Chapter 21
Chapter
Twenty-One
Igasp awake in the mirror room, my heart hammering and sweat beading on my forehead. I’m still on the cushion, Chase crouched in front of me, his eyes wide with concern. Tia’s on my other side, looking more than a little freaked out.
“Are you okay? What happened in there?”
“Adric,” I manage between ragged breaths. “He found me. He was in the Neutral Zone.”
“The hot, scary king?” She tilts her head to glare at Chase. “I thought he was bound to his castle.”
“He shouldn’t have been there,” Chase says, his voice hard. “But it’s a liminal space, and technically part of it is on the castle grounds.”
“I think it was me,” I admit, struggling to stand up. “He said I went too deep, traveled too far. That I was in his realm.”
“Blast it,” Griffin says to Chase, his sharp voice making me hate how weak I’d been, staying when I knew I should run. “You know what that means.”
Chase meets Whistler’s eyes, then nods, his expression still concerned as he extends a hand and helps me to my feet.
“What?” I ask, my hand still tight in Chase’s grip, his touch grounding me back in this reality.
“He’s been pushing at it,” Tia says. “That’s right, isn’t it? His realm’s been eating away at that section, and now there’s no more Neutral Zone at all.” She looks at Chase. “It’s all Adric’s backyard now, isn’t it?”
The two men exchange glances. “You have exceptional instincts,” Chase says.
I hold my hands out, apparently the last one at this party. “And that means what?”
Mr. Griffin turns toward me. “Basically, it means that Adric has been using the energy from the failing barriers to bring the Neutral Zone fully into his realm. He succeeded. And that’s just going to urge him on.”
In other words,” Chase says, “he wants them down even faster.”
“Oh.” I share a glance with Tia. “Well, that’s not good.”
“No. It’s not.”
“I’m confused now,” Tia says. “I thought the barriers only failed once Adric boinked the Bride?”
“Tia!”
“That would be a total collapse, yes.” A hint of a smile dances at Griffin’s mouth. “But in the meantime, Adric has been urging his followers to test the edges. To push against them and open cracks.”
Chase nods. “Every crossing, every experiment weakens the fabric between realms. It would take millennia to fall completely, but it’s happening faster than anyone wants. And now there’s a very large crack that has essentially eradicated the Neutral Zone.”
“You could say it’s been fully annexed by the Nightmare Realm,” Mr. Griffin adds.
“Well, that’s not good,” I say, in what is probably the understatement of the century.
“It’s really not,” Tia says. “And here’s another stumper—why does Adric need Cora after the barriers come down?
I mean, she’s hot and all, but if his goal is to make the barriers fall and consummating their marriage takes care of that, then, well, you know…
” She trails off with a shrug and an apologetic look toward me.
I’m pretty sure I look a little green. “He could kill me right then,” I say. “He’d have no more use for me at all.”
I don’t believe it. I truly don’t. That’s not the Adric I’ve come to know.
And yet…
I can’t just ignore the fact that even though I like Adric, I don’t truly know him. And I sure as hell can’t discount how easy it must be for a Nightmare King to order death and betrayal.
But I saw his face as Soren flew away.
I hug myself to stifle a shiver. I’m not Soren. I’m a Bride. The last of about a billion. Why on earth should I believe I’m special to Adric? I’m a tool. And once used, I serve no purpose. I’m utterly disposable.
I look to Chase, wanting him to tell me there’s no reason to worry.
But all he does is slide his hands into his pockets, his jaw tight.
“I don’t know what he’d do,” he says quietly.
“I’d like to say that my brother would take care of you.
After all, you would have won him the prize he most wants.
I don’t know why he would want to kill you, but at the same time, I don’t know my brother anymore. Not really.”
I nod, thinking how well his thoughts mirror my own.
Tia hugs herself. “Okay, so to recap—the safe space isn’t safe, the barriers aren’t exactly doing their job, the Nightmare King is actively hunting Cora, and once the wedding is consummated, he might decide he liked being a bachelor.
” She glances toward me. “Except why would he? I mean, you’re totally hot and it’s not like he gets out much.
He may not need you after you two fuck the barriers down, but he’d probably still want you. ”
I grimace. But her logic does make me feel a tiny bit better.
“I know,” she says, her expression matching my mood. “This is officially the worst training session ever.”
She’s not wrong.
“Let’s take a step back,” Whistler says. “Why was Adric there? What did he want?”
“Me. He wanted me to be his Bride. To choose him right then.” I meet Chase’s eyes. “He said pretty much all of them chose him in the end. What did he mean by that?”
Another exchange of looks between the three men.
“Nothing you need to worry about,” Griffin says.
“The hell with that,” I snap. “If I’m going to keep training—if I’m going to face whatever’s coming—I need to know everything. Tell me, dammit. What did he mean about the others choosing him? Because the barriers haven’t fallen. So what happened to the Brides before me?”
The silence stretches uncomfortably before Chase nods at Mr. Griffin, who begins to speak.
“He meant your ancestors with Imperial blood who came before you. Some of them…some of them chose to stay in his realm willingly.”
The implications hit me like a physical blow. “Why?”
“The Bride gets a hell of a lot of power in that realm,” Whistler says. “Must be pretty hard to resist.”
I think back to how I’d felt in that garden, how intoxicating the creative power had been. How wonderful it had felt to be the queen and not a pawn.
So, yeah. Maybe I did understand those Brides.
“But the barriers didn’t fall. Does that mean none of them slept with him after the wedding ceremony? Like ever in the entire course of their marriage?”
Chase and Mr. Griffin exchange a look. “Accepting her fate doesn’t mean surviving,” Chase says softly.
It takes me a second, and then horror washes through me. “Oh, god. Are you saying they were killed?”
Mr. Griffin jumps into the discussion. “Every royal court has assassins in the midst,” he says, with a glance toward Chase, who nods, looking miserable. “Especially when something as important as keeping the barriers up is at stake.”
I feel cold. Sick. “You’re saying someone in the castle killed them?”
“Before the betrothal ceremony,” Mr. Griffin says. “So that the King remained bound to his castle and grounds.”
I gape at him. “That’s horrible.”
“Yes,” Chase whispers, his hands clenched into fists. “It is.”
As Tia draws in a breath, Chase straightens his shoulders, his expression flat as he turns to meet my eyes.
“You’re the last of the Imperial line, Cora.
His final chance. He will never stop hunting you, and he will play whatever tricks and mind games he must in order to win your betrothal, marry you, and get you in his bed. ”
“Oh.” I hug myself, suddenly seeing the path that Fate has paved for me. “I hate this,” I whisper.
He moves closer, then pulls me to him, his arms engulfing me in the kind of protective hug I never want to leave. “You’re strong, Cora. And you understand what he is, what he wants. You can fight this.”
I nod, but I can’t deny how I’d felt in Adric’s presence. Not just the physical attraction, but my own hunger for that creative power. For the rush of making something from nothing, of shaping reality with pure will.
Of knowing what I wanted and making it come to life.
I know I shouldn’t, but I desperately want to feel that rush again.
And that craving terrifies me more than any nightmare creature ever could.