Page 94 of Ballad of Nightmares

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said, holding her face in his hand.

“I’ll text you,” she said softly. “Maybe a ‘good morning’ selfie if I think you’ve earned it.”

“Tease,” he smiled. He reached down and picked up her wrist, then kissed the inside of it where the art was before meeting her eyes again. “Tell me why every time I look at you, it’s like I’m back at that fucking festival… seeing you smile for the first time,” he whispered.

“It’s the absence of the rain,” she said, chuckling. “First night in a week that it’s clear.”

Sam’s smile widened. “Let me take you out tomorrow?” he asked.

“Anywhere,” she answered.

He kissed her again, his tongue sweeping along hers like he were making sure she remembered who she belonged to, then he let her go, taking in her figure one more time before shaking his head and speeding off toward the cemetery.

Her body ached with all that was the last two days. Finally, spending an entire night with him wrapped around her. No getting up in the middle of the night. No disturbing the other. Just lying in his arms. His friend tattooing her. His art on her skin.

It was a brand that went straight to her depleting heart.

She took a long time in the shower, letting the steaming water run over her skin as she held her hands on the tile and stared at the swirling drain.

Everything was fucked.

It was so fucked.

All her plans. Her carefully laid out plans… They were distant dreams now. A shadow of a life that she wondered if she could forget.

He had done that. He had made her want a new life for herself.

Ana wrapped herself in jogging pants and her thickest robe before setting off down the stairs and across the street to tell the castle goodbye.

The lullaby sounded from her lips as she strode slowly down the sidewalk, the castle and cemetery to her right, the chilled air breezing through her curls. She did love the night air like this. She loved the smells of the raw, damp dirt and oak trees at her side.

She loved everything about Shadowmyer.

And she loved…

Ana shook her head as she paused at the iron bars and stared at that castle in the distance. Sam’s face, his touch, his very existence poured through her. Everything they’d done, everything they’d confessed. She wanted him to know her. She wanted…

She wanted him.

Maybe she could advocate for the people she’d fought for another way. Maybe she didn’t have to go through and conquer another kingdom, another man. She could express her concerns to Millie, possibly earn herself a seat on their Council. She could make change in the usual way, not the way that meant sacrificing herself.

And she could be happy.

A lump lodged in her throat.

She wasgoingto be happy.

“What do you want in this life?” Sam had once asked her.

“To finally find beauty in my nightmares,” she’d told him.

He hugged her tighter and laid his head on her breasts. “You are the beauty in mine,” he’d whispered.

She should have known then how hard she would fall for his darkness. She should have known then how consuming he would be. But she’d never expected this.

The noise of soft footsteps scraped over the asphalt behind her, but it didn’t turn her away as it muffled with the sound of a few cars driving by. She couldn’t turn away from that castle. A tear rolled down her cheek when she wrapped her fist around the iron gate, and as she looked up to that bright amber window at Castle Corvus, a soft whisper came from her lips.

“No more,” she declared.