Page 22 of The Nightmare Bride

I ran.

My stomach roiled as I shoved bodies aside in my quest for the door. Who cared about these people? Not me—they were only steps from their chains. Meanwhile, a mile and a half separated me from the girl I owed my life to.

The girl I’d now abandoned.

I exploded into the street. I’d lost Kyven in the melee, but it didn’t matter. He was a distraction. A stupid, intoxicating puzzle I had no business wasting time on, much less almost kissing.

I sprinted through the emptying avenues. To the north, a purple monstrosity crackled over the trees. That was the real danger. The wolf in the henhouse I’d turned my back on while preoccupying myself with the fox. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

But I would fix it. I would get to Amryssa.

I had to.

Gravel fountained from my churning feet. I bolted along the road to home, my muscles screaming. But wasted seconds might make the difference between life and death, so I shoved past the pain.

Go. One foot in front of the other. Agony, but it didn’t matter. Faster.

What was Amryssa doing? Only just waking? Jiggling the lock on her door? Turning to the window, realizing her chance had come?

The nightmare growled. Shit. Shit . The thing was already so close. The bells had been rung too late, and everyone at the house would be chaining themselves, not realizing a full ten minutes separated Amryssa from her keymistress.

My lungs sucked at the steaming air. The char of burnt paper rained ashes down my throat, warping my determination to despair.

You are nothing. A throwaway . You had one purpose, and you couldn’t even do that.

The poisonous thoughts battered me, each word rammed home by the sound of hoofbeats. Which was...a new hallucination.

But wait. Were those real ?

I glanced behind me. A shadow barreled from the night, a demon-dark horse and rider. Even in my fevered state, I recognized that glint. Blue heat.

Surprise nearly sent me stumbling.

Kyven didn’t slow as he drew alongside me. By some miracle of agility and brute strength, he fisted the back of my dress and hauled me up, planting me in the saddle in front of him. His arm locked around my waist. The horse bent and stretched, its muscles like oiled coils in the darkness.

I clutched at the saddle’s pommel. “Where’d you come from? And where’d you even get this thing? Is it yours?”

“I hope you’re not suggesting I’m immoral enough to steal someone’s horse.” Kyven’s voice was low beside my ear. “Because if so, you’d be absolutely right.”

I squeaked. “You stole a horse?”

“I did.”

“For Amryssa?”

“No. For you. I gave you my word, didn’t I?”

“Yes, but...” I hadn’t actually believed him. Not for a second. “What happened to you not taking vows seriously?”

Kyven’s hold tightened. He didn’t answer. Maybe he’d surprised even himself.

Whatever. I’d sort through it later. For now, I pulled myself low, trying to minimize my wind resistance. Kyven leaned in, too, a steely wall at my back.

My mind raced. I could help. I had to. I gripped my dagger and called its magic.

Overhead, the nightmare roared. My head spun, but I slapped a palm against the horse and poured out magic in the form of energy and speed. The diseased purple trees smeared as the beast surged faster.

Kyven grunted in surprise.

Within moments, the manor appeared over a rise, an imposing mass of columns and gables. My gaze scaled the heights to Amryssa’s tower. Shit.

Her lamp was lit. Worse, her silhouette darkened the window.

Every nerve stretched to a length of razored wire. My veins emptied of blood, then filled back up with night and rage and darkness, as if I could recruit the storm to help me. As if I could forge it into a blade wicked enough to cut apart the intervening distance.

I poured more power into the horse.

Close.

Closer.

Nearly there.

Up in the tower, Amryssa unlatched her window. The sky screamed as she swung the panes outward.

“You’ll have to catch her,” I hollered.

“What?” The rising cacophony almost stole Kyven’s answer.

“When she jumps. You’ll have to catch her.”

He stiffened. I could practically feel him measuring the distance, the impossible drop. Even if he tried, the fall might kill her. It might kill them both.

But I would chance it. And if he wouldn’t, I’d make him. I’d save her through sheer fucking will, if I had to.

