Page 37 of The Nightmare Bride

Ky glanced up. “Oh, lioness, I didn’t see you there. Would you care to pet him? He smells repugnant, but he makes up for it with sheer enthusiasm, at least.”

“You’re not...going to kill him?”

“Kill him?” He looked affronted. “Of course not. Who would kill an innocent dog?”

A creeping heat suffused me. Shame or relief—I couldn’t untangle the two.

“Except that bloodthirsty old fossil you call a seneschal,” he continued. “Who, by the way, you should tell to go fuck himself next time he speaks to you that way. I can’t remember the last time someone’s made me so angry.”

A spiky laugh fled my lips. Gods among us, how could I have suspected him of being a killer?

Even for a moment? He wasn’t. Clearly. He was just..

. him . A cocky prince. A man who knew himself so thoroughly that the nightmares couldn’t touch him, who disliked the seneschal’s attempts to control me just as much as I did.

“You know, I have told Olivian that,” I said. “Many times. But he’s strangely immune to insults. Kind of like someone else I know.”

“Well.” Ky dusted his hands and stood. The puppy dashed into the underbrush, apparently having gotten its fill of cheese and attention. “In that case, I’ll tell him myself. A royal command to go fuck oneself isn’t to be taken lightly.”

My heart melted like warm butter. This silver-tongued devil. “Ky. I have...something I should tell you. Something I got wrong.”

He came toward me, his eyes gleaming lilac in the swamp-glow. “What is it?”

“I—”

A branch cracked. Our heads whipped around.

The bracken rustled, and Vick emerged, his shortsword in his hand. I frowned. What was he doing here?

Ky’s expression closed up. “Oh. It’s you.”

Vick studied the span between our bodies as if mapping its exact dimensions, its meaning . He didn’t say anything.

Ky expelled a sigh. “Feel free to open that delightful mouth of yours at any moment. And Harlowe knows you’re not from Hightower, so you can lose the terrible accent.”

Vick surveyed me for so long that my pulse ticked up. What did he plan on doing with that sword? Moreover, why did Ky sound so chilly?

“What’d you do with the dog?” Vick finally said. “Is it dead?”

I recoiled at hearing an Oceansgate accent come from his mouth. I’d known, but still. He suddenly seemed like a different person. One that set my teeth on edge, even more so than before.

“I let it go.” Ky sniffed. “Though I’ll thank you not to share that with the seneschal. Now, why don’t you run along? I was about to have a word with my wife.”

Vick laughed, as if the princely request carried no weight at all. “I’m sure you were about to have a word. Among other things.”

My skin tightened. There was something wrong about the way he was talking. As if to an overbearing parent, not royalty. And while I felt entitled to direct my impudence at the prince—I’d married him, after all—outrage scorched my throat when Vick did it.

Which probably didn’t make much sense, but whatever. I’d never claimed to be rational.

Ky’s look turned flinty. “What I do with my wife is none of your concern.”

“Oh, but it is. We had a deal, or don’t you remember?”

I stiffened. A deal? What deal?

Ky glowered. “It would be difficult to forget.”

“Good. See that you don’t.” Vick sheathed his blade with effortless competence. Clearly, he could do some damage with that thing, if he wanted to. “Oh, and Ky?”

“What?” The word came out as a hiss.

“Next time, kill the damn dog. Because if you don’t, someone else will.” Vick flashed a cold smile and melted back into the underbrush.

Ky stared after him.

“What the hell was that?” I said.

“I...” His voice shook with barely contained emotion.

My heart writhed against my ribs. I’d never imagined anything could hold the power to throw him so off-balance, but he looked like he’d just swallowed spoiled milk.

“I’m starting to dislike that man,” he said. “Intensely.”

“You’re not the only one. But what was he talking about? What deal?”

Ky stabbed his fingers against his eyelids and exhaled.

“Don’t think for a second you’re getting out of explaining this,” I warned.

“No, I know, I just...” He made a sound of frustration. “If you absolutely must know, Vick and I made an agreement, before coming here.”

I frowned. “What agreement?”

