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I felt resistance in his pause, he, too, lost to the world of things unsaid. “Of all the things I pretend at,” he said, his thumb drawing small, gentle circles along my waist, “courting you has proven the easiest.”
“Elspeth Spindle,” he said, his eyes—so strange and yellow—ensnaring me. “Let me out.”
THE NIGHTMARE!!!!!!!!!
Out came Morette Yew and, behind her, the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. When she saw me, her lips parted. “There you are, cousin,” Ione called, her hazel eyes darting between Ravyn and me. “Finally awake.”
Oh. No.
“You would know better than most, Miss Hawthorn. My cousin Hauth is a renowned brute, after all.”
The Prince shrugged, his green eyes lingering on Ione’s shape in the distance. “Hauth broke your wrist, Ravyn mangled his hand. Balance.”
“Nothing too deep. No need to scar these beautiful hands.”
Only now, perched atop it, his gold armor dimly glistening, sat the man from my dreams.
No. WAY
He is a vestige of the past, haunting the chamber he built for the Spirit of the Wood, nothing more than a memory of a man who once was. His voice grew harder. A man I once was.
I KNEW IT
A doorless chamber with one dark window.
But it felt incomplete, my collection yet whole. And so, for the Nightmare, I bartered my soul. I put a hand to my mouth, fingers shaking. My voice came out hollow. “But that would mean I absorbed your soul when I touched the Nightmare Card. Which makes you… the Shepherd King.” A growl, a sneer—oil, bile. His voice called, louder than it had ever been, as if he was closer. Stronger. Finally, my darling Elspeth, we understand one another.
I shook my head. “My father doesn’t go up there anymore.” “How do you know?” “Because that’s where my room is.”
“Are you still pretending?” I said, reveling in his gaze. Ravyn gave a surprised laugh and, in front of everyone, leaned in and kissed me. “I never was,” he whispered into my lips.
“Be safe,” I whispered to the wind as Ravyn Yew disappeared beyond the gate. Had I known they’d be the last words I’d say to him aloud, I might have chosen them differently.
HUH
And the Nightmare and I did not cower. I broke through the wall of the Scythe’s control with a guttural scream.
A strange, animalistic laugh ripped through me, my eyes drifting to the Card in the High Prince’s hand. “It cannot help you, not against me,” I said, my voice dripping oil. “And what are you, without it?”
Oh tbe Nightmare has taken over
Animalistic, a creature of the dark—powerful, vengeful, and full of fury.
“Do you have a name?” she whispered. I smiled at her, memory tugging at the corners of my ancient mind. The strange magic, the same beautiful wonder, of the children I once knew. They called me a King’s name once, I said, my tail flickering. But that was a long time ago. “What shall I call you, then?” Nothing, child, I said, crawling back into the blackness. I’m just the wind in the trees, the shadow, and the fright. The echo in the leaves… the nightmare in the night.
ELSPETH IS GONE NO
Promise me you’ll help Ravyn. Promise me you’ll save Emory. It’s time, dear one, he purred, lulling me to rest. Promise! He sighed. I promise to help the Yews in all their endeavors. I closed my eyes, a final whisper escaping my lips. The story—our story. The Nightmare’s and mine. “There once was a girl,” I said, “clever and good, who tarried in shadow in the depths of the wood. There also was a King—a shepherd by his crook, who reigned over magic and wrote the old book. The two were together, so the two were the same…” The last thing I heard before I was buried in darkness was the Nightmare’s
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OH MY GOSH NOO IM GONNA CRY
She’s quiet now, Ravyn Yew. Let her rest.
And he would free Elspeth Spindle from the darkness that consumed her.
Breath plumed like smoke out her nostrils, but she did not tremble, seemingly untouched by the cold.
“For it was I who left it there.”