I fisted my dagger tighter.

Our horse rocketed into the drive. Amryssa clambered onto her windowsill as I launched myself from the saddle.

I hit the ground in a tumble. Crumpled limbs. Gravel everywhere. Pain. Wet blossoms of blood, and then I was up again, sprinting. Just yards to go.

I skidded to a stop under Amryssa’s window. She balanced on the sill, her hair a flying white pennant, her nightgown a wind-torn tumult. Gray eyes reflected the storm. Her mouth moved, but the gale snatched the words.

Somewhere nearby, the horse screamed. Kyven appeared, pawing at my skirts.

“What’re you doing?” I swatted at him.

“Making a landing pad,” he shouted. “It’ll make for a softer touchdown than I will.”

He fisted my hems and whipped my skirts wide, opening a cradle of fabric. Which...okay, actually made sense.

Amryssa lifted her foot into nothing.

Time splintered. The world hung suspended, a teardrop thump-thumping in time with my heartbeat. There was sound. Wind. Fear. Unassailable, unstoppable fear.

Amryssa jumped.

A scream ruptured my throat. I flung up a hand, and all my love, all my willpower, exploded in a jet I could see , a purple funnel that spiraled from my palm.

I jerked back, but quickly managed to steady myself.

The magic poured from the dagger, but also from the storm—I could feel it.

Energy coursed through me, lighting my veins, bending to my will.

Amryssa plunged earthward. But my spiraling magic netted her, coiling around her limbs.

She slowed, then floated, then came to rest in my skirts as gently as a babe laid in its cradle. The violet magic blipped from existence.

Kyven looked at me as if I’d grown an extra head, but his shock barely registered. I dove for Amryssa, checking her for injuries. To my relief, she was unharmed, the only blood on her the stuff I’d smeared there myself.

Kyven shook himself, then bundled her into his arms.

“Can you get inside?” he shouted. “Or should I carry you, too?”

A thundercrack rent the air. I bent double, my vision heaving, my blood a blackened oilslick in my veins. Just moments ago, the storm had aided me, but it had already switched sides again. Set its gnashing fangs against my throat.

Kyven moved to help me, but I forced myself upright.

“Don’t worry about me,” I gasped. “Just get her upstairs.”

He nodded and dashed toward the house. I pelted alongside him, hauling open the doors, not bothering to close them again. We streaked through the grand foyer and up the stairs.

Amryssa moaned. “Let me go. Let me out.”

Kyven’s jaw hardened. The nightmare ran hungry claws across my mind, but I stitched my focus to that badge of resolve. To his unwavering steps, to his utter lack of give.

Atop the stairs. Down the hall. Up the spiral staircase to the tower. Toward our rooms, and then we burst into Amryssa’s, where Kyven pinned her to the bed. I ripped the manacles from the drawer and snapped them in place. Plucked my keyring from my pocket. Locked everything tight.

A few cranks of the chains later, it was done.

I swayed on my feet, my bones like hot jelly. I tried to take a step but couldn’t, too lost over the horizon of my own relief. “I’m sorry, Am,” I warbled. “I’m so, so sorry.”

Her gray-green eyes held mine, two shining pleas in a pallid face.

“Now you,” Kyven said behind me.

I almost laughed. Me? Who cared about me?

Everything melted. The wallpaper broke into heaving towers of insects. Thoughts pricked at me—angry hornets, stinging, stinging, stinging. Nothing. Worthless. Empty .

“Harlowe,” Kyven hollered. “Come on.”

I turned to him, and...oh. No claws, this time. No, this time, he shone.

“ Now .” He pulled me toward the door.

In my room, he heaved me onto the bed and snatched the keyring from my slackening fingers. The house rattled and wobbled and tried to crunch me in its jaws. Shadows unfurled from the ceiling, venomous worms that sought my skin and wriggled through.

My eyes rolled as slimy darkness coursed beneath my skin. Something clicked around my wrists, then my ankles.

Manacles. But...how? I couldn’t have made it on my own.

