A moment later, I discovered that I was wrong. Because as Collith and Laurie came, both of them filling the air with their shouts, the roses changed again… and these were the most beautiful blooms I’d ever seen. Their sweet fragrance reminded me of the dreamscape, somehow.
Laurie finally opened his eyes, and when he registered what he was seeing, his brows knitted together. “Collith,” he murmured. “Look.”
Easing away from Laurie, Collith looked around them with a bewildered expression. “Is this real?” he asked.
“No. It’s an illusion. I know this essence.” Laurie’s voice dropped to a whisper. Slowly, he looked at Collith, and his eyes filled with realization. Realization and a terrible sort of acceptance. “This is my essence. My power. You took it from me.”
The roses wilted. Collith shook his head, an automatic denial, but the way his stomach sank said otherwise. Now that he’d seen the roses, along with the shadow in Laurie’s face, he could feel it. The power. It was subtle, and yet it didn’t belong. He’d done enough training with magic to know it hadn’t been there a few minutes ago.
“Laurelis, if it’s true, I didn’t know,” he began. “I had no idea—”
Too late, Collith noticed that Laurie’s sword was gone. It had been resting in the grass beside them, where it was discarded during their frenzied undressing. Laurie swung it when Collith was halfway through his sentence. The Unseelie prince moved in a blur, but even that wasn’t quick enough.
The tip of Laurie’s sword sliced down his face.
And the shriveled roses crumbled into dust.
I jerked back from the memory before I could hear Collith scream. I could still feel it hurtling up my throat, though, just as it had for Collith when he felt the burn of holy water on Laurie’s blade. I didn’t want to see any more. Didn’t want to be privy to any more of his secrets.
Desperate to stop the relentless tide battering at my mind, I buried my stinging fingers in Collith’s hair and lifted his head. But my lips, when they pressed to his, were gentle.
It was the first time I’d kissed Collith since learning his darkest secret. Since he’d betrayed my trust and thrown everything into question.
Collith returned to me within seconds. I heard his sound of surprise, felt his eyelashes flutter against my cheek. Then, as he came alive, kissing me back with a ferocity that he’d never shown before, my pain was drowned out by the desire. From the moment I’d met him, Collith could bring it out in me, no matter how hard I fought it.
I wasn’t fighting it now, though. Collith moved as if he had no injuries, and he cupped my face, slanting his mouth harder against mine. Zara must’ve been here recently, because he tasted like the tea she’d made me drink once. Now that he was fully conscious, his secrets and memories were tucked away behind that wall, and the air around us was blissfully silent. Well, as silent as it could be with a fae warrior a few yards away, trying to break free of the illusion I’d trapped him inside.
Somehow I’d ended up in Collith’s lap, my knees resting on either side of his hips. Acting as if his injuries didn’t exist, or he didn’t even feel them, Collith leaned into me. The pieces of chain still attached to his manacles made a rattling sound. His fingers trailed down my neck, my shoulders, my back, then finally stopped to cup my ass. I ground against him, momentarily swayed by the lies my body was telling me. I wrapped both my arms around his neck and made a sound deep in my throat, a sound that betrayed everything I still felt for him.
But in spite of the ache between my legs, I’d forgotten nothing. Not for one second. After another moment, I broke the kiss, leaning back to see Collith’s face.
“Are you able to use your powers?” I asked. My voice was as cold as the air around us. “This entire plan sort of falls apart without them.”
“Your hands,” Collith rasped, reaching for me.
I jerked away, and I had to stop myself from putting even more distance between us. I glanced down at my palms to see the damage, and it wasn’t as bad as I thought—just some blisters and red skin. “Not your problem,” I said evenly. “This is just a temporary truce. Once we’ve rescued you and our lives aren’t in danger anymore, all bets are off. Now can you use your powers or not?”
Glancing toward Thuridan, Collith rested his head against the rocky wall with a weary expression. “In small bursts, I think. What is the plan? Where’s Laurelis?”
It was one of the few times Collith had said Laurie’s name without any venom in his tone. I almost asked him how he knew Laurie was involved, but when was that silver-haired bastard ever not involved? Instead, I leaned forward and put my lips next to Collith’s ear. Speaking as quietly as a breath, I told him everything. What Laurie was doing, what I needed, and the part Collith would play if we wanted to pull this off.
When I was done, I leaned back again. There was a twist to Collith’s lips that looked like begrudging respect.
“Can you do it?” I asked bluntly. Laurie had known Collith would be weakened, of course, but I wasn’t sure he’d anticipated the extent of it. We’d underestimated the lengths Viessa would go to keep her throne.
“Yes.” Collith didn’t hesitate. He raised his gaze, and those hazel depths were carefully neutral now. King Collith’s eyes. “You’ll have to trust me, though. Can you do it?”
The question wasn’t a taunt or a challenge. I knew that without trying to see beneath his mask. No matter how vilified Collith had become to me, I’d been in his head. I knew his love had been real. I knew who he was. It had just been the lie that shattered us. His enormous, world-tilting lie.
In response to his question, I gritted my teeth and opened my mind to him.
Collith didn’t spend precious seconds asking for permission again. A moment later, I felt him inside my skull, and it was like his soul had brushed against mine for the briefest of moments. Collith’s presence was like the faerie himself—cool and gentle. Still, as he twined through my thoughts and grasped bits of consciousness, I was rigid. I reminded myself that he wasn’t there to take anything or poke around. Collith knew his purpose, and he hadn’t deviated from it.
Near the memory of my parents’ deaths, though, he hesitated. A second went by, then two. I felt myself start to frown. Why had he stopped?
Fear. Collith could sense the fear inside that cluster of images.
If I’d been nervous before, I was almost buzzing with agitation now. I kept forgetting that Collith was a Nightmare, or at least part of him was. He may have known power during all his years as a faerie, maybe even considered himself adept at controlling it, but he’d never faced the temptation of fear. Not like this. When a Nightmare sensed another creature’s terror, it was like lust and adrenaline and euphoria rolled into one feeling.
We were running out of time, damn it.
Just as I was about to shove Collith out of my head, I thought of Naevys. Have faith in him, she’d told me with her last, dying breath. I thought of my own parents. What kind of person would I have become if I hadn’t been guided by Matthew Sworn? If I hadn’t had someone good and kind to nurture me? Believing in me every day as I learned the boundaries of my power?
I’d probably be making bigger mistakes than Collith. Hell, I had made bigger mistakes than Collith.