Page 24 of Shadows and Roses (The Dark Queens #1)

Castien

Nadraken was a nightmare he couldn't wake from. Memory became a questionable affair, sometimes so sharp and clear that he screamed at the images in his mind, other times he forgot where he was, who he was.

He knew pain. Everything hurt, every inch of his body a dull ache even when he was left alone. It was better when he forgot. When his heart didn't ache as much as his body.

Time became even more meaningless.

Flashes, fragments of reality, memory, nightmare—he couldn't tell the difference.

Her face, though, always her face.

The Queen of Nadraken. High cheekbones, large amber eyes like pools of gold. He might find her beautiful if her lips weren't always twisted in cruel smiles and laughter. His Mistress, his lady, the center of his shattered world.

He fled into the darkness to escape her, until sleep or unconsciousness claimed him.

Sweet darkness, his only friend.

Flashes.

"The spineless bitch is attacking? Truly? Did you hear that, my darling toy?"

Faces that were not the Queen, so he did not care. They were familiar, somehow, in a way that brought intolerable pain to his heart. He shut them out.

"Castien? Oh, dear gods. Can you walk? No… Jerrl! He needs—"

The ground rushed by. Too quickly. He was going somewhere? Why? Pain stirred nausea, and the world spun darker and darker.

"You must eat. Drink. Stubborn man…"

A cool, swift breeze. He was outside? He hadn’t been outside in… Time and memory fractured.

"Almost there. Hold on, my friend."

Green eyes full of tears. Why were they so familiar? How strange.

Roses .