Kyven cranked my chains and climbed atop me, caging my face with calloused fingers.

I blinked up at him, forcing myself steady. Something ruptured inside my chest, a gush of molten fear.

Oh, goddess. I’d have to watch him die. He’d just saved me— again —and now he would end himself right in front of me. “Go,” I said, knowing it was already too late. Shit, why had I told him I hated him? He’d die believing that. “There aren’t enough chains here for us both.”

He ran a thumb over the arch of my cheek. “Then it’s a very good thing I don’t need any.”

His words landed in my ears and sat there, nonsensical. I searched his face for proof of the lie, but...there was nothing. No wince, no gritting of the teeth, no throaty convulsion as he swallowed back horror.

He just gazed at me, clear-eyed, the blue no longer that of ice or frost, but of a wide warm sea on a windless day.

“Impossible,” I croaked. A scream tried to splatter out, but I gulped it back.

“It’s not. Lioness, listen to me.” His touch anchored me, even while the world battered itself to pieces around us. “The nightmare can only take you if you let it. So just...listen to my voice. Feel me against you. Nothing else matters. Only me, and I’m not leaving you.”

My eyes darted. Behind him, the wallpaper bulged and broke open. Dozens of insectile arms thrust through the gap, a many-limbed monster hissing my name, promising to nibble me down to limp, wet strings.

“ Harlowe .”

My attention jerked back to Kyven.

“What is it?” he said. “That you see? What does the nightmare tell you?”

The answer boiled up from somewhere deep. “That I’m worthless. Nothing. Insignificant.”

“That’s not true,” he said. “You know that, don’t you?

Because if so, the storm can’t have you.

But you can’t just believe you’re worthy, you have to know it.

Like I know it. Like Amryssa knows it. Maybe your imbecile parents didn’t, but what they did would’ve crushed a lesser woman.

Only you didn’t break, because queens never do. Queens are ironclad, remember?”

“But...” I battled for air. The nightmare fought to pry my fingers loose from the anchor-line of his gaze. “I’m no queen. Just a lowly princess.”

He blinked, then laughed, the sound so unexpected that it infused me with a dose of control.

“That’s my girl,” he said, stroking my cheeks, my hair. “My eight-week wife. What’s your name?”

“My...name?”

“Yes. You’re Harlowe, but Harlowe what?”

“It’s...” I blocked out the storm’s wildfire roar, the way blood was oozing down the wallpaper.

Queen. He’d called me a queen. Think about that.

“I don’t have a last name. Not anymore. My parents took me into the swamp and walked away and.

..I buried their name out there. In the marsh. Now I’m just Harlowe.”

The nightmare screamed. My hands curled into claws, my arm yanking against its socket in a quest to dig my own heart from my ribcage.

Kyven took hold of my wayward wrist and pinned it to the mattress, so much more gently than the manacle did. “All right, then, just Harlowe. Listen to me. Right now, I’m just Ky. All right?”

I nodded. “Ky.” I hefted his name like a shield.

“Yes, good. Now here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to stay with me. Because this storm, it’s nothing but fear, trying to swallow you up. Everything it says, everything it shows you, is a lie. And while it’s strong, you’re stronger. You might be just Harlowe, but you’re also a survivor.”

“I’m...not.”

“You are.” He imbued the words with steel conviction. “You survived the swamp. Years of solitude. A homicidal alligator, for Hyperion’s sake. And you’ve survived these nightmares. Countless times before.”

Amryssa was screaming. So was Olivian and everyone else, their cries saturating the walls, vibrating up through the floors.

I was losing.

I knew before it happened, anticipated the break of the dam just before the flood carried me away.

The nightmare ripped me from the haven of Ky’s arms. He called my name—once, twice, again, but I couldn’t hear him anymore.

I was drowning, dragged into the depths by the monsters that would gnaw me into nothingness. I tried to claw my way back, but he was gone, my bright oasis swathed by darkness.

I sank into the murky fathoms. Down, down, down, to where nothing remained but the screaming.