Page 16 of Ballad of Nightmares

Millie’s eyes flittered in annoyance, her mouth twisting, but Sam just smiled outright and let her go, turning his back to her.

“Deianira Bronfell,” Sam said, letting the name hang in the now tense air.

“Die… what—She’s fucking here?” Millie staggered.

Sam leaned his hips against the counter and took a long sip of his coffee. “Yes.”

“But—“ Her eyes widened then. “Wait… The fucking bombshell from last night?” she balked. “In the red satin dress? That curvy goddess?That was The Tower?”

Sam blinked slowly, chin dipping just noticeably in response.

Millie limped into the chair, staring off into nothingness. “Fuck me,” she muttered under her breath. But even as she seemed to have dazed off, her eyes rolled up to Sam with a devious smirk. “She’s hot. Tell me you fucked her senseless, and she’s now unconscious in the dungeons.”

Sam chuckled under his breath, smiling and switching his weight to cross his other leg in front of him. “So impatient,” he said.

Millie and Rolfe exchanged a look. “You have a plan?” Millie asked.

Flashes of Deianira’s face the night before filled Sam’s mind, how she’d played so coy, teasing and tempting him with every long look and sway of her hips. An entire night that had his head spinning with everything he could do to her, everything she could do for him…

“I need you to find out if anyone on the Council knows about this,” Sam said calmly.

Millie poked at the toast on Sam’s plate that he’d left. “You think someone had a hand at helping her in?”

“I think The Tower is in my kingdom, and I’d like to know if any of these idiots heard rumors of her plans or if they know what she looks like,” he replied.

Millie nodded. “I can make some calls,” she said.

“Quietly, Mills,” Sam added. “If no one knows she’s here, let’s keep it that way.”

“What’s your move, boss?” Rolfe asked.

Sam tapped his heel lightly on the floor, arms crossed over his chest. “We take this slow. I don’t want to spook her. Lay low until I call.” He pushed off the counter then and started down the hall, Luna trailing happily after him.

“Where are you going?” Millie called after him.

“She won’t come to me immediately,” he called back. “She’ll bide her time. Get comfortable. Learn her surroundings. And when she’s ready… she’ll call.”

“That didn’t answer my question,” Millie said.

Sam smiled as he pushed his coat on. “I’m going to watch.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

SOMEWHERE DEEP IN the shadowed forest, miles and miles away from where Ana stood at her window taking her first sip of morning coffee, a rogue ray of sun found its way through a muddled swamp of grey clouds.

A thick fog lingered over the rolling hills of crumbling headstones and vine-wrapped monoliths in the cemetery field across the road from her. It hung heavy in the chilled air, snaking its way over the dewy grasses and between the gapes of the obsidian iron fencing. The moisture pressed onto her window and saturated the black and grey cobblestone street with its film.

And on the highest hill, far back in the distance, two arched windows of Castle Corvus radiated an amber glow.

It had been three weeks since the festival. She’d taken those three weeks to get herself settled into life here in Shadowmyer.

Ana pulled her thick looped wool cardigan tighter over her exposed arms as she took another sip of her steaming coffee, relishing its warmth on her lips and pooling in her stomach. The old hardwood floor was cold beneath her bare feet, but she didn’t bother putting on more clothing than the wool shell and her scarlet silk nightdress. She didn’t dare deprive herself of the luxury fabrics on her naked skin—as she was, for once, feeling its softness against her flesh without the arms of some craven trapping her in his embrace.

It was her own. Bought by her, not out of necessity to bring a man to his death. Not as a tool. But rather as something that made her feel like she had earned this.

She had earned the break that Shadowmyer gave her.

For the first time in her life, she was breathing.