I pulled away and waited. Slowly, his lips still swollen from our kiss, Laurie opened his eyes at last.
We were on top of a mountain. It wasn’t real, but my hold over his mind was absolute, and there was no way to tell the difference. There was a cool breeze against our skin, stirring the strands of our hair, and everything we touched felt solid.
“Even if our worst fears come to pass, it’s not the end. We can still live, and love, and flourish,” I said quietly.
Laurie stared at me with an expression I’d never seen on his face before. Even though I was inside his head, I couldn’t name it. What I did know was that his fear had completely faded.
Suddenly Gil’s voice sliced between us, and it felt like someone had dumped a bucket of icy water over my head. I took another step backward and made a gesture meant to lessen the wind. Even when it was gone, I couldn’t make out what Gil was saying, but the urgency in his tone was obvious. It occurred to me that we’d left our vulnerable bodies with a newborn vampire.
I’d gotten what I needed—it was time to go.
At the same moment I straightened, I extracted myself from Laurie’s psyche. There was an instant of disorientation, the world a tilted smear of red and black. I blinked rapidly and everything soon righted itself. The instant it did, I noticed a familiar prickling sensation in my eyes, and I knew they were glowing red.
I uttered a soft curse and squeezed them shut again. Why did this keep happening? I breathed deeply, waiting for the burning to fade. Then I felt Laurie’s warm palms cup my jaw.
“Open your eyes,” he whispered, exactly as I had just said the words to him. His breath teased my lips.
I hesitated. I wasn’t sure what made me obey—curiosity, maybe, or that streak of rebellion I could never completely control. We looked at each other, the red glow of my eyes reflecting in his, as if Laurie were a silver mirror. I cleared my throat and glanced around, acclimating myself to reality again. We were still underground, close enough to the cherubim that their smell immediately reached for my senses. Not exactly a great location for making out.
The stray thought made me freeze. I had just kissed Laurie. Of my own volition. Shit, shit, shit. What did I just do?
Eager to leave, I pushed myself up from the ground effortlessly, experiencing only a twinge of discomfort—as we’d hoped, dining on Laurie’s terror had lent me a surge of energy. The pain would set in later, I knew. What mattered now was that I was able to follow Gil and Laurie down the rest of the passageway.
None of us spoke. The ground started slanting upward again. I held my hand against my torn stomach, hoping to find bandages wherever we were bound. Maybe even a first aid kit, if I was lucky. Fallen weren’t often prone to infection, but it was a possibility.
After a few minutes, the silence was broken by the sound of stone scraping against stone. A ray of moonlight slanted over the ground. I emerged and discovered we were entering a sitting room, of sorts, and the opening in the wall was behind a fireplace. From the distance we’d gone, I suspected we were in a different wing of the palace now. Because of the cherubim, I had expected the passageway to end in a garden or on the street. There must’ve been a third way out of that lightless room, since I highly doubted those grotesque creatures frolicked through the palace every time Belanor sent them out into the world.
Laurie pushed the fireplace back, tendons standing out in his arms. Worried he would try to reclaim my hand, and evoke another response from me, I crossed my arms and turned to Gil. “How much time do we have? Ballpark?”
Lines deepened around his mouth; he knew what I was really asking. Gil hadn’t told me that he’d decided to finish the transition, but I was a Nightmare. I didn’t need a bond to tell me he was afraid. Vampire or not, Gil didn’t want to die.
Laurie moved past us, leaving a trail of his intoxicating scent. The vampire left my question unanswered and went after him.
I did the same, frowning. We entered a new hallway, no less grand than the one we’d just fled. Laurie strode across its length and halted. Once again, he opened a door—the hinges let out a whine that made my pulse quicken with anxiety—and inclined his head. Gil’s shoulders were hunched as he hurried past, his movements abrupt and fast. Seeing that, I knew he was teetering on the edge of control. I remembered that moment in the hallway, too, when he’d appeared without making a sound. Vampires could be even quieter than faeries, especially if they were on a hunt.
Thinking this, I was slow to step over the threshold. My gaze darted around, but there was no sign of Gil. He was probably trying to put some distance between us. From the smell still emanating from my skin and clothes. I started to reach for the bond and stopped myself. I’d invaded enough people’s privacy for one day.
Instead, I turned in a circle. Laurie closed the door and locked it.
“Where are we?” I asked. I knew I should be terrified and exhausted, but it felt like my veins were singing. Laurie’s fear had been so heady that, even now, all I wanted was to spin more illusions for him, like a witch with a spindle.
The Seelie Prince put his hands in his pockets and leaned against the doors. Tension visibly seeped from his body, making me realize how well he’d been hiding it until this moment. His sleeve was torn and stained, but the arm beneath it was already half-healed, by the looks of it.
“These are my rooms,” Laurie answered wearily. “Judging from the lingering scents, the guards have already been here. They won’t check again for a while, and by then, we should be long gone.”
I glanced around again. Our surroundings weren’t what I would’ve expected of Laurelis, the mischievous and slippery faerie I’d known until now. Throughout the space, which was separated into six rooms, I saw colorful Persian rugs and vibrant paintings in golden frames. The scent of incense drifted through the air. There were books everywhere, neatly arranged on shelves or bookended atop flat surfaces.
Another reader, I thought ruefully, reaching out with a blood-crusted finger to touch an embossed cover. The title was in a language I didn’t recognize.
“What happens now?” I asked, raising my gaze. “Is there a way to get some human blood for Gil?”
Laurie pulled his phone out and glanced at it. Whatever he saw made him frown, and his thumbs moved swiftly over the screen. His expression was distracted as he said, “I’ve already put in a request for a delivery. What happens now is, we wait. The Royal Guard always has every exit manned or blocked. One of my… associates is working to remedy that. She’ll notify us when it’s safe to move. The window will be narrow. Hopefully just long enough to get you and the vampire back into fighting shape and see you off. I will remain here, of course, so that it doesn’t appear that I’ve left the palace right when Belanor’s secret prisoner escaped. Now, you mentioned that my brother wants you alive. Why?”
I had a thousand questions to ask before I could answer Laurie’s. “What about Finn? Can’t you just use your abilities to get us out of here? Hide us from sight?”
“If that were an option, we’d already be in the streets of Munich. Belanor can sense my power. Perhaps it has something to do with our sharing a womb.” Lines of fatigue marked the skin beneath his crystalline eyes. “Are you hungry? I don’t make a habit of keeping food here, but I believe there’s a jar of olives behind the bar. Also, your werewolf should be safe by—”