“We agreed that once I died, or...more accurately, once everyone thought I’d died...everything of mine would go to him.”

I blinked. “What? Why?”

“Well. I needed some kind of successor. And choosing him made sense when my intent was to marry, get my fill, and walk out into a nightmare. But all this waiting has made him antsy. I think he’s starting to suspect I might not leave at all. That you and I might...”

I waited, but he didn’t continue. “What? We might what?”

“Have something.” He met my eyes. “Something that might entice me to stay.”

A pained squeak came out of me. I didn’t know how to respond to that, so I focused on the last part. “But...what exactly is he so impatient for? Money?”

“No.” His eyes shone with something I couldn’t name. “He wants to succeed me.”

I blinked. I didn’t know much about royal titles and inheritances, but I grasped the basics, at least. “But...it doesn’t work that way. He can’t become a prince just because you say so.”

“No, not that. It’s...” He trailed off, chewing at his lip. “He wants to lead the liberators.”

My heartbeat ground to a halt. “What?”

Ky smiled without humor.

“Wait.” I spluttered, trying to gather hold of myself. “You mean... You’re not saying... you’re the bandit chief?”

He raised his hands in a “surprise” gesture.

My thoughts spun. “But...no. The brigands’ve been out there for nine years. You only came to Oceansgate ten months ago.”

“True,” he said, drawing out the word. “But for the last four of those months, the liberators have answered to me. Because I inherited the title from the last man, who inherited it from the one before him, and so on and so forth. It’s never been just one person, lioness.

There’ve been five of us, over the years.

Before I showed up, Vick was slated to be next.

But along came this charming upstart, and of course old Charley decided to put me in charge when he left.

Vick’s wanted me gone ever since. And I was finally ready to leave. To let him have his turn.”

I stared, my mind a confetti whirl. But gods, this would explain that woman’s reaction to Ky, down in the root cellar.

And Vick’s increasingly sour looks. It would even explain why Vick had been combing the manor all this time—he probably wanted to return to the forest flush with riches, plucked from Olivian’s supposed trove.

“So...Vick’s a power-hungry thief? Who’s angry that you took his place in line?”

A smile flickered around Ky’s mouth, then died. “Yes. But the thing is, lioness, he isn’t harmless. I’m not entirely sure he didn’t threaten you just now.”

My brows pinched. “Threaten me? He didn’t threaten me.”

“Oh, but he did. The sword? The dog comment? Trust me, those meant something different than they seemed.”

“But...” I groped for words. “If he’s so dangerous, why don’t you just send him away? Issue one of those royal commands you were just talking about?”

He let out a long exhale. “Because. He isn’t beholden to me. Not in the way you think.”

I stepped toward him without thinking, folding his roughened fingers into mine. “Okay. Then if he won’t listen to you, we’ll have Merron and the stewards throw him out.”

He swore under his breath. “That’s just it. You wouldn’t like what would happen if we tried. Vick would...retaliate. He’d ruin everything you’ve asked me for.”

“What do you mean?”

His throat bobbed. “I mean he could destroy this second wedding you want so badly. With little more than a word.”

A thousand thoughts tumbled through my head. “Are you saying he has something over you, then? Something that could affect Amryssa?”

He stared for long moments, then glanced to the sky and dragged his free hand down his face. “Yes. And Hyperion help me, but I never intended to make such a mess of this. I never intended...”

He trailed off, looking more pained than I’d thought possible.

“What? What didn’t you intend?”

“Any of this.” His voice turned low and rasping, an intensity of feeling bleeding through and doing something strange to his accent.

“Gods, lioness, but I didn’t intend to care for you like this.

I thought I’d be marrying a pampered girl, not some woman of fire and steel.

And yes, I wanted to try out marriage, but I never thought it’d feel so.

..consuming. Or that I’d end up wanting you like this.

Or that I’d have to spend every day chopping wood because exhausting myself is the only way I can keep my hands off you.

I never intended any of that, but you know how I feel about challenges, and here you are, the most spectacular one of all, because no one’s ever made me work this hard, or demanded so much of me, or commanded me to become the best version of myself merely so I could earn the right to stand in their presence, and now that you have, I fear I might be addicted, because I can’t imagine doing anything less with anyone else. ”

He cut himself off, breathing hard, and I gaped, so stunned I could barely locate a breath. “You...what?”

“I’m fairly certain you heard me.”

The swamp had ceased to exist. I felt like I was hanging in mid-air—falling into those eyes of his, into warm, wide pools of violet. My insides dissolved until my skin contained nothing but glittering heat.

Ky squeezed my fingers. “I never intended any of that, but now it’s happened, and I’ve dragged you into the middle of it, and I can’t see any way out that doesn’t involve me disappointing you. And believe me, that’s the very last thing I want to do. But...I need to tell you the truth. All of it.”

I dropped his hand, reeling from the enormity of everything he’d just said. “There’s more , then? More than just you leading the brigands?”

His lips pressed together. “Yes. A very big something. About who I am.”

My stomach slid sideways. “But...you’re not the one who hurt all those animals. Right? You can’t be.”

“I—” Ky’s brow knitted. “Wait, animals? What animals?”

I gulped against a raw throat. “The dead ones. From when you were younger. And the seneschal’s daughter. The one you left the ball with, who disappeared for a week. That couldn’t possibly have been you. I know it wasn’t.”

He peered at me as if I’d spoken in some foreign tongue. There was no spark of recognition in his eyes. Just pure, unadulterated confusion.

“I’m...lost,” he said. “What are you talking about?”

“All those crimes.” My voice veered upward, as if taking flight. Why did he look so baffled ? “In Hightower. The horrible things everyone blames on Prince Kyven Windermere, but which can’t be things you’ve actually done.”

He blinked, and finally, finally , an ember of understanding flared. “Gods above. Is that why you’ve hated me all this time?”

I swallowed a dead laugh. I didn’t hate him. I hadn’t hated him in weeks.

He took a tentative step, as if afraid I would back away. Which I didn’t. I was done with that.

“None of that was me, lioness. I’ve never hurt anyone or anything, I swear it. It’s not in my nature.”

My eyes swept the length of him. He shouldn’t have looked so achingly beautiful like this, draped in the eerie glow of the marsh. Especially because, for the first time since I’d met him, he actually seemed unsure of himself.

But we’d finally dug to the heart of what lay between us. We’d skinned the apple and sliced it open, exposing the constellation at the core. This was the real Ky, heartfelt and vulnerable, no mask in sight, and he was so damn glorious that my heart contracted painfully inside my chest.

“I believe you.” My voice came out steady. “But if you’ve been keeping some other secret, I need to know what it is.”

He nodded. Took a deep, preparatory breath. “I know. And it’s... I’m?—”

The clang of a bell cut him off.

I froze. Dread dropped through me, reducing my brain to an overheated puddle. The alarm bells, but...no. Zephyrine, not now. Not when Amryssa couldn’t make it through another nightmare.

The bells clashed again, echoes blaring through the swamp.

I closed my eyes, trying to wish the sound away. It didn’t work. When I looked again, Ky’s mouth twisted with regret. “She needs you.”

“Yes.” I nearly choked on the word. “I’m sorry. I have to go.”

“Do you want me to?—”

“Yes,” I said. Because I knew what he was asking. “Please.”

He nodded. “All right. Then I’ll see you upstairs.”

I backed away, then turned and bolted. Palmetto leaves slapped my skirts as the nightmare wakened behind me. The sting of charred paper rode the breeze.

I swatted aside curtains of moss. At my hip, the dagger awoke, then began its ritualistic murmur. Protect, protect, protect. Guard her where she belongs.

I clenched my jaw and ran faster. I will, but you’re going to help me. You have to make sure Amryssa survives this.

The dagger didn’t answer, at least not in words. Only with a spark that wobbled and wavered, as if in confusion.

But I refused to let the nightmare take Amryssa. I didn’t care if I had to go toe-to-toe with Zephyrine herself.

I jumped the trench and shot across the lawn, then hauled open the same door I’d escaped from.

And pelted down the hallway, fully prepared to do battle with a goddess.