Page 54 of The Nightmare Bride

Despite everything, I grinned. At long last, I’d gotten the upper hand, if only for one brief and shining moment.

“Don’t give me that look,” I said. “You knew.”

He recovered swiftly, his mouth curving. “Of course I knew . I just didn’t think you’d ever say it. And I love you, too. Every ferocious, stubborn inch of you. Which you also knew.”

I bundled the words up tight, tucking them against my heart, the most priceless treasures in my possession.

Seven hells, it was going to kill me to leave a world in which he could have been mine. Literally kill me.

But I had to. For Amryssa.

I held out my hand, and Kai caught my fingers in his. I savored the feel. “Come on. Let's go thwart a hero. And a goddess.”

His nod was swift, full of intent. “Let’s.”

We ran.

The cypresses and tupelos thrashed, their glow taking on a frenzied quality. The nightmare’s light illuminated Kai’s face in one moment, then abandoned him to shadow the next.

I pushed my body to its limit. I dodged branches and dashed through puddles, my lungs snatching at the same wind I was displacing. The only thing that felt solid was Kai’s hand. Everything else wavered, as if the veil draped over reality might rupture at any moment.

The forest was familiar, but not. It was the same swamp I’d grown up in, but changed by the rot, and I seemed to be barreling toward both my future and my past, toward some catastrophic epicenter where the two intersected.

The storm boomed overhead. My steps faltered, then recovered. I was yesterday’s Harlowe—the orphan, unwanted—but also today’s—a wife, and beloved. And despairing. And desperate, desperate, desperate.

Curtains of moss whipped past. Glowing mud splattered my skirts. Insects chattered in the underbrush, the sound invading my skull in a way that told me they weren’t actually there. Neither were the things rising from the dark. They belonged to Zephyrine, to a mother’s loss given hellish life.

Ahead, a deer stumbled from the underbrush, a misshapen creature with backward-jointed legs and too many teeth to count. Its head was upside-down.

Not real . I squeezed my eyes shut and angled a shoulder into it without slowing. The thing burst into purple mist as I passed through.

Around me, the nightmare screamed. You are nothing. Worthless .

No, I told it. I matter.

Its garbled voice faded. Moments later, Kai and I reached a clearing. In the middle, a majestic oak rose toward the raging sky, haloed by a moat of firm ground.

The holy tree.

But not just that. Something was here—something vast and dimensionless that threw my bodily functions into turmoil and made my teeth buzz in their sockets.

Kai’s grip tightened, but I shook free. Wind scoured the grass, pressing the blades flat. Bursts of purple lightning zigzagged around us. Overhead, the storm brewed like a livid, inverted whirlpool.

“Harlowe,” Kai shouted. “We should wait here. We have to stop Vick before he gets Amryssa near the tree.”

I studied the empty clearing. We’d beaten Vick, but Amryssa wouldn’t be safe until Zephyrine accepted my sacrifice. Then my friend would become a useless hostage. Vick would have no choice but to let her go, his mission to stop the nightmares fulfilled.

Amryssa and Kai would be safe. So would everyone else. I only had to buy their futures with mine.

“You stay here.” I smiled, trying to ease the sting. “Keep Vick away. I need to talk to Zephyrine.”

Kai’s brow creased, but he had no way to know there was another way. One I meant to take.

“Please.” I shouted over the ear-splitting shriek of the storm. “Just trust me.”

His gaze clouded with doubt.

A knot gathered under my sternum, so constricting I could barely breathe. This was cruel. I was cruel, weaponizing his love for me like this. Somewhere inside me, those wings began to beat, heavy and thrashing. Part of me was trying to break away, to stay with him.

For a moment, I actually considered it. He stood so still amid the storm, just like when I’d first laid eyes on him. Only now he didn’t look like a monster. Not even like a prince—not in those plain clothes, with his hair frothing on the wind. He looked like...

Just a man. A shepherd’s son. One I’d married. One I loved.

“Are you sure?” he shouted.

I nodded. Even though I absolutely fucking wasn’t sure. But the need to save Amryssa beat steadily inside me, a guiding star.

I couldn’t look at Kai another moment without collapsing, so I turned to face the fevered storm. The tree loomed, stealing my attention.

The buzz in my teeth spread into my skull.

The strangest part was, it was familiar. It felt like the dagger’s inhabitant, multiplied by a billion.

I took a step, then another. I glanced back once, but now Kai had his back to me. Vick stood at the clearing’s edge, Amryssa anchored at his side.

My breath hitched, but Kai would handle them. Already, Vick trembled in the face of the nightmare’s fury. Meanwhile, Amryssa strained toward the tree, soundless pleas coming from her mouth.

Kai set off toward them, straight-backed.

“I love you,” I murmured. The wind snatched the words, and I dared to imagine it would deliver them. Whirl them around, polish them to shining, then plant them in Kai’s ear, once I was gone.

Come , Zephyrine commanded, inside my head.

I turned to the tree and did as the goddess bade. One foot in front of the other.

Above me, the nightmare raged. You are nothing .

You’re wrong , I answered.

You are worthless.

Fuck you , went my reply.

I erected a wall inside my mind, piled the bricks of my love for Kai and Amryssa atop it, then mortared it over with curses and refusals. The nightmare couldn’t have me. Not right now.

When I reached the tree, I passed through some invisible barrier. All at once, the wind’s grip loosened and died.

Apparently, the storm had an eye, and I’d found it.

I pushed my tangled hair from my face and ran my fingers down the oak’s rough bark. Its trunk was massive, wider than my arms could span, and a jagged split ran down the middle. Purple light emanated from within.

It looked like the seam between closed doors. But...how to open it?

An offering, probably. Just like the Lady Marche had given.

Blood.

I plucked the magicless dagger Olivian had given me from my belt. The blade gleamed, reflecting the storm. I guided it across my palm.

Hot red agony raced up my arm. I gritted my teeth, then pressed my hand to the trunk’s crack, wincing at the sting.

Blood coursed into the seam, muddying its glow. The buzz in my head intensified, like a swarm of wasps trapped inside a box. The crack widened, the tree peeling apart, the curtain of wood parting to reveal...

I staggered. A woman slept inside, suspended in a translucent amethyst cocoon, like a butterfly awaiting transformation.

Only she was more magnificent than any butterfly in existence.

Brown-skinned and black-haired, wrapped in a delicate shroud of palmetto leaves, Zephyrine was awe-inspiring, her beauty almost violent.

I threw up a hand to shield my eyes. Looking at her was like staring into the sun.

You have something to offer me.

The goddess’s lips moved, though her eyes didn’t open. Her words flowed straight to my mind, bypassing my ears.

“Yes,” I said. “I came to complete the bargain. I’ll give you my blood, all of it. And in exchange, you’ll stop trying to bring back your daughter. Stop dreaming. Leave Oceansgate in peace. Let Amryssa return to you when she’s an old woman.”

The goddess’s lips twitched—a smile, or a grimace, I couldn’t tell. Her teeth crested to points at the tips. You’d offer your life ?

“I would.”

Very well . I accept. All your blood, for fifty years.

I paused. Fifty years. That should be enough. Amryssa would be seventy-seven, by then. I raised the blade again, set it against my wrist. Pain bit at me with bright teeth as I hesitated.

I chanced a look behind me. Kai, my sweet Kai, tussled with Vick, whose sword lay on the ground, now.

A spear of pure love pierced my chest. Despite Kai’s lack of training, he would win, that much was plain.

Vick was writhing, throwing sloppy punches, then pulling at his hair and screaming.

In contrast, my husband moved with surety, landing blows and darting away again.

Vick pinwheeled his arms, then turned on himself.

He was melting. Falling apart.

And Amryssa...

Wait. Where the hell was Amryssa?

When I turned back, there stood my best friend. She’d gotten past me, somehow, or maybe come from the opposite direction. She gazed up at her mother. The goddess had opened her eyes and pressed one hand against the wall of her cocoon.

Amryssa reached out.

“No!” I shrieked.

Fire lit my muscles. I snatched at Amryssa’s hand and dragged her to the ground. Pebbles slammed into my kneecaps, but I ignored them. I hugged Amryssa tight, my knife angled so as not to hurt her.

“Not you,” I babbled into her hair. “Let her have me, instead.”

“Harlowe.”

Every nerve heated to a live wire. There was something in her voice, a hum I’d never heard before. A command. I eased back, hating to let her go, but needing to see her face.

Amryssa took me by the shoulders. “Harlowe, it’s all right. It’s going to be all right.”

“I know.” Desperation coated my words. “Because I’m going to make it all right.

Zephyrine can have me, and you’ll stay here.

Oceansgate’ll be safe. No more nightmares.

You’ll help Olivian rebuild, and you can come back here when you’re ancient.

When you’re done making the world better.

When you’re ready. Just like your mother said. ”

She smiled, sad but indulgent, like I’d offered her a dead bird and tried to call it a pet. “But I’m ready now .”

My throat closed. “No. No, Am. You can’t go. You’re the best person in this goddess-forsaken place. Everyone needs you.”

Her grip tightened. “No, I’m needed here, in the swamp. What’s more, I won’t let you sacrifice for me. Not anymore.”

“But I want to.”

“No. You’re scared.”