“I can’t explain how I know. I can only warn you. Please, Mirelle, you must listen to me.” His voice trembled.
My heart stuttered. For a moment, shock rendered me silent. “How did you know my name? I never gave it.” …Or had I?
He offered no explanation, just seized my shoulders. “Please.” His thumb brushed against my collarbone, his caress as unbearably gentle as before.
Once again I was tempted to lose myself in his touch I had no business enjoying, to listen to him against all reason, wishes that went against the code I’d chosen to honor as a thief to live by my own terms and rely solely on my own strength.
Before I could succumb to the alluring temptation, I caught a sudden glimmer of the awake version of him, standing before me with the suaveness and confidence that thoroughly irritated me. The fleeting vision vanished almost as soon as it’d appeared, but not before further blurring the lines of whom to trust, leaving me at a crossroads with no way of knowing which direction to take.
A sudden voice called from the distance, momentarily sparing me from the impossible decision. “Princess!” The sound was muffled, as if traveling from far away. “Your Highness, please wake up.” It grew steadily louder, encouraging me to heed it. With each persistent tug, I felt myself drift further from this moment and closer to consciousness.
I met Evander’s eyes. “I think I’m waking up.”
His hold on me tightened, as if to keep me there. “Please, you can’t. Not yet. Not until you promise not to listen to that man.”
But his pleas were in vain. With each frantic call from that voice beckoning me to awaken, the dream world was fading, the details blurring, as if melting away. The only one who remained vivid was Evander, staring at me with the same desperate expression as when he’d issued his warning.
For a moment I was tempted to linger…until someone suddenly jostled me, as if shaking me awake. I knew that any moment I would be forced from this dream. I glanced towards Evander.
“You claim the other version of you can’t be trusted? That only makes me more intrigued to see what he might be hiding. I’ll enter that bargain with him. But rest assured whatever he—or you—may be plotting, I’ll emerge conquerer.”
With those words, the world around me faded completely. My last glimpse was not of a smirking Evander, but one staring after me with a mixture of hopelessness and deep concern in his grey eyes…making me wonder if my tendency to flirt with challenge had been foolhardy and I would come to regret the mission I was determined to see through.
CHAPTER 13
“Princess? Princess Mirelle?”
There was that royal title again, one that felt more like a disguise than actually belonging to me. My name tugged on my consciousness, pulling me through the thick layers of slumber towards the surface. But sleep didn’t immediately relinquish its unyielding hold, keeping me bound.
“She’s not waking.” Even through my drowsiness, I could hear the panic lacing the proclamation from one of the nearby strangers. “Has the curse reclaimed her?”
“What will we tell Their Majesties?”
“Your Highness, please wake up.”
A clamor of voices rose around me. With each sound, I drifted further from the dream, until at last I felt myself slowly awaken. I struggled to open my weighty eyelids, blinking in the faint light of pre-dawn. I blearily looked around. Everything was hazy, but gradually my surroundings sharpened into focus.
When the world around me rematerialized, I found myself on the ground, no longer in the castle of ruins and neglect from the dream world but the palace that was entirely whole. Yet for all its gilded splendor, the colors seemed muted compared to thevividness of the dream I’d just departed, the details obscured, as if I were examining all of them through a wet windowpane.
A halo of guards surrounded me, the only ones I recognized being Garrett, Marcus, and Captain Tomas, who knelt beside me, steadying me in his arms. The coldness of the stones was negated by the guard’s arms, yet somehow they weren’t nearly as comforting as the sensation I’d experienced in the dream Evander’s hold—a contrast as similar to a hard makeshift prison bed compared to the luxurious canopy in my palace bedroom.
I slowly assessed the situation, but my usual quick thinking had become muddled by the lingering exhaustion clouding my senses. Perhaps that explained the disquiet pooling my stomach, and why my surroundings all seemed slightlyoff.
I appeared to be in the portrait gallery where I’d apparently collapsed after sleep had snuck up on me. Despite having thought I’d briefly glimpsed him just before waking, there was no sign of Evander, whether the jovial bargainer from this world, or the quiet, mysterious man from my dreams. Once more he appeared to have vanished…if he’d even been here at all.
Voices once more clamored around me, this time in excitement rather than worry. “Princess, you’re awake! We’re so relieved.” The news traveled from person to person down the corridor, but my attention was on Captain Tomas. “Are you alright, Princess Mirelle?” he asked.
At the concern wrenching his voice, the reality of my awkward position fully settled over me, and suddenly his protective arms burned. I scrambled to a sitting position and a wave of dizziness crashed over me, causing the world to spin. Garrett’s hold tightened around me.
“Steady, Your Highness. There’s no need to rush. You’ve had quite a fall. Just rest.”
I gingerly touched the tender bump throbbing against the back of my head. “I’m not the princess,” I snapped impatiently.
As always, my exclamation caused puzzlement to furrow his brow. “I know you’re always confused when you awaken from one of your cursed sleeps. Thankfully you were only asleep for a few hours this time rather than several days or even months, so the effects should hopefully wear off soon.”
I suppressed a frustrated sigh. There was no use arguing, leaving me at his mercy. I loathed my helplessness. I begrudgingly allowed him to keep a steady arm around me as the last wisps of drowsiness slipped away, until finally the fogginess shrouding my mind abated enough for me to think more clearly.
My eyes settled on the panel I’d collapsed in front of…and my breath caught. No longer was it empty, but a painting seemed to have appeared in the hours unconsciousness had entrapped me. And not just any portrait. A chill slid down my spine as I looked atmyself—adorned in silk and satin regalia, my auburn hair woven with pearls that matched those that draped my neck. A tiara perched atop my head, the very picture of a princess.
