conjured it out of nothing with power I still don’t fully understand. I’d brought it forth in burgundy and gold silk, with cushions scattered everywhere and lanterns that light themselves.

And the whole time I’d done that little trick, Adric had stood watching me with the hunger of a man and the pride of a king in his queen.

My skin heats just thinking about it. The way he’d undressed me like he was unwrapping a gift.

The way he’d said my name, as if the word was something precious and breakable.

The heat of his kiss, long and deep and more than sufficient to melt me.

The way he’d known exactly how to move, how to touch, how to make me forget every reason I should have said no.

It worked, too. I didn’t say no. Instead, I’d said please.

And now here I am, about to return to the room I share with a man I truly love—only to crawl into his bed with the scent of his brother lingering on my skin.

In the morning, I’ll stand across from Adric in a betrothal ceremony and pledge myself to him because that was the price I’d paid for Adric’s blood to heal Chase.

And, once again, I wonder—how the hell did this become my life?

I groan as I turn in a circle, but my mother is nowhere in sight.

With doubt and confusion still poking at me, I hurry back inside the castle, fully intending to smother my roiling thoughts and simply head back to the suite I’m sharing with Chase.

But then I see a corridor I hadn’t noticed before, and I remember the book I’d found in the library—or, more accurately, the book that had found me because I’d needed it—and I can’t help but wonder if this corridor is its cousin.

A pathway that wasn’t there before, but appeared now because I need it.

After all, that seems to be how this realm works for me.

Then again, it could be a trap. Or just a corridor I never noticed since I’m seeing eight billion new things every time I look around.

Except, no. I’ve passed this way too many times. I would have noticed.

I grimace. I mostly slept through my freshman history lectures, but I read enough to know that being a queen is all about power. The power she has—and the power others want to acquire.

Which means it would probably be wise to avoid corridors that pop up in places they didn’t use to be. A solid rule of thumb for the newly-almost-royal, right?

But I’ve never claimed to be wise. I mean, how can I just walk away when I’m certain I saw my mother?

When she might be down this hallway, tucked into bed.

Or, for that matter, maybe I misread the situation, and she’s Kali’s prisoner.

It wasn’t as if I could hear what they were saying.

And if that’s the case, I need to help her.

Except I know perfectly well that she’s not here. She’s dead. This may be a Nightmare Realm, but it’s not the home of the walking dead.

All true, and yet I pay my errant thought no mind. Instead, I take a step into the corridor, then another and another. I continue, growing bolder with each step. After all, I’m pretty sure a queen can go where she pleases.

Torches line the polished stone walls, illuminating the corridor and also casting eerie shadows that seem to be thrown from nothing at all. Nightmare Realm, I remind myself, then soldier on.

The corridor curves, finally ending at an ornate door made of dense, dark wood with a silver handle cast in the form of a sleeping dragon. The wood itself is ornate, carved with a mish-mash of symbols, none of which means a thing to me. Runes, maybe?

I step closer, overcome with the urge to know what’s beyond that door. I tug on the silver dragon, then shift gears and push, but it’s locked tight.

Frustrated, I press my palm against the largest carving the way I’ve seen Adric open doors in this place.

Nothing. Zip. Nada.

I’m about to pull my hand away when I feel it pulse. A hint of warmth. And then—oh, holy hell—the ring on my finger flares hot, and I yank my hand back, certain my skin must be charred.

But no. It’s fine. The pain is already gone, leaving just the pressure of the metal band around my finger. Exactly the way a ring is supposed to feel.

I rub my thumb across the band, thinking. Maybe I brushed my hand over a plant that humans shouldn’t touch? Weird Nightmare Realm nectar? Something normal—or normalish—like that?

Must be. Because the ring’s just a ring. I was there when Mom made it, after all. And it’s the only tangible thing of hers I have left.

I glance back down the strange corridor.

Time to pack it in. I’ve definitely reached my snooping quota for the day.

And, honestly, I want to get back to Chase.

Because even though I want to add Adric to the list of folks I trust, he’s still the Nightmare King, with all the baggage that comes with that title.

Which means that my spaced-out and captive uncle and sexy mare-hunting boyfriend are the only people in this entire castle I really, truly, and completely trust. And right now, Chase needs me.

More than that, I need him, too.