You’re exactly where you belong.
It had been a good night, hadn’t it? She’d practically sparkled with happiness as she’d fallen asleep, but this morning, everything changed.
“I don’t think so,” she said to Sean.
Chuckling, her friend made his way closer. “Maybe he’s in his feelings and doesn’t want anyone to see.”
She laughed, letting the moment ease the knot of tension, but then their gazes snagged, his smile faded, and she thought of the sparks of pleasure that had ignited in his touch. She couldn’t fathom what it meant. All pixies felt different to her. None of them felt likethat.
She opened her mouth to say something, sayanything, but a sharp pain drove through her forehead, and her vision fractured into a hundred pieces. The shards fell away to reveal nothing but cloudy gray, roiling with pain. Far away, she sensed her knees giving out, felt something catch her before she hit the floor, electricityzinging through points of contact like lightning, but it was distant, dreamlike.
Her reality became the gray cloud in her mind. It shifted and transformed into an upright being, faceless, pulsing with her heartbeat.
“Hello, Princess,”the being said in a voice that was neither masculine nor feminine, but some amalgamation of both.
Too scared to speak, to even breathe, Anna did nothing, but the pain was too much. Across an ocean of nothingness, her body struggled and a familiar voice screamed for help, though she couldn’t make out the words.
“I have been watching you,”the being said.
Anna turned away. The gray shadow unfurled a dark tendril and pulled her attention back. In the distance, someone shouted her name.
“Do not be afraid, my love,”it said.“I shall harm you not.”
Lies.Her head was splitting in two. Trapped, Anna submitted to the creature and let her subconscious acquiesce, trying to focus past the pain in her head.
“There’s my darling,”it crooned.“You have a bigger role in this story than you know, Princess.”
No, Anna thought, begging to be free of the agony.
“You are mine,”it said.“You belong to me. When the time is right, you will come to me. You will reign at my side.”
Yes. The thought came unbidden. She’d say anything if it meant the voice would leave.
“Very good, child.”The voice sounded pleased now. Triumphant.“Caden Sidera will die before all is done. The pieces are already in motion. Nothing he does on his blessed path will stop what draws nigh. I will end him and prove Kassandra wrong. This time, I will triumph.”
Her chest stalled as terror froze her breaths.
“He holds you, my love. You are wise to keep him close. When you wake, tell him this: The plague is not coming. I am already here.”
Anna blinked, and the gray was gone. She stared at the ceiling ofthe Sovereign Suite, cradled in Sean Archer’s lap where he sat on the floor. Throbbing pain pulsed behind her eyes.
“Anna!” he said, shaking her. “Wake up!”
She rubbed her face. “What— I’m?—”
“What’s this, then?” came a sleep-hazed voice, and Anna twisted to watch Isobel be dragged into the room by a harried Autumn.
Sean let out a relieved sigh at the sight of them. “Something happened to her. She was…seizing or something. Will—Will you kiss her?”
Anna jolted, trying to push herself out of his arms. Rays of electric pleasure lanced from every place his skin touched hers, then connected to an entire network of terrified concern.
Sean’s network.
She ceased struggling. He didn’t seem to notice, too focused on Isobel’s progress across the room. Bel rubbed her eyes and yawned while Sean’s emotions brimmed with anxiety.
David entered the room, gold hair ruffled. He froze at Anna and Sean on the floor, head cocked. His gaze slid to Autumn, and he managed to ask a question with a simple raise of his eyebrow.
While Autumn explained, Isobel knelt before Anna. “What happened?